Shadows Fall vocalist Brian Fair warns of pricing increase for the industry following U.S. tariffs

Shadows Fall vocalist Brian Fair has spoken out against the new U.S. tariffs rolled out this week, warning they'll impact the musical instrument industry. Fair, who works at St. Louis Music, says the added costs will likely be passed on to consumers.

Some claim the new U.S. tariffs and immigration policies are already impacting the music industry. Billboard reports potential vinyl price hikes and growing challenges for foreign artists touring the U.S.

Fair shared the following:

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. 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.

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.

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.