Tower Records
Type	Music retailer
Founded	1960
Headquarters	Sacramento, California, USA
Industry	Retail
Products	DVDs, CDs, videos, video games, posters, books, collectibles, and accessories.
Website	Tower.com

Tower Records is a retail music chain based in Sacramento, California, USA. It currently exists as an international franchise and an online music store.^[1] Image File history File links Towersignheader. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... Location of Sacramento in California County Sacramento Government  - Mayor Heather Fargo Area  - City  99. ... Drawing of a self-service store. ... DVD (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... CD may stand for: Compact Disc Canadian Forces Decoration Cash Dispenser (at least used in Japan) CD LPMud Driver Centrum-Demokraterne (Centre Democrats of Denmark) Certificate of Deposit ÄŒeské Dráhy (Czech Railways) Chad (NATO country code) Chalmers Datorförening (computer club of the Chalmers University of Technology) a 1960s... Video (Latin for I see, first person singular present, indicative of videre, to see) is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion. ... Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a universal phenomenon. ... Poster from the Spanish Revolution A poster is any large piece of printed paper which hangs from a wall or other such surface. ... A chained book in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side, and within protective covers. ... A collectible (or collectable) is a manufactured item designed for people to collect. ... A website (alternatively, Web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on a Web server, usually accessible via the Internet or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML, that is almost always accessible via HTTP, a... Drawing of a self-service store. ... Location of Sacramento in California County Sacramento Government  - Mayor Heather Fargo Area  - City  99. ... Franchising (from the French for honesty or freedom[1]) is a method of doing business wherein a franchisor licenses trademarks and tried and proven methods of doing business to a franchisee in exchange for a recurring payment, and usually a percentage piece of gross sales or gross profits as well...

History

Tower was founded in 1960 by Russ Solomon in Sacramento. The store was named after his father's drugstore, which shared a building and name with the Tower Theater,^[2] where Solomon first started selling records. The first Tower Records store is on Broadway & 16th Street in Sacramento, California, next door to the first Tower Books. Starting on October 6, 2006, all Tower Records stores in the United States prior to liquidation held "going out of business" sales before final shutdown on the night of Friday, December 22, 2006. Tower.com was purchased by a separate entity and will not be affected by the retail store closings. Two Tower Records stores still operate in Ireland, as well as five in Mexico and a number in Japan and Malaysia. 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Liquidation, or winding up, refers to a business whose assets are converted to money in order to pay off debt. ... December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

Tower Records on the Sunset Strip

Seven years after its founding, Tower Records expanded to San Francisco, opening a store in what was originally a grocery store at Bay and Columbus streets. The chain eventually expanded internationally to include stores in Canada, UK, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Ireland, Israel, UAE, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and Argentina. The store also established Tower Records stores in Japan, but those stores split off from the main chain and are now independent. Arguably the most famous Tower Records outlet was the one located on the north side of Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. Across the street was the Tower Video store, also closed in 2006. In addition to CDs and cassette tapes (few carry vinyl LPs anymore), stores also sell DVDs, PSP movies, video games, accessories, toys and electronic gadgets like mp3 players, while a few Tower Records stores sell books as well, such as the stores in Brea, California and Sacramento. All these product lines and more are also available at Tower.com, which got its start in 1995 as one of the first music retailers to set up shop on the Internet. In New York City, twin Tower Records stores straddle lower Broadway - one an annex that still sells vinyl records, and the other selling modern items (CDs, DVDs, etc.). The store in Greenwich Village was famous in the 1980s for selling albums of European New Wave bands not yet popular in the U.S. and was a noted hangout for teenagers from throughout the metropolitan area. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1624x1080, 402 KB) Summary Tower Records Sunset, 8801 West Sunset Blvd. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1624x1080, 402 KB) Summary Tower Records Sunset, 8801 West Sunset Blvd. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Nickname: Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California Coordinates: , Country United States of America State California City-County San Francisco Government  - Mayor Gavin Newsom Area  - City  47 sq mi (122 km²)  - Land  46. ... UAE redirects here; for other uses of that term, see UAE (disambiguation) The United Arab Emirates is an oil-rich country situated in the south-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia, comprising seven emirates: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. ... Sunset Boulevard (officially known as West Sunset Boulevard, except in Beverly Hills) is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades. ... Nickname: WeHo Location of Los Angeles County in California and West Hollywood within Los Angeles County Country United States State California County Los Angeles Incorporated 1984  - City Council John Heilman (mayor) Sal Guarriello John J. Duran Abbe Land Jeffrey Prang Area    - City  1. ... CDS may refer to: Commercial Data Systems, Ltd. ... For the meaning of cassette in genetics, see cassette (genetics). ... Location of Brea within Orange County, California Country United States State California County Orange Mayor Roy Moore Area    - City 10. ... Location of Sacramento in California County Sacramento Government  - Mayor Heather Fargo Area  - City  99. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... A view of Broadway in 1909 Broadway, as the name implies, is a wide avenue in New York City. ... 33⅓ LP vinyl record album The vinyl record is a type of gramophone record, most popular from the 1950s to the 1990s, that was most commonly used for mass-produced recordings of music. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... New Wave is a term that has been used to describe many developments in music, but is most commonly associated with a movement in Western popular music, in the late 1970s and early 1980s inspired by the punk rock movement. ...

Bankruptcy

Tower Records entered bankruptcy for the first time in 2004. Factors cited were the heavy debt incurred during its aggressive expansion in the 1990s, growing competition from mass discounters, and internet piracy^[3]. It also had a policy of selling most Compact Disc recordings at list price. A Compact Disc or CD is an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio. ...

Post-Bankruptcy

In 2005 the company introduced TouchMedia scan and listen stations into its stores. These stations allow the customer to scan the bar code of an item, and listen to audio clips from the album in question. As with similar listening stations in other record stores, track samples do not exist for many albums, especially import titles, but most at least have entries with information from a central database, and the majority of more popular titles do have samples.

In spring of 2006, the company introduced the Tower Records Insider program. This program gives the customer a card they can scan during transactions, which can be used to earn coupons/rewards/benefits/etc.

On June 27, 2006, Tower Records launched its own digital download store^[4]. June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

Liquidation

A liquidating Tower Records store in Portland, Oregon

On August 20, 2006, Tower Records filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy^[5] for the second time in order to facilitate a purchase of the company prior to the holiday shopping season. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2560x1920, 1132 KB) A Tower Records store holding a liquidation sale located in Portland, Oregon I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2560x1920, 1132 KB) A Tower Records store holding a liquidation sale located in Portland, Oregon I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation... Nickname: Location in Multnomah County and the state of Oregon Coordinates: , Country United States State Oregon County Multnomah County Incorporated February 8, 1851 Government  - Mayor Tom Potter Area  - City  145. ... is the 232nd day of the year (233rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. ...

On October 6, 2006, Great American Group won an auction of the company's assets and commenced liquidation proceedings the following day, which included going-out-of-business sales at all U.S. Tower Records locations, the last of which closed on December 22, 2006. The Tower Recordswebsite was sold separately.^[6] October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ...

FYE, a mall based music store chain, had acquired the two historic Tower locations in its home base of Sacramento, California but later backed out, stating that the "leases aren't what we thought they were". Rasputin's Music, a new/used music/video store based in the Bay Area, is expanding in the Central Valley by acquiring the leases on the Tower stores in Fresno, California and Stockton, California. Tower Records Stockton, California location at 6623 Pacific Avenue officially closed its doors on December 19, 2006 at 10:PM for good. Rasputin Music replaced it on April 28, 2007. Rasputin's is also set to move into Tower's former Mountain View, California location. This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Location of Sacramento in California County Sacramento Government  - Mayor Heather Fargo Area  - City  99. ... Rasputins Music is a bay area chain of used/new CD, DVD, LP and video stores. ... Bay Area is a common term to refer to a metropolitan area situated around a bay. ... Nickname: Location in the state of California County Fresno Government  - Mayor Alan Autry Area  - City 104. ... Nickname: Motto: Stocktons Great, Take A Look! Location in the state of California Coordinates: Country United States State California County San Joaquin County Incorporated 1850 Government  - Mayor Edward J. Chavez  - City Manager J. Gordon Palmer, Jr. ... Nickname: Motto: Stocktons Great, Take A Look! Location in the state of California Coordinates: Country United States State California County San Joaquin County Incorporated 1850 Government  - Mayor Edward J. Chavez  - City Manager J. Gordon Palmer, Jr. ... December 19 is the 353rd day of the year (354th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Rasputin Music is a chain of new and used CD, DVD, LP and video stores. ... April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. ...

The Landmark Plaza location in Alexandria, VA was closed on December 18, 2006 and the Pike 7 Plaza (Tysons Corner) location in Vienna, VA was closed on December 21, 2006. The famous 24 year-old Washington, DC location closed a day later, as did the one in Atlanta at the famous Piedmont and Peachtree Road location. On Friday, December 22, 2006 its last New York City outlet located on 1961 Broadway, just a block north of the famous Lincoln Center on Manhattan's west side, closed its doors along with the remaining outlets around the United States. Tysons Corner is an unincorporated place located in Fairfax County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and adjacent to McLean, Virginia. ... Vienna is a town located in Fairfax County, Virginia. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... This article is about the state capital of Georgia. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. ... Manhattan is a borough of New York City, New York, USA, coterminous with New York County. ...

Russ Solomon will open a record store in the old Tower building on Broadway at 16th Street in Sacramento, said Andy Gianulias, a member of the family that owns the property. The building was a Tower store for 40 years, closing when the legendary chain went out of business in late December, and sits across the street from the site where Solomon began selling records in 1941. In October, Solomon dubbed his new venture Resurrection Records. Andy Gianulias said Solomon may choose a different name. "No way do I have the grandiose idea I can open 100 stores," Solomon said. "That would be foolish. But one or two stores? That's do-able." As of May 2007 the former Tower Records at Broadway in Sacramento is being transformed into Russ Solomon's R5 Records.

R5 Records a new store founded by Russ Solomon at the Sacramento Broadway Tower Records location.

Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ...

Return

On-line merchant Caiman, Inc. recently re-launched the website from its location in the Sacramento area on June 1, 2007. They also plan to re-launch the stores themselves - opening stores in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco within the next 9 months. They have even hired former buyer Kevin Hawkins to assist with the re-opening.^[7] Hawkins, however, along with former Tower employee George Scarlett have since left Caiman. The Web site remains based in West Sacramento but the departure of these two employees leaves some doubt as to whether the relaunch of the brand will move forward. Rick Ohren, another former Tower employee hired by Caiman declined to say whether Tower.com would continue operating from the Sacramento area or move elsewhere or whether the plans to open brick and mortar stores will still happen as planned. ^[8]

International stores

United Kingdom

Originally Tower Records was just a London-based concern, with the store at 1 Piccadilly Circus being joined by a couple of smaller outlets ( Kensington High Street followed by Whiteleys of Bayswater and Kingston). However by the start of the 1990s the chain had grown to encompass a number of other stores, with large entertainment stores also selling movies, books, magazines and games in Birmingham and Glasgow, as well as a number of smaller stores that had been purchased from rival American retailer Sam Goody when it had left the UK marketplace (for example of this express format - Weston-super-Mare). This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Birmingham (pron. ... “Glaswegian” redirects here. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... Sam Goody is a music and entertainment retailer in the United States and formerly in the United Kingdom. ... Weston-super-Mare is an English seaside resort town in North Somerset, population 65,000 (1991 estimate). ...

However with tough trading conditions in the UK market, as well as the company's trouble in the States, the firm followed Sam Goody in retreating from the UK market. The London stores in Piccadilly and Kensington were sold to Virgin Group, who for a while traded under the Tower brand at the former site until the store could be fully refurbished, while the other stores were closed. Sam Goody is a music and entertainment retailer in the United States and formerly in the United Kingdom. ... Piccadilly is a major London street, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to Piccadilly Circus in the east. ... Kensington is an area to the west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. ... The Virgin Group Ltd is a group of separately run companies that each use Virgin brand of English celebrity business tycoon Sir Richard Branson. ...

Japan

Tower Shibuya store

In 1979, Tower Records in Japan started its business as the Japan Branch of MTS Incorporated. The following year, Sapporo Store, the first in Japan opened. In 1981, Japanese subsidiary Tower Records Japan Inc. (TRJ) was established. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 507 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (800 × 946 pixel, file size: 571 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) TOWER_RECORDS_Shibuya_Tokyo 東京都渋谷にあるタワーレコード渋谷店の外観 File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Tower Records ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 507 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (800 × 946 pixel, file size: 571 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) TOWER_RECORDS_Shibuya_Tokyo 東京都渋谷にあるタワーレコード渋谷店の外観 File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Tower Records ... Categories: Wards of Tokyo | Japan geography stubs ... Sapporo redirects here. ...

In October, 2002, TRJ went independent from the international chain by MBO. The bankruptcy of Tower Records in the U.S. in 2006 did not affect TRJ as it had been completely independent. As of January, 2007, TRJ maintains 81 directly operated store locations throughout Japan, including the Tower Cafes and the Shibuya Store in Tokyo (moved to the current location in March, 1995) which is said to be one of the biggest music retail outlet in the world occupying selling space of 5,000sqm (9 floors). TRJ also publishes free magazines "Tower", "bounce", and "intoxicate" directly and through its subsidiary NMNL. A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition where a companys existing managers acquire a large part or all of the company. ... Categories: Wards of Tokyo | Japan geography stubs ...

In addition to being the leading CD retailer in Japan, TRJ is the majority stakeholder in Napster Japan, a joint venture between TRJ and Napster LLC. A brief timeline of Napster Japan is:

August 3, 2005: Announcement of partnership deal

November 7, 2005: NTT DoCoMo takes an approximate 42% stake for about 12.8 billion JPY to become the largest shareholder in Tower Records Japan.

October 3, 2006: Announcement of launch of Napster Japan PC service

November 6, 2006: Napster Japan Launches Over-The-Air Music Service on NTT DoCoMo

April 22, 2007: Napster Japan Launches over-the-air music subscription service on May 25, 2007

Ireland

The Irish operations of Tower were bought out in 2003, and consist of two stores in Dublin - the flagship on Wicklow Street, (which was opened by East 17, whose fans nearly wrecked the store when they played.) and a second branch which operates as the music section of the main branch of Eason on O'Connell Street. The Wicklow Street branch is noted as a live music venue as well as music and video retailer. A recent survey has shown that 83% of 5 thousand customers asked, stated they found the employees of the north side branch to be "more pleasing on the eye". Readers of the magazine 2600 meet at the phone box outside the Wicklow St. branch at 7pm on the first Friday of every month. Eason & Son is a major chain of bookstores in Ireland. ... Daniel OConnell, 19th century nationalist leader, whose statue by John Henry Foley, stands on the street named after him. ... Fall 2004 (21:3) 2600 Issue 2600: The Hacker Quarterly is a traditional (printed) magazine named for the fact that phreakers in the 1960s found that the transmission of a 2600 Hertz tone (which could be produced perfectly with a plastic toy whistle given away free with Capn Crunch... For the 2002 movie, see Phone Booth (movie). ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ...

Mexico

Five Tower Records stores in Mexico^[9] are owned and operated by Grupo Sanborns,^[10] a subsidiary of the conglomerate Grupo Carso.^[11] Grupo Carso is controlled by Mexican businessman Carlos Slim.^[12] In Mexico, few companies are as steeped in history as Grupo Sanborns. ... Conglomerate is the term used to describe a large company which consists of divisions of often seemingly unrelated businesses. ... Carlos Slim in Brazil. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.banderasnews.com/0612/ent-towerfades.htm
2. ^ Tower Theatre Homepage. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
3. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/09/entertainment/main599008.shtml
4. ^ Reuters. "Tower stacking up downloads", News.com, 2006-06-26. Retrieved on 2006-08-22. 
5. ^ Dow Jones Newswires. "Tower Records files for bankruptcy", Chicago Tribune, 2006-08-22. Retrieved on 2006-08-22. 
6. ^ Tower Records to be liquidated
7. ^ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3i34a7b870c5e610a128f22b775d00af90
8. ^ http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/201383.html
9. ^ http://www.banderasnews.com/0612/ent-towerfades.htm
10. ^ http://wrightreports.ecnext.com/coms2/reportdesc_COMPANY_C484CB160
11. ^ http://www.gcarso.com.mx/GCarso/Esp/Nuestras+empresas/Comercial/Grupo+Sanborns/Grupo_Sanborns.htm
12. ^ http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20070119-0826-markets-mexico-.html

For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... August 26 is the 238th day of the year (239th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Reuters Group plc (LSE: RTR and NASDAQ: RTRSY); pron. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... August 22 is the 234th day of the year (235th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Dow Jones Newswires is the real-time financial news organization owned by Dow Jones. ... // The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois and owned by the Tribune Company. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... August 22 is the 234th day of the year (235th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... August 22 is the 234th day of the year (235th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Tower Records

• Tower.com
• Tower Records Japan
• Tower Records Ireland
• Tower Records Mexico
• Images of DC area Tower Records locations