Indies have Tower-ing hole to fill

October 26, 2006 Asked what he will do to make up for the business lost in the demise of music retailer Tower Records, the head of sales at one prominent independent record label responded with an almost excruciatingly long silence. The closure of Tower's 89 stores, after its Oct. 6 auction sale for $134.3 million to liquidator Great American Group, will mark the end of the country's largest deep-catalog music chain, which was traditionally indie-friendly. Many indies said the retailer accounted for between 5%-6% of their gross business and few believed that such catalog-friendly chains as Borders Books & Music or Virgin Entertainment will pick up the slack.

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