About Tower.com
Tower.com was the e-commerce website of Tower Records, offering online sales of CDs, DVDs, vinyl records, books, and entertainment media products during the period when the physical media retail category was still commercially significant. The site aimed to extend Tower Records' famous retail presence into the online channel where Amazon had already established dominance in entertainment media e-commerce.
Tower.com operated as Tower Records' digital storefront, offering the same broad entertainment media catalog that had made Tower's physical stores legendary. However, the online entertainment media market was extremely competitive—dominated by Amazon and increasingly disrupted by digital download services from Apple and others—making differentiation difficult for a traditional retailer's digital extension.
Tower.com closed along with Tower Records' broader liquidation in 2006. Entertainment media e-commerce is now served by Amazon for physical media and streaming/download platforms (Apple Music, Spotify, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video) for digital consumption. Physical media collectors are best served by Amazon, eBay, and Discogs for vinyl and DVD/Blu-ray purchases.
Quick Savings Tips
- Tower.com closed in 2006 along with Tower Records' retail operations
- Amazon remains the dominant source for physical media (CDs, vinyl, DVDs, Blu-ray) with broad selection
- Discogs is the specialist marketplace for used and collectible vinyl records with seller ratings
- eBay provides auction and fixed-price access to rare and out-of-print physical media
- Streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music) have replaced the need for physical media purchases for most listeners