Retail music chain Tower Records was borne in Sacramento in 1960 and grew to include dozens of stores throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. However, the advent of downloading music this decade spelled the end to all but a few music retailers, including Tower. Tower filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and in 2006 and liquidated in 2007.
While Tower Records no longer has any American storefronts and sadly has no more ties with Sacramento, its online web site has been revived. Operating out of Wilmington, Delaware, Tower.com Inc. is trying to reprise Tower's brand and recreate its role as a music distributor on the web. After it went out of business, the bankruptcy court auctioned Tower to a bankruptcy liquidator, which sold the website to Caiman Holdings, an e-commerce music merchant, for $4.2 million.
Tower Records birth and plight is a case study in the evolution of business over the last 50 years. Tower proliferated across the country as cassettes and CDs became popular, and it forced out mom-and-pop record stores. When the internet revolutionized the music industry, Tower was forced out by iTunes and Amazon.com. But, as brand is all-important in the wild west of grabbing consumers' attention on the web, Tower may enjoy a second life after bankruptcy. Thus, a business that began on Watt Avenue in Sacramento will continue to exist in the ether.
