Americans bought 17.5 million CDs in the first half of 2026, up 45.7% from a year earlier. Revenue climbed even faster, rising 58.6% to $171.1 million, The Verge reported, citing figures from the Recording Industry Association of America.
A year ago the numbers pointed the other way. CD sales fell 22% in the first half of 2025, when just 12 million discs were sold. The turnaround came as a surprise.
The first signs showed up over the summer. Research firm Luminate counted 16.3 million discs sold in the first six months of the year and also recorded growth. Its analysts credited special album editions, particularly from K-pop acts such as BTS.
Most buyers are Gen Z and millennials, and they treat discs as collectibles. Only about half of them own a CD player, by some estimates.
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Vinyl is climbing alongside CDs. Record sales grew nearly 21% to 26.5 million units over the same period. Other physical formats — CD singles, DVDs, cassettes, SACDs and DVD-Audio — did even better, up more than 73% to 1.6 million units.
Physical media is recovering, but streaming still runs the market. Subscription services brought in $4.9 billion, up 4.7% year over year. That is far more than all physical formats combined.
