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.
The company’s aggressive expansion left it with no financial cushion when sales began to dip. 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
At its height, Tower was a billion-dollar global empire with locations from Tokyo to London. However, this massive expansion carried the seeds of its downfall. To fund this growth, the company took on enormous debt. The collapse of Tower Records was not caused
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
