The enormous impact COVID-19 is having on the world is massive. With the amount of cases skyrocketing all over the world, the world economy is taking a huge hit. One particular industry of interest is the CD and vinyl industry: Amazon announced they will be disabling shipment creation for non-essential product orders. They have taken a similar approach with retail vendors, including those distributing CDs and vinyls.
Furthermore, the postponement of these orders is to last until at least April 5. This will allow Amazon to keep its focus on “household staples, medical supplies, or other high demand products”. Unfortunately, Amazon will be halting any orders of CD, vinyl and merch products from its warehouses for the time being. In a letter sent by Amazon to customers regarding the changes, they said:
“We are seeing increased online shopping, and as a result some products such as household staples and medical supplies are out of stock. With this in mind, we are temporarily prioritizing household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products coming into our fulfillment centers so that we can more quickly receive, restock, and deliver these products to customers.”
-Amazon
This imposes a huge issue for the CD and vinyl industry in 2020. However, the RIAA was projecting vinyl of having a fantastic year. The retail dollar value of vinyl shipments in the United States last year grew by 18.7%, or $78.4m to $497.6m. If this growth were to continue in 2020, vinyl would actually outsell CDs in 2020. Now, this fate is in question – only time will tell when Amazon will have the capacity to sell CDs and vinyl again.
