All That Remains Of Tower Records: A Brand Worth $4.2 Million

from the obit-time dept

Tue, Mar 20th 2007 10:19am — Mike Masnick

After years of struggles and being unable to recognize the changing market, last October, Tower Records finally gave up the ghost and decided to liquidate. All the stores have been shut down, but in a small sign of potential life, apparently a company in the British Virgin Islands has decided that the Tower Records trademark is worth $4.2 million. There are apparently no limitations on what the new owners can do with the brand within the US (and some foreign countries -- others, like Japan, have already licensed the Tower Records brand for totally separate stores). It will definitely be interesting to see what the new owner of the brand does with it. While setting up new brick and mortar stores seems like a dangerous move, creating a real (read:no DRM) digital music store competitor, and tapping into the immediate brand recognition (and nostalgia surrounding the brand) could make for an interesting entrant into the space. Alternatively, if they were really sneaky, they might try to set up shop in Antigua and offer a service like Allofmp3.com.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

9 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Daniel, 20 Mar 2007 @ 10:53am

So sad. I remember seeing John Lennon in the Sunset Strip TR once in the 70's. I remember late night jaunts to the San Francisco (Bay & Columbus) store in the 80's. It wasn't just another record store ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Witty Nickname, 20 Mar 2007 @ 10:53am

Obvious
It is quite obvious what this firm wants the trademark for. They are going to build a website devoted to the world's tallest buildings.

Duh!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Casper, 20 Mar 2007 @ 11:01am

Oh well
I don't care that much... the business model was based around the media which has gone away. If they can get some money from the trade mark, good for them. Maybe the next incarnation will adapt to technology better.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
anony cow, 20 Mar 2007 @ 11:12am

wow, $4.2 mill! that gives me hope for the sale of my buggywhips.com URL!!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
dorpus, 20 Mar 2007 @ 11:33am

International Chimeras
The US media announced last year that Wal-Mart has shut down in Germany, but when I was in Germany in November, Wal-Mart was there and doing well. Tower Records has never gone away in Japan either -- it has remained a high-profile business.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
thinkart, 20 Mar 2007 @ 11:44am

my guess
my guess is that the British Virgin Islands co. realized "Tower Records" might be enough of a memorable brand name to compete with digital music....towerrecords.com vs itunes
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 20 Mar 2007 @ 12:17pm

creating a real (read:no DRM) digital music store
"... Artists choosing to abandon DRM in favor of good old-fashioned MP3 have seen 40% growth in sales since December. Good to see someone in the business both 'gets it' and is willing to do something about it..."

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/20/1723257&from=rss

It's pretty clear what the public wants ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 20 Mar 2007 @ 1:54pm

Since digital.towerrecords.com is already selling DRM'ed music I'm not sure why anyone would expect that to change.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sohrab, 20 Mar 2007 @ 2:20pm

we can bicker all we want about DRAM and anything but the fact remains that indeed, the name Tower Records is recognized and a powerful name. Nobody is going to think "Tower Records, wow, DRAM and digital music sales"

So for a company who wants to possibly get into the Music Business, why not purchase that name
[ link to this | view in chronology ]