9/10/2020 The Power of Tower Records - The New York Times

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The Power of Tower Records

The chain of record stores run by Russ Solomon, who died on Sunday at 92, defined the retail music business in the predigital era, with
stars and fans embracing its slogan: “No Music, No Life.”

By Ben Sisario

March 6, 2018

Bruce Springsteen fans waiting to buy concert tickets at the Tower Records store on
Broadway in New York in July 1985. Lenore Davis/New York Post Archives, via Getty Images

Russ Solomon, who died on Sunday at 92, created what for many music fans was the ultimate music emporium: Tower Records,
whose yellow-and-red color scheme, “No Music, No Life” slogan, and wide aisles stocked with LPs and CDs defined the retail music
business in the pre-digital era. At its peak, the chain had nearly 200 stores in 15 countries and more than $1 billion in annual sales,
before debt and shifting consumer habits forced it to close in 2006.

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The Broadway store in 2006 after Tower closed all of its

locations in the United Stores as it faced bankruptcy. Mary
Altaffer/Associated Press

Starting at his father’s drugstore in Sacramento, where he sold used jukebox records as a teenager, Mr. Solomon built a retail empire
that became known as much for its selection — vast by brick-and-mortar standards — as for the culture that surrounded it.
Employees were opinionated aficionados, and Tower stores, open till midnight, were gathering places for fans. The locations on
Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood and on Broadway in Greenwich Village became tourist meccas.

Shoppers buying John Lennon albums at a Tower store in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 1980, the
day that he was fatally shot. Reed Saxon/Associated Press

The shops even made devotees of the stars. Bruce Springsteen and Bette Midler were regular visitors, but Tower’s most famous
patron was Elton John, for whom the Hollywood store would open early. “All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records,”
a 2015 documentary, includes footage from the 1970s of Mr. John briskly walking the aisles and tossing brand-new vinyl records into a
cardboard box.

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Racks of CDs at a Tower store in 2004, the year that the company, awash in debt and troubled
by shifting consumer habits, first filed for bankruptcy. Robyn Beck/AFP Photo

Mr. Solomon relied on debt to fuel Tower’s expansion, creating a burden that weighed heavily on the company’s finances by the early
2000s. By that point, the stores had also been hit by an industrywide plunge in record sales precipitated by online piracy. The
company lost $10 million in 2000 and $90 million in 2001.

Removing the neon sign from the first Tower Records store, in Sacramento. At its peak, the
chain had nearly 200 stores in 15 countries and more than $1 billion in annual sales. Randy
Pench/Sacramento Bee/MCT, via Getty Images

Tower’s parent company declared bankruptcy in the United States in 2004. Two years later, after liquidation sales had emptied its
miles of CD racks, Tower shut down its 89 American stores. Workers left a message outside the first store, in Sacramento: “All things
must pass.”

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A Tower store near Lincoln Center in New York in October 2006, as shoppers hunted for a
few last bargains Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Sales of physical albums in the United States, which peaked at 785 million in 2000, fell to 103 million last year, according to Nielsen, as
music consumption shifted to digital formats.

The Tower store in Tokyo's Shibuya neighborhood is a blast

from music's pre-digital past. Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

Despite Tower’s disappearance from most of the world, it still has a major presence in Japan; the company sold its Japanese locations
in 1999 to raise cash. The flagship store in central Tokyo is like a time warp for travelers, with nine floors of music, in-store
performances and, out front, a comforting sign in yellow and red with a familiar message: “No music, no life.”

Ben Sisario covers the music industry. He joined The Times in 1998, and has contributed to Rolling Stone, Spin, New York Press and WFUV. He also wrote “Doolittle,” a
book about the Pixies. @sisario

A version of this article appears in print on March 8, 2018, Section B, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: ʻNo Music, No Lifeʼ For a Record Empire

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