Tower Records founder, Russ Solomon to open R5 Records

Actually, that's become the literal conclusion in the case of the San Diego store. It's now turned into a "3 Day Suit Broker." It still pains me to drive by it. What a waste of space!

 

It's hard to fathom how R5 is gonna compete against all the used media floating around. The used places is where most of my shopping is these days.

 

I think this is great! Hope he can keep prices low enough to remain competitive.

 

A bold move. But you know, when I go to a Tower Records in Japan, I see row end displays with handwritten introductions to relatively obscure country/folk/rock product amongst other things - starting with say the Byrds, Parsons, Dillard+Clark and ending up in distantly related places that only this forum compares with in terms of depth of knowledge- its all in stock and under your nose. That is an example of how you shift back catalog stuff, and if R5 can cultivate that kind of culture they may have a chance.
(Granted the Japanese Tower and most Japanese Cd-ya's has the benefit of pretty much fixed prices for domestic stock, but that is a different debate altogether.)

 

Is Russ going to actually be working at this store? If so I may want to stop in since it's been a few years since we chatted.

 

I like the satisfaction of visiting a store and going through the bins and getting immediate buying satisfaction. Tower in the past has sometimes has good bands playing as well.

 

Me too.

 

I can get that at the big used places too. Furthermore, I have good chances at way out of print stuff.

 

I wish him well.

 

I also share the same sentiment.

 

Good luck!!! Nothing beats a great record store...unless it's 2 great record stores...or 3...or 4. All the best.

 

Best wishes to Russ. I do miss being able to browse at the Tower stores in Boston, Cambridge and also other cities in my travels.

 

Tower.com was sold to Caiman

 

It seems to me that the only way to survive in the industry these days is to get feedback, and lots of it.
Are you not buying CD's from my store because you don't care about them because your into digital downloading?
Or is it because the prices are too high?
What are the circumstances that make you want to spend your money on Cd's/vinyl?
Know why things are or aren't happening. If you don't know what your customer base wants, you can't win. And if you can't deliver on their terms, you aren't going to succeed anyway.
But I have to admit, there's nothing with more vitality than a great music store filled with people talking music. So, as an optimist, I hope this man succeeds. His intentions seem to be good, but it's a hard road these days.
If an R5 shows up in my town, I'm there.

 

Drove by the store yesterday....R5 is open. Will try to check it out next week.

 

Ooh, I had no idea. I gotta go! Soon!

 

A "7" would have looked cooler I think.

....

 

7, so it would look like a tonearm?

 

Well, could be I guess. Hadn't thought of that. I'm not one of those that "pushes" vinyl on this forum.

 

Good luck to him! I was once a Tower employee and have fond memories.

 

For the few already complaining about prices: have you been in there? What are they charging?

Personally, I have always maintained I'll pay if a store has what I want in stock. Think about it: not everywhere offers free or reduced shipping (especially in this economy). If you find a CD, say, online for $13.99 but you pay $3 in shipping, what's the big difference of paying $15.99 at a store (other than the tax) and getting it right there?

Nothing beats walking into a store and finding something cool you didn't know about. I miss those days. Newbury Comics is as good as we get here in New England and it can't touch Tower in its heyday. Since Tower went, they did beef up jazz and classical, but not like Tower was. I could find really obscure jazz CDs in nearly every Tower.

I hope he does well with R5.

 

I see he's using the same colors that he'd used for Tower..Yellow,Red and Black..keeping the lame alive or his former company...nice. Michael Boyce

 

Long may they prosper.

I certainly hope they can do it.

 

We could use one, now that A&B is out of software.