Super Moderator
Location: essex ma
|
the end of tower records
this email turned up on a list i subscribe to and i found it an interesting perspective--what do you make of this?
Quote:
hello to all:
just heard today the unfortunate news that tower records, after years
of being in bankruptcy (and suffering from many other maladies, some
internal, a number of them external), is finally going out of
business. i understand that they'll remain open until the holiday
season, and then the kit & kaboodle is, well, kaput.
not sure how many of you who trawl amongst these various lists will
care, but there is some reason to feel sombre regarding this news.
personally, i haven't been much of a tower customer myself these last
years; sure, i duck in to the nyc & northern nj stores every now &
then (mostly to look through whatever bargain bins occasionally turn
up), but their prices have always been on the high end, and their
depth of catalog has gradually depleted throughout the years.
basically, they carry little that i am interested in, but sometimes
the odd back catalog item or other shows up and necessitates
purchase. but tower has not only been around for quite some time,
they were one of the first 'megastore' retailers to cater to both
mainstream *and* independent tastes. in the haughty days of vinyl,
tower was one of the few major retailers who would stock local
groups' albums (on consignment, of course), their employees were
generally music nuts, their catalog was deep, comprehensive and
vibrant, prices relatively affordable, and, as i mentioned, they
tended to champion the underdog (nee, independent). when i published
my first magazine, i/e, back in the early to waning 90s, tower was
always one of my best 'distributors': my sell-through rate was
upwards of 60-70% (well above the standard 30-40%), and even with the
late e/i, tower was one of my better sellers (although not reflective
of the earlier i/en numbers).
no, this news is saddening because at heart it might be the final
nail in the coffin for the record shop as we know it. tower's demise
calls into question what will follow. the repercussions throughout
the 'industry' will be the first major tremors of a successively
larger earthquake.
now, i'm sure there are those on these lists who might reply to this
news with a shrug and a "so?" many of you probably do a good chunk of
your ordering online as well via the usual suspects (ebay, amazon,
gemm, forced exposure, smallfish, u-cover, etc., etc.). call me a
dinosaur, an old fart, whatever: collecting & listening to music for
over 33+ years now, the idea of the record store becoming one with
the blacksmith and the wooly mammoth is extremely disheartening. it's
the next step in the eventual dissolution of the sound carrier (cd or
wax), the next step in the process of everything we do coming solely
and surely through a computer screen. it's the death wails of an
artform.
who knows? maybe this is simply the twilight for the 'superstore'
concept, that the halcyon days of the behemoths (tower, virgin, et
al) are over, and that perhaps the resurgence of the independent
record shop is upon us. but where do the species such as the amoeba
chain fit in? will they be able to adapt and survive? what will the
indie shop need to do to survive in this age of high rent, precious
real estate, artistic ignorance and endemic downloading? indies
having been dying by the dozen this year (aron's & rhino in l.a. -
although the claremont shop is still hanging in there - numerous
stores in chicago, nyc, hell, throughout the entire u.s.), so perhaps
the writing on the wall here is clear: you soon just won't be able to
walk into a store that was once studded with posters, dusty racks,
bargain bins, shelves and endcaps stuffed with recordings rare,
o.o.p., obscure, & trivial, recordings in various shapes & sizes...in
short, part and parcel of what was enjoyable about the physical act
of music shopping.
perhaps i'm an anachronism, but you know what? tough. this whole
thing simply sucks on ice. and all this wonderful so-called future
shock is doing nothing lately but singing my eyebrows.
- darren bergstein
- - -
e/i magazine
> music electronic & otherwise <
info@ei-mag.com / eimag@optonline.net
www.ei-mag.com
|
e/i magazine is an interesting electronic music mag, so i include the plug/sigs at the end....
__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
|