Tower works to bulletproof the offering as it moves toward music downloads

With music download sites attracting a rapidly-increasing user base, some might consider Tower Records, which has yet to launch paid downloads, late to the game, but vice president of e-commerce Kevin Ertell has a strategic reason for holding off on launching a download offering: He’s taking extra time to work out bugs and build an offering that improves on what’s already out there, he tells Internet Retailer. “There’s no reason to roll out another music download site if it’s just mediocre,” he says.

Ertell says there are already enough of those in the marketplace, adding that he has encountered significant errors on every music download site he’s tested, with songs that either won’t download or play. “Our customers deserve better than that,” says Ertell, who delayed an earlier planned downloads launch at Tower to bulletproof the product before it goes live. While no date has been set for the new rollout, Ertell says it will be this year. Tower already offers a sampling of free music downloads on its site.