In 1952, Solomon took his merchandising business from a few racks in the drug store owned by his father, Clayton, to a full-fledged sales company in a building across the street.^[4] He bought stock on credit and soon found himself in financial difficulties as sales failed to keep up with expenses. By 1960, his record company creditors had moved in and forced him to close. Solomon borrowed $5,000 from his father and started MTS Inc., named after his son, Michael.^[5] A month later, he was back in business with a new store that formed the foundation for his international business.^{[citation needed]}

Eight years later, Solomon signed a lease for a 5,000-square-foot (460 m²) storefront in San Francisco. Encouraged by the immediate profitability of the second store, Russell Solomon expanded to Los Angeles in 1970 and added 26 more locations in the next ten years, including the Sapporo, Japanstore in April 1980. Over the next decade, Tower Records spread across the globe selling books and videos in addition to music. In May 1998, MTS Inc. sold $110 million worth of notes to finance more international growth. They also received a $275 million line of credit from a group of large banks and one year later the company reported its first loss. Even though it made $76 million in the previous nine months, the interest payments had resulted in the company losing money. Although they continued to expand, Tower Records never recovered and, in 2006, the company was forced to liquidate and close.^[6][7] At one time, Solomon maintained a collage of neckties collected from visitors on the wall outside his office.^[8]flu