CD sales in the US surged by 16 percent to 16.3 million units in the first six months of the year, reports US market research firm Luminate. This represents significantly stronger growth than vinyl sales, which increased by only 2.4 percent over the same period last year.
Luminate attributes the strong CD growth to several factors: CDs are comparatively inexpensive, are increasingly collected, and benefit from successful K-Pop releases. K-Pop albums, in particular, are often released in multiple editions with different covers and bonus items, leading fans to sometimes buy more than one version. However, the upswing extends beyond the genre: even without BTS and other K-Pop artists, CD sales would still have increased by 6.7 percent in the first half of 2026.
This aligns with a broader retro trend among young listeners: according to Luminate, 60 percent of Gen Z now report listening most often to music from the 1990s or earlier. In 2021, this figure was 18 percent.
Another finding shows that it's not just about listening to music: about half of Gen Z and Millennial CD buyers do not own a CD player at all, according to the Luminate report. The market researchers interpret this as an indication that the CD has evolved from a functional sound carrier into an affordable collector's item. For younger generations, buying physical music is therefore as much about the aesthetic value of ownership and direct financial support for artists as it is about playing the music itself.
