美国国家公共电台 NPR Tower Records Founder Russ Solomon Has Died At Age 92（在线收听）

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The founder of Tower Records has died. Russ Solomon was 92 years old. He started selling records in his father's drugstore and built a chain that was mecca for many in the days when you bought music by flipping through the albums or tapes in a bin. Here's NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas.

ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS, BYLINE: Russ Solomon opened his first stand-alone store in 1960 in Sacramento, Calif. By its peak in the 1990s, Tower had nearly 200 stores in places as far-flung as Tokyo and London, with sales of more than $1 billion. Music nerds loved Tower because you could find everything there decades before streaming services made access to music instant. Bruce Springsteen raved about the story in "All Things Must Pass," director Colin Hanks' 2015 documentary about the chain.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ALL THINGS MUST PASS")

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: If you came into town, you went to Tower Records.

TSIOULCAS: But in 2006, Tower declared bankruptcy. Solomon and his team didn't foresee the digital revolution. People were starting to buy downloads. File-sharing sites like Napster were becoming common. And big-box stores like Walmart and Best Buy sold popular CDs on big discounts. Tower Records just couldn't compete. Even after his chain's collapse, Russ Solomon couldn't stay away from the album bins. Before he finally retired, he and his wife ran a little record store back in Sacramento for a few years. His motto was, no music, no life. Anastasia Tsioulcas, NPR News, New York.