I was a little sad to read that Tower Records has filed Chapter 11. I used to spend hours (not to mention hundreds of dollars, when you add it all up) at Tower Records sifting through CD's. They were open until midnight, and many times the urge to buy a new CD would hit late at night after all the other stores were closed. This was especially great when a long-awaited album would be released. You could go to Tower and buy it at midnight, instead of waiting until the other stores opened the next day. And nobody could beat their prices. They were always $2-$3 cheaper than the mall.
No doubt, the RIIA will claim music piracy is to blame. Personally, I think that for the most part, people who buy CD's will continue to buy CD's. Those who download for free probably weren't buying them in the first place.
However, I can understand how the internet in general has affected them greatly. It has been years since I've been into a Tower Records myself. A good portion of my shopping these days is done online. Amazon has great prices on music, and they're shipped free as long as you're not in a hurry. And if you are, services like Napster (the new LEGAL one) and MusicMatch can't be beat. I was looking for a particular Christmas CD before the holiday and had waited too long to order it online. I looked at several music stores in town, but the price was too high (I refuse to pay $17.99 for a CD that has been around for well over a year). I went home, subscribed to MusicMatch and downloaded the very same CD (legally!) for $9.00.
Hopefully, Tower will find a way to get out of their financial mess. Perhaps they'll get with the times and form their own online music service. I think the name alone would draw people to it.
A Wherehouse Music just went out of business in my neighborhood. I wonder if they'll be next.
Posted by geekchik at February 9, 2004 12:26 PM