Record Store Day has been postponed until 20 June due to the coronavirus.

The event, set up in 2008 to champion independent record stores, involves thousands of outlets around the world. It was originally scheduled for 18 April. A statement from organisers to the Guardian reads:

We’ve taken all information to heart as we’ve gone over the various options that involved staying the course, moving the date, even changing the structure of the event. At the risk of stating the obvious, no one knows what things will look like in any given place over the next five weeks, but it is imperative that hard decisions for that time period need to be made right now, using current facts. There is no perfect solution. There is no easy answer.

Record Store Day has become a focal point for the independent music scene each year, with artists playing special in-store gigs and labels issuing highly sought-after limited edition versions of their releases. Last year, 827,000 vinyl records were sold in the week of Record Store Day in the US alone.