Founded by Russ Solomon in 1960 in the back of his father’s drugstore in Sacramento, Tower Records revolutionized how people bought music. Solomon’s philosophy was simple but radical: stay open late, stock everything, and hire people who lived and breathed music.
In the mid-90s, the industry was booming thanks to the CD—a high-margin product that forced consumers to rebuy their entire libraries. This windfall created a sense of invincibility. Tower’s leadership largely ignored the early warning signs of the digital revolution, dismissing the internet as a niche hobby rather than a fundamental shift in how humans consume media. The Fall: A Perfect Storm All Things Must Pass The Rise and Fall of Tower...
The collapse of Tower Records was not caused by a single factor, but a "perfect storm" of three major forces: Founded by Russ Solomon in 1960 in the
The company’s aggressive expansion left it with no financial cushion when sales began to dip. This windfall created a sense of invincibility
By the 1970s and 80s, the Tower on Sunset Strip became the epicenter of the industry. It wasn't just a store; it was a clubhouse. It was where Elton John would show up at opening to buy stacks of vinyl and where aspiring musicians worked the registers. Tower succeeded because it felt authentic. It prioritized "cool" over corporate rigidity, allowing individual store managers to curate their own stock, which created a sense of discovery that an algorithm can't replicate. The Peak and the Blind Spot
The arrival of Napster in 1999 and the subsequent rise of the iTunes Store fundamentally decoupled the song from the physical disc.
By 2006, Tower Records filed for liquidation. The vibrant, chaotic aisles were emptied, and the iconic yellow-and-red signs were taken down. The Legacy