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CD sales are booming as physical media continues its resurgence - The Verge
Entertainment and CultureBy Terrence O'Brien9/5/20261 min read
CD sales are booming, and vinyl continues its resurgence, but that doesn’t mean people are abandoning streaming.
✨ Key Highlights
- The RIAA reported that CD sales surged in the first half of 2026, with 17.5 million units sold compared to 12 million in the same period of 2025 — a 45.7 percent increase, and a 58.6 percent rise in dollar terms to $171.1 million.
- The rebound is especially striking given that CD sales had actually declined 22 percent from 2024 to 2025.
- Research firm Luminate corroborated the trend in July, counting 16.3 million units sold in the first half of 2026, and attributed much of the growth to special editions from K-Pop acts like BTS.
- Luminate found that Gen Z and millennial buyers largely treat CDs as collectibles, noting that only about half of purchasers actually own a CD player.
- Vinyl also continued its comeback, with unit sales up nearly 21 percent year over year to 26.5 million, while "other physical" formats — including CD singles, DVDs, cassettes, SACD, and DVD-Audio — jumped over 73 percent to 1.6 million units.
- Despite the renewed interest in physical media and an ongoing iPod revival, streaming remains dominant, with revenue growing 4.7 percent to $4.9 billion and far outpacing all physical formats combined.