With 229 stores in 17
countries, a Tower crash would endanger the entire classical species. Corporate record
labels would survive, but dozens of independents, especially classical and jazz, would be
wiped out.
Tower was founded in 1960 as an alternative outlet, a store that stocked the kind of discs
that were too quaint or quirky for big chains to handle - the kind that every self-respecting
music-lover would pay twice as much to own. Over time, Tower went global and dressed up
in wall-to-wall Britney Spears. Then it overstretched.
Early this year, Tower demanded deep discounts and 360 days' credit from suppliers.
Corporate labels agreed, but the minnows refused. Small labels need cash flow. They cannot
wait a year to be paid, any more than Tower could let customers borrow discs for 12 months
before paying up.
So Tower, whose parent group took a $34.4 million (£24.5 million) loss in the last quarter,
dropped the indies. US stores were instructed to stop ordering from the three main
distributors of small-label releases. The decree was later softened, amid customer and
media backlash, but not before a crippling blow had been dealt to the most sensitive parts of
the struggling industry.
Tower insists it is not going bust and will overcome "temporary" difficulties. But independent
labels took a long, hard look around and wondered aloud whether it was worth their while to
continue. The margins on which they operate are so tight that an £8,000 bad debt last month
very nearly sank one of the brightest new labels. The chances of scoring the Hildegard von
Bingen hit that launched Hyperion, or the Anonymous Four that sustained Harmonia Mundi,
have sharply receded as record stores and magazines swamp their space with major-label
white trash.
