HOLLYWOOD HILLS—Amoeba Music Hollywood announced on Monday, April 27 that it will be closing its doors permanently at the 6400 Sunset Boulevard location due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Amoeba Music Hollywood was established in 2001, and has been closed since the statewide stay-at-home orders were implemented which impacted many non-essential businesses.

“While, of course, we all know music is “essential,” wrote Amoeba in a statement, “we respect that under the current circumstances music retail is not. Our store sees over a million customers each year, making us a higher-risk environment during this pandemic than most.”

The company plans to reopen its doors in the fall at 6200 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2019, Amoeba announced its plans to move to 6200 Hollywood Blvd. after the lot the store rests on, which covers an entire city block, was sold to GPI Companies for $34 million. Their initial plans to reopen its door was sometime after Labor Day 2020.

“This is heartbreaking for us,” said the company in a statement. “We never envisioned not being able to give the store the send-off it deserves, to give you all a chance to say goodbye. We had so many events planned to celebrate our history at 6400 Sunset! But we are facing too many mitigating circumstances that simply won’t allow for it.”

“There are so many unknowns and uncertainties for a business like ours. The only thing we do know for certain is that we want to survive,” said the store’s owners. “We want to be there for our amazing customers and our incredible staff long after this pandemic disappears. The only way we can keep Amoeba Hollywood alive in the long run is to make this difficult decision now.”

This month, Amoeba established a GoFundMe page to raise funds amid the Coronavirus shutdown. According to the Los Angeles Times, they have been paying rent for the two locations since the pandemic began.

Amoeba opened its first store in Berkeley, California in 1990.