#Tower Records Returns as Online Store

Tower Records, the music chain that shuttered its 89 stores back in 2006, is relaunching as an online shop, the Bay Area’s ABC7 reports. The new website also features scheduled livestream concerts, as well as a digital version of the company’s in-house magazine Tower Pulse!

According to ABC7, the relaunch grew out of interrupted plans to create pop-up shops at this year’s South by Southwest Music Festival. Following SXSW’s COVID-19-related cancellation, Tower Records chose to relaunch the store virtually.

Tower Records first opened its doors in 1960 in Sacramento, California. In 2004, the chain’s parent company declared bankruptcy, leading to the closure of all physical locations two years later. In 2018, Tower Records founder Russ Solomon died at the age of 92.

Read “How the Coronavirus Is Affecting America’s Vinyl Record Industry” over on the Pitch.