[AV Media Matters] Tower Records, etc.

[smolians@erols.com]

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Today there have been numerous postings regarding
problems at Tower Records.  An article appeared in Musical America
regarding this retail operation's relationships with its suppliers.

http://www.wqxr.com/cgi-bin/iowa/cla/article.html?record=51
It's old news that Tower has been in financial trouble for some time
now, going back to Nov, 1999
http://sacremento.bcentral.com/sacremento/stories/1999/11/01/daily12.html.
Reasons include not only the ease of ordering from the net and
broader availability through the net, but also difficulties with
foreign exchange with a relatively small multi-national company.
Their book operation has failed as well.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/03/18/abim/pw-tower.html";

It's a hard outfit to get info on as it's not a listed stock.
Perhaps those with a D&B account might help.

They were always a company that insisted its small suppliers (I once
was one of them) finance their acquisitions by waiting a long time
to be paid- 180 days was not unusual.  Now they are insisting on 360
days.

They, and similar large operations, then return any unsold
merchandise, now gone a year stale, for credit as a condition to
placing an order for new releases.  A small record outfit has no
such leverage with its bank (or, as is often the case, credit card
company.)  No wonder so many record companies are short lived.

I'm not sure this battleship can turn around. They must carry
inventory rather than run a "just in time" service as do most net
dealers.  I'm sure you can all think of other problems regarding the
acquisition of commercial sound recordings better solved on the net
right now.

Mr. Darwin is operating in fast-forward nowadays.  It will be
interesting to see what evolves from this latest turn of events.

Steven Smolian
301-694-5134Smolian Sound
Studios

CDs made from
old recordings,Five or one or lifetime hoardings,Made at home or concert
hall,Text and pics explain it all.at
http://www.soundsaver.com