The Music Empire

Music One buys Tower Records, and the rest is history

By Anne dela Cruz

When Anton Ramos was planning to put up a record store in the latter part of the 1990s, many people discouraged him from doing so. They told Ramos that he would only be wasting his money because it would turn out to be a specialty store.

According to Ramos, “The idea behind Music One is that I would only cater to a very definite market because of my taste in music.” This, however, did not stop him. Determined to pursue his love for music and to introduce the Filipino market to more artists, Ramos opened Music One in Glorietta 3 in Makati City in 1998.

There had been a number of birth pains for the music store. Not only did his music cater to a select market, Music One’s location was short of ideal. With only a handful of people being attracted to walk into Music One and the economic downturn that the world was experiencing, Ramos had to practically depend on word of mouth and his circle of friends to publicize his store.

What made the situation more difficult for Ramos was that Music One was a partnership between National Bookstore, which his family owned, and Radio City, another music store.

“It was a 50-50 partnership where I, as representative of National Bookstore, was in charge of production and marketing while Radio City was in charge of operations,” he said. “The partnership did not last long because it just did not work because we had different views about running the business.”

This all changed the following year when the owners of Tower Records Philippines approached Ramos and asked him if he would be interested in taking over the company. Apparently, Tower Records were experiencing difficulties because of the economic downturn and were in the market for someone to take over. Ramos did not have any second thoughts about acquiring Tower Records because it had a completely different market.

“Music One was very good with the A, B, and upper C market but when it came to the other market, we were at a loss,” he said. “Now that we had Tower Records, we would be able to capture an even bigger market that we never had.”

With Music One, Ramos was able to bring in more unconventional artists or artists whose music was off the beaten track, so to speak. Tower Records would have selections that were aired regularly in radio stations.

With the deal done, Ramos closed the Music One outlet in Glorietta 3 and concentrated on expanding Tower Records. It presently has five outlets in major commercial centers within Metro Manila.

In 2002, Ramos reopened Music One in Greenbelt with the concept of it being a very specialized music boutique that would cater to the higher end of the market.

“I decided that we would only have one Music One outlet which would depict our company’s identity as the music specialty store,” he said.

With plans to open more Tower Records branches, Ramos has about 80 to 100 people under his helm so far. He constantly trains his people so that they are up to date about the current trends in the industry.

“I try to be fair in everything I do and I have to be consistent in my decision-making so that my employees know that I am really serious about this business,” he said. “Constant communication also helps.”

It also helps that his employees are music lovers because Ramos believes that you have to enjoy what you are doing in order to be productive.

“But I also remind them that music is not all fun and games,” he said. “It is a lot of hard work and the success of the stores is because of the people out there who are selling.”

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