response 1 of 13:

Feb 24 17:41 UTC 2006

The Tower Records chain is for sale -- again.

Tower was previously offered for sale in 2004.  No buyers were found.
Before that, IIRC, came a bankruptcy reorganization.

Tower dumped about 1/3rd of its stores, including all of its
international operations.
Between the stores Tower has shed, and the overall downturn in CD
sales, Tower's sales have declined from almost $1 billion per year
before the bankruptcy filing, to a guesstimated $500 million today.

http://www.billboard.biz/bb/biz/newsroom/retail_marketing/article_display.j
sp?vnu_content_id=1002074443
http://www.coolfer.com/blog/archives/2006/02/tower_records_u.html
http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/retail/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002074458

Tower Records has also, previously, announced the closing of their 
Annapolis store.   This may be unrelated to general Tower problems:
local Annapolis coverage indicated that the mall landlord, who owns 
a very hot retail property, wanted a big hike in lease payments.
That Tower store is located near my parents, so I know that yes, 
that mall is very very hot, with parking hard to find at any time 
of the year.  (9 movie theaters, Whole Foods, Barnes & Noble, 
Bed Bath and Beyond, a Pennsylvania Dutch farmers' market, and a 
bunch of smaller upscale retailers.  Funny, I remember when Tower
used to be one of the upscale retailers...)

The Annapolis store was also the least well stocked, and messiest,
of the dozen or so Tower stores I've known.   

response 3 of 13:

Aug 10 21:23 UTC 2006

A correspondent for the Hollywood Reporter writes about the Tower
Records situation:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/columns/music_reporter_display.jsp?vnu
_content_id=1002984718

Numbers quote:

> "The amount of money Tower owes evidently is staggering. One
> confidential source familiar with Tower's balance sheet put the
> company's debt to one major label supplier at a whopping $20 million.
> The same source said that one sizable independent distributor was owed
> $2 million.   ///   With a little extrapolation, it is not difficult
> to surmise that Tower's current indebtedness may be as high as $100
> million."

(The extrapolation is guesstimating that each major, plus indies as a
whole, is 1/5th of the market, which is crude but a good first cut -- krj)

And, a quote illustrating why finding a buyer for Tower Records, in
anything resembling its current form, is most unlikely:

(Following a reminiscence about how the author moved to Los Angeles in
the LP era  because the Tower Records on Sunset Blvd. was a mecca...)

> "Today, Tower Sunset feels like a ghost town most nights; only the
> rare in-store performance, like the New York Dolls' album-release gig
> two weeks ago, can draw a crowd there."

response 5 of 13:

Feb 18 15:57 UTC 2007

My, I stopped keeping up with this story, didn't I.  Tower was sold
at an auction to a liquidator and all stores were cleaned out and 
closed by mid-December 2006.
 
Schoolkids Records (in Exile in the Basement) is selling stock 
older than December 2006 for 20% off.  New stock 10% off.
"We must sell our inventory!" says the ad in the Ann Arbor
News on Saturday.  I don't know how long the sale will run.
I picked up a couple of CDs I'd been thinking about for a 
while  (Janis Ian, Tilly and the Wall) and a couple of new 
releases being played in the store (a Scandinavian latin 
jazz set, the new Southern Culture On The Skids covers album).

response 7 of 13:

Nov 24 04:34 UTC 2007

Bowling Green, Ohio, turns out to have one very nice 
CD shoppe surviving.  Finder's, on Main Street 
in downtown, takes up three urban storefronts: one for DVDs,
one for pop/rock, and one for everything else.  Everything else
includes the best classical music section I know of -- nothing like
the old days, of course.  In fact, overall, this was the best store
I'd seen in person since my final visit to Tower Records in Chicago's
Loop.   It surpasses any new-CD retailer left in the Ann Arbor
area.

And, I didn't buy anything.  I would have bought the used copy of the
new Trio Mediaeval album, but I'd already bought one via an Amazon
seller, for twice the price.  I might have bought the Nigel Kennedy &
Kroke CD, but I couldn't remember if I have it already.  And it went
on like that.  Anything in the pleasant-to-have category, I decided to
forego in favor of some stuff that I REALLY REALLY WANT which is only
going to be available mail-order.  

So, anytime I feel like driving for 75 minutes each way, and spending
$20 or so on gas, I can have a pleasant browse in a CD store and
pretend I am living in past times.  This might actually happen, since
Leslie may have recurring business in Bowling Green.

There was a second CD store in Bowling Green focusing on underground
rock stuff, but it closed in July.  In the MySpace entry, the owner
said the problem was not business in general, but his needs to be
taking care of a critically sick infant.

response 9 of 13:

Dec 21 16:20 UTC 2007

Tower had always been the hangout spot when I was growing up on a friday
night. However they completely made the music they were selling inaccessible
becuase their prices were to high. We loved the selections. You could find
imports and rare cds. But have a pricepoint that excluded your biggest
demographic group was retail suicide. When the the first best buy store opened
up in the area it was a no brainer.

response 11 of 13:

Sep 25 21:07 UTC 2008

As well you should. 

FYE's selection tends to be not substantially deeper than Best Buy's, save
for their Jazz and Classical sections, which sit unloved and stocked almost
exclusively with whatever LaserLight bought the rights to.

For added fun, they sell everything at Border's ridiculously expensive prices,
without any of the expertise.

I'm glad to hear that Dearborn Music is still around. Back when I worked at
Ford, I used to spend a few lunch hours a week at a used store (whose name
escapes me) on Michigan Ave. just east of Schaefer. According to Google's
street view, it's now an office for temporary employment.

response 13 of 13:

Sep 29 18:00 UTC 2008

YES!

They probably had the best selection I've seen in Michigan. It's a shame that
they're no longer around.