After over 30 years of operating one of the most indie friendly national chains, Tower Records, has been sold to Great American Group. The second highest bidder was Transworld Entertainment, who had been out bid by Great American by $500,000, for a grand total of $134.3 million dollars.
Great American plans to liquidate Tower’s assets. Ironically, if the purchase were to have gone to Transworld, who currently own chains such as FYE, Sam Goody and Werehouse, they reportedly planned to continue to operate a majority of the stores. Now, with Tower shutting the doors of 89 remaining stores, 3000 employees will lose their jobs.
This latest hit to traditional brick and mortar music retail is more evidence of the impact that trends in online music consumption has had on the music industry.
