Out of nowhere, Tower Records is back — or at least online.
The long-gone music chain has reemerged as a newly launched online webstore, making for its first real presence in North America since closing all its remaining stores here back in 2006.
As chronicled in Colin Hanks' 2015 documentary All Things Must Pass, Tower first opened in 1960 in Sacramento. But by 2014, the music store's parent company declared bankruptcy, eventually leading it to cease operations in North America.
While Tower has continued to exist as a physical music retailer in Japan, the new webstore is the first time the chain has had any sort of retail presence in the U.S. or Canada since first going bust.
Apparently, the initial plan for Tower was to relaunch during the South by Southwest Music Festival and as pop-up shops, ABC7 reports. But that changed due to the ongoing pandemic, explained Tower Record's new CEO Danny Zeijdel and led the store to focus solely on online sales.
"That has been met with tremendous success, feedback," Zeijdel said, "A lot of people are so happy taking pictures of when they receive an order from Tower Records posting it on Instagram."
The original founder of Tower Records, Russ Solomon, passed away in 2018 at the age of 92.
Visit the new Tower Records online store, which indeed does ship to Canada and even allows you to see stock prices in Canadian dollars.
The long-gone music chain has reemerged as a newly launched online webstore, making for its first real presence in North America since closing all its remaining stores here back in 2006.
As chronicled in Colin Hanks' 2015 documentary All Things Must Pass, Tower first opened in 1960 in Sacramento. But by 2014, the music store's parent company declared bankruptcy, eventually leading it to cease operations in North America.
While Tower has continued to exist as a physical music retailer in Japan, the new webstore is the first time the chain has had any sort of retail presence in the U.S. or Canada since first going bust.
Apparently, the initial plan for Tower was to relaunch during the South by Southwest Music Festival and as pop-up shops, ABC7 reports. But that changed due to the ongoing pandemic, explained Tower Record's new CEO Danny Zeijdel and led the store to focus solely on online sales.
"That has been met with tremendous success, feedback," Zeijdel said, "A lot of people are so happy taking pictures of when they receive an order from Tower Records posting it on Instagram."
The original founder of Tower Records, Russ Solomon, passed away in 2018 at the age of 92.
Visit the new Tower Records online store, which indeed does ship to Canada and even allows you to see stock prices in Canadian dollars.