Let's Start the Music

MTS Inc. (Sacramento, Calif.), parent company of Tower Records, officially opened its first World Music store in New York's Greenwich Village. The 5000-square-foot new concept store, on Fourth Street east of Fifth Avenue, will offer selections from worldwide musical genres such as Latin, tropical, reggae, Brazilian, Chinese, Japanese, J-pop, African, French, Celtic, Italian, Cuban, flamenco, tango, salsa, polka, Jewish, Indian, Greek, Calypso, Arabic, Andean, Aboriginal, Ska, samba, rock en Espanol, bossa nova, meringue, Russian, world fusion and more.

The store opened “unofficially” to the public in November of 2000, but certain of what the company calls “atmospheric details” were still being completed. Among those details are listening stations, an in-store music system, international flags and memorabilia and an array of comfortable furniture. A hand-painted 120-square-foot mural honoring World Music artists occupies one wall of the store, visible from the entrance and throughout the store. The artists honored in the mural include Bob Marley, Fela Kuti, Jacques Brel, Carmen Miranda, Caetano Veloso, Vijay Anand, Ruben Gonzales and Djur Djura. Artists Gerald Jackson and Dani Finkel designed and painted the mural specifically for the store.

MTS operates 184 Tower Record stores worldwide, with 63 franchise operations in seven countries. It opened one of the first Internet music stores on America Online, in June 1995, and launched TowerRecords.com in November 1996. MTS also runs WOW! stores (a joint venture with electronics retailer The Good Guys). In the face of competition from discounters and online retailers, MTS has an aggressive program of overseas expansion. International operations — including more than 40 stores in Japan — account for about 40 percent of sales.