<\/p>\n
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed that physical music formats like vinyl records, CDs and cassettes are exempt from new tariffs that took effect on Friday (August 28) because they are classified as \u201cinformation materials\u201d exempt from trade restrictions.<\/p>\n
The exemption protects record collectors and music retailers from tariffs now applied to about 1.36 billion <\/b>shipments of previously duty-free packages that enter the US annually.<\/p>\n
The new policy changes the \u201cde minimis\u201d <\/b>rule, where packages valued at $800 <\/b>or less can enter the US without taxes or tariffs. The US maintained a $200 <\/b>de minimis threshold until 2016, when Congress raised it to $800<\/b>, one of the highest in the world<\/a>. The higher limit had become a \u201cpipeline for criminal shipments,\u201d according to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Shipments of low-value shipments skyrocketed to 1.36 billion<\/b> in 2024 from 134 million <\/b>in 2015, according to the CBP. The CBP claimed<\/a> that in 2024 alone, de minimis shipments accounted for 98%<\/b> of narcotics seizures by case count, 97%<\/b> of counterfeit goods seized or over 31 million<\/b> fake items, and 77%<\/b> of health and safety seizures.<\/p>\n In July, US President Donald Trump<\/b> signed an executive order<\/a> suspending duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries. The new rules took effect on Friday.<\/p>\n However, physical formats qualify for protection under 50 U.S.C. \u00a7 1702(b)<\/b>, which exempts \u201ccertain donations and informational materials\u201d from trade restrictions, according to a FAQ page<\/a> set up by the CBP.<\/p>\n The United States\u2019 Harmonized Tariff Schedule <\/b>states that \u201cpublications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, compact disks, CD ROMs, artworks, and news wire feeds\u201d are classified as \u201cinformation materials.\u201d<\/p>\n To address customer and client concerns, merchandise sellers Discogs<\/b> and Bandcamp<\/b> have introduced new guidelines.<\/p>\n Discogs said<\/a>: \u201cSimply put, music and informational media have always been exempt from tariffs and continue to be so at this time. This means neither sellers nor collectors on Discogs should be charged additional customs fees.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the company said it \u201ccan\u2019t guarantee how US Customs and each postal carrier will implement these exemptions.\u201d Discogs advised sellers to provide clear descriptions of products by specifying \u201cInformational Materials: phonograph (vinyl) record,\u201d instead of \u201cvinyl\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cmusic and informational media have always been exempt from tariffs and continue to be so at this time. This means neither sellers nor collectors on Discogs should be charged additional customs fees.\u201d<\/p>\n Discogs<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Bandcamp \u2014 which sells apparel and other soft goods like shirts<\/b>, hoodies<\/b>, hats<\/b> and totes<\/b> in addition to vinyl and CDs \u2014 also introduced<\/a> new features, allowing artists to restrict shipping to the US to avoid customs complications. Both companies advised sellers to use the correct Harmonized System<\/b> (HS) codes when filling out shipment forms.<\/p>\n CNBC <\/i>reported<\/a> on Friday, citing Marianne Rowden<\/b>, trade attorney and CEO of the E-Merchants Trade Council<\/b>, that the change is expected to drive the costs to be paid by small and medium-sized businesses to over $71 billion.<\/p>\n The news outlet noted that the number of government postal offices shutting down shipments bound for the US has expanded to include Swiss Post<\/b>, Japan<\/b> Post<\/b> and those of Australia, India, New Zealand, the U.K. DHL<\/b>\u2019s Deutsche Post <\/b>and DHL Parcel Germany <\/b>have also stopped shipments to the US last week (August 25).<\/p>\n <\/i>\u201cFor shippers, this brings increased costs, complexity, and the need to adapt shipping setups to comply with new customs requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew Williams, DHL Express America<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Andrew Williams<\/b>, CEO for DHL Express Americas<\/b>, told CNBC: <\/i>\u201cFor shippers, this brings increased costs, complexity, and the need to adapt shipping setups to comply with new customs requirements. They may also face longer processing times and additional administrative steps when importing lower-value goods.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled against<\/a> Trump\u2019s declaration of national emergencies when he imposed tariffs on several countries.<\/p>\n In response, Trump wrote<\/a> on Truth Social over the weekend: \u201cToday a Highly Partisan<\/a> Appeals Court incorrectly said that our Tariffs should be removed, but they know the United States of America will win in the end. If these Tariffs ever went away, it would be a total disaster for the Country. It would make us financially weak, and we have to be strong.\u201d<\/p>\n If these Tariffs ever went away, it would be a total disaster for the Country. It would make us financially weak, and we have to be strong.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Trump, US President<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Meanwhile, analysts at New York-headquartered investment bank\u00a0TD Cowen<\/b> had earlier said<\/a> that \u201cDigital goods are unaffected by tariffs.\u201d<\/p>\n They noted in April that the majority of revenue at Universal Music Group<\/a><\/b>, Warner Music Group<\/a><\/b>, and Spotify<\/a><\/b> comes from subscription streaming, which \u201care unlikely to see meaningful increases in churn\u201d even if the economy goes into recession.<\/p>\n Music Business Worldwide<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicbusinessworldwide.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed that physical music formats like vinyl records, CDs and cassettes are exempt from new tariffs that took effect on Friday (August 28) because they are classified as \u201cinformation materials\u201d exempt from trade restrictions. The exemption protects record collectors and music retailers from tariffs now applied to about 1.36 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1992657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1992656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Vinyl-records-and-CDs-spared-from-new-US-import-tariffs.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1992656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1992657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1992656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1992656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1992656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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