The explosive trajectory and tragic demise of iconic music retailer Tower Records, and the legacy of its rebellious founder Russ Solomon. Two hundred stores in thirty countries on five continents. In 1999 it made $1 billion. In 2006 it filed for bankruptcy. What went wrong?
While living in Australia and never really having anything like this type of store it's not anything really close to my heart but I can appreciate what it meant. Like so many iconic businesses of the music industry that didn't change when the digital download age came about and as such is no more.
It's a documentary about the rise and fall of Tower records, their business philosophy from day one, through to expansion to Japan and later other parts of the world. Featuring interviews with owner and CEO Russ Solomon to employees and a few names in the industry (Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, Elton John, David Geffen) tells the tales of how the empire grew over a 40 year period and then died within a few years of 2000, generally because of the music industry shift from physical media to downloaded online music and not changing or foreseeing the shift.
It's an informative documentary about the places and people of the time it was around, so well worth watching. However it's a watch once, too bad so sad, move on type movie.
You might also consider checking out Sound City and It Might Get Loud.
