It’s been a rough month for discs, with Sony announcing its plan to stop selling physical games—a revelation that generated just a few feelings among fans of physical media and games alike. But in spite of that dire development for gamers, it might not be all doom and gloom for the flattest, shiniest physical media out there. According to a recent report from Luminate, which tracks trends in the music industry, CD sales have popped off in the first half of this year, surpassing even vinyl, which has long been the frontrunner in terms of music-focused digital media sales. Specifically, Luminate says CD sales have risen by 16% to about 16.3 million units, which beats vinyl’s relatively small 2.4% increase during the same period. Luminate notes that a lot of that growth has been fueled by K-pop sales—BTS’ “Arirang” in particular—but even without the bump from feverish fans of K-pop, CD sales are still up by 6.7% midway through the year.
© Scott Barbour / Getty Images Unsurprisingly, interest from Gen Z is the engine behind CDs’ growth, and 60% of those Gen Z buyers say they now listen to music from the ’90s or earlier, so clearly nostalgia is a factor. What’s interesting is that Luminate’s data suggests about half of the Gen Z CD buyers don’t even own a CD player, but even so, the zeal for some kind of ownership when it comes to music is clearly real.
