Bye Bye Tower Records

Tower Records is effectively shutting down as the big record companies have halted shipments to its stores, as the record retailer has decided it would not pay its debts to them. This is also bad for indies (including my old band), because CD Baby has also had to stop shipments.

Tower has been an institution both here in Philly and on the west coast. It'll be a shame to see them go, but the fact is that music sales have shifted to places like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and the iTunes Music Store. The same forces that have been squeezing out the smaller local shops are merely moving up to the next level.

Tags:

• music
• industry
• retail
• riaa
• bestbuy
• walmart
• itunes