Here's why Taylor Swift fans don't pay tariffs on her vinyl records

"Taylor Swift sold 2.7 million copies of her new album The Life of a Showgirl on its release day Friday, and luckily for Swifties buying up multiple copies to help their idol on the chart, they didn't have to pay any tariffs on their purchases. U.S. consumers now face a 18.6% overall average effective tariff rate, according to Yale's Budget Lab, and one music professor estimated that if tariffs were applied to physical music, they could have hiked the price of a vinyl record to as much as $40 to $50 a pop."

"Named for Howard Berman, a California Democrat who represented a district in the Los Angeles area in the U.S. House from 1983 to 2013, the law revised the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the same law that Trump used as justification for his tariffs. Berman's amendment prohibits the president from directly or indirectly regulating or prohibiting the importation of an "informational materials," including publications, films, posters, photographs, and records."

"The Berman Amendment protects cross-border speech from presidential overreach, and it attracted new interest when Trump said in May he would impose 100% tariffs on movies and TV shows produced outside the U.S. Passed in 1988, the Berman Amendment is welcome relief for companies that sell physical media across national borders,"

Taylor Swift sold 2.7 million copies of her new album on release day without buyers paying tariffs. U.S. consumers face an 18.6% average effective tariff rate, and one music professor estimated tariffs on physical music could have raised vinyl prices to $40–$50. The Berman Amendment, enacted in 1988, revised the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and bars the president from directly or indirectly regulating or prohibiting the importation of "informational materials," including publications, films, posters, photographs, and records. The amendment protects cross-border speech and exempts physical media from the extra tariffs proposed under emergency powers.

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