President Trump’s sweeping tariffs have shook the US economic landscape, and the music instrument market is no exception.
In addition to fronting veteran metal band Shadows Fall, Brian Fair works for instrument distributor St. Louis Music, one of the largest distributors of musical instruments and accessories in North America. Posting via his Threads account, Fair shared some of his first-hand observations of the “damage” already being caused by Trump’s tariffs on the instrument market in the US, which relies heavily on overseas production.
The metal vocalist noted that the tariffs have already resulted in higher costs, which will inevitably lead to higher prices for consumers.
“I work for a company that owns a variety of instruments brands: guitars, percussion, orchestral strings, brass, woodwinds etc. our landing costs have sky rocketed and those costs are being turned into higher prices that will be unfortunately be handed down to the consumers,” wrote Fair. “We have tried to avoid increases where ever possible but a lot of it is unavoidable. Some of these brands used to be made in the US but that priced them entirely out of the market so production shifted to overseas many years ago.”
He continued, “I work directly with Main St. brick and mortar music stores, some that are barely scraping by. These increases, no matter how small, will make it even more difficult for these stores to survive. I am by no means an expert on international trade but I am seeing the damage caused by these tariffs first hand and this is just the beginning. Hope there is still a market left once the dust clears.”
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Fair then stated that domestic manufactures and those unaffected by the tariffs will likely raise their prices accordingly to match the inflated post-tariff market.
“Also, the idea that domestic or other manufacturers that are NOT affected by tariffs won’t raise their prices to match the market have not paid attention to history. We saw prices increased by those unaffected as soon as they were announced and as we see with inflation, once prices go up they do not come down for any reason. The market resets, everyone jumps on board to maximize profits regardless of their costs and keeps it moving.”
It’s a depressing prospect for musicians. Companies such as Fender craft many of their budget model guitars in Mexico, while countless instruments and accessories are manufactured in China (i.e., drum manufacturers PDP, Yamaha, and Pearl all list instruments made in China on their websites).
Trump’s tariffs on imports form other countries have sent the stock market tumbling, with the Dow Jones losing nearly 5,000 points as of this posting since the president’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement last Wednesday (April 2nd).
Shadows Fall, meanwhile, will embark on a run of US tour dates in May, kicking off with a set at the Sonic Temple festival, and including a number of shows supporting Killswitch Engage. Tickets are available here.
