Why Record Stores Are Being Hit Especially Hard By Coronavirus

When it comes to the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on the music industry, most of the focus so far has understandably been on live concerts, where independent artists are losing a crucial source of income, festivals are being upended, and even corporate leviathans like Live Nation are suspending all touring. But record stores are hurting too.

There are about 1,400 independently owned record stores in the United States, a number that has held fairly steady in recent years, according to the organizers behind Record Store Day, the annual event that draws customers in droves to buy special-edition discs. In 2019, U.S. vinyl album sales rose for the 14th year in a row, to $504 million, and independent record stores no doubt contributed to that total. Now, as with nearly every other aspect of the economy affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, record stores seem likely to suffer at least a short-term drop in revenues. The hit could be especially painful for these small businesses, though, given their slim profit margins and their niche role in a marketplace dominated by streaming. “I’ve never seen any other phenomenon like it,” says Lisa Foster, co-owner of Louisville, Kentucky’s Guestroom Records, who notes that the store’s sales on March 12 were down 90 percent compared to an average Thursday.

The latest blow came early today, with the announcement that Record Store Day, which accounted for nearly a quarter of last year’s total U.S. vinyl album sales, will be postponed due to the coronavirus. Originally scheduled for April 18, the global event has been bumped back to June 20. Record Store Day co-founder Carrie Colliton tells me that while it’s too early to project how the change will affect stores financially, the postponement seemed like the best of bad options. “It’s fairly easy to see that small businesses that don’t sell NyQuil or toilet paper are going to take a hit,” she says. “We’re very unlike SXSW or Coachella, where a lot of people come to one place. We’re a lot of people but in thousands of places around the world, so you’ve got to make that decision early.”

Although visiting an enclosed space to flip through crates that other people might have touched or sneezed on may not sound so appealing right now, shop owners stress that they’re taking every sanitary precaution. The best way record aficionados can support them, many owners say, is by covering their mouths, washing their hands, and buying music from their local stores. Phone and online sales are always an option, and some shops, such as Seattle’s Easy Street Records and Mobius Records in Fairfax, Virginia, tell me they’re also offering a special local delivery service during the pandemic. “We’ve definitely had a couple of people partake in it just because they’re fans of the store,” Mobius employee Katie Smith says.

From coast to coast, record store owners I contacted report varying sales and traffic for the past week, ranging from steep drops in locations near the most identified cases of COVID-19 to business as usual elsewhere. “It comes in waves, depending on how people react to the news,” says Michael Kurtz, another Record Store Day co-founder who is also president of the Department of Record Stores, a coalition of independent shops. Dominic Siracusa, co-owner of San Francisco’s Originals Vinyl, and Chris Brown, CFO of New England independent record store chain Bull Moose, tell me sales have been about normal; Judy Mills, owner of Mills Record Company in Kansas City, Missouri, says she has noticed a 30 percent downtick.

The effects of the coronavirus outbreak may be most noticeable in Seattle, as Washington state currently leads the nation with more than 400 confirmed cases. Easy Street Records owner Matt Vaughan acknowledges a drop in sales that has led to laying off a few employees and cutting back hours. “Feeling apocalyptic out here, but people are also feeling stir crazy,” he says. “They need music!” Martin Imbach, co-owner of Seattle’s Georgetown Records, says that while fewer people are shopping, those who come seem to be trying to spend more—crucial for a small shop that doesn’t rely on online sales. With many locals working remotely, along with the cancellations of major sport and concert events, general foot traffic has reduced dramatically. “Business has definitely slowed to a crawl,” says Holy Cow Records owner Miles Abrams, who has cut back employee hours. “We are not dead in the water but it’s pretty grim.”

Record Store Day surely won’t be the only canceled or postponed music-industry event affecting independent record shops. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has indefinitely banned gatherings of 500 or more, forcing the cancellation of this year’s WFMU Record Fair, which would have been held April 24-26 in Brooklyn. Cory Feierman, manager and record buyer at New York City’s Academy Records, tells me that the cancellation means the business will lose sales. “April is one of our busiest months because of all the international dealers that come for this big record fair right next door to us,” says Feierman, who directs supporters to Academy’s store on Discogs. Carl Mello, director of brand engagement at Newbury Comics, says the independently owned New England music chain also wonders about the fate of the Music Biz convention (May 11-14), a key industry gathering in Nashville, and the Boston Calling festival (May 22-24), where Newbury has a tent. Sales have “really started to dip” in the past couple of days, Mello adds.

The economic impact of COVID-19 may have arrived earliest in Austin, after decisions by Google and other Silicon Valley giants not to attend SXSW eventually led to the entire festival being scrapped. John Kunz, owner of Austin’s Waterloo Records, a lynchpin of the local scene for almost 40 years, has canceled free instores scheduled for SXSW but plans to reschedule local artists’ performances soon. “Normally we would be ramping up big-time,” he tells me. “But all of the big companies, and lots of people that maybe have expense accounts—they were fun shoppers—are not here.” While the boost to Austin’s local economy from SXSW last year was an estimated $356 million, Kunz says the health of everyone involved is paramount. He’s hoping for business from spring breakers and would-be SXSW attendees who’d bought nonrefundable tickets: “There won’t be as many activities for them to do. So, you know, they might come record shopping.”

Kunz also acknowledges that record stores like his have been hit with one shock after another recently: shipment problems involving music distributor Direct Shot, a fire at a California plant that’s instrumental in vinyl production, and now the double-whammy of SXSW being nixed and Record Store Day’s delay. But he’s undeterred. “We’ve always looked at ourselves as cockroaches,” Kunz says of record store owners. “After the holocaust happens, we’ll still be crawling around everywhere.”

Originally Appeared on Pitchfork