Record retailers are being hammered by the coronavirus

If you’re running a record store, you’re feeling a little desperate between (a) Record Store Day being postponed until at least June; (b) fewer (if any) customers; and (c) manadory closures

Total album sales in Canada are down by 30% so far this year. Even vinyl is lower by 10%.

“No problem,” you say, “I still sell my product through Amazon using them as a middleman for the transactions.”

Uh, hang on.

Amazon has announced that it has temporary stopped B2B ordering for products. That means no more orders from Amazon for CDs, vinyl, and merch for its warehouses until at least April 5. The company will focus on “household staples, medical supplies, [and] other high-demand products.”

Meanwhile, streaming of content is spiking. One report from the US suggests that things could increase by as much as 60% in the coming days and weeks.

In places like Seattle where schools are closed, there’s been an increase of 104% in streaming.

Last week, there were 1.671 billion on-demand music streams in Canada, which was a new record. That number is only going to climb higher. And fast.