For a hot minute, CDs seemed destined to do little more than collect dust — nostalgic remnants sealed in jewel cases and forgotten in the back of the car. Now, they’re one of the fastest-growing parts of the recorded music industry.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America’s new mid-year report, US CD revenue jumped 58.6% during the first half of 2026, reaching $171 million. That’s up from roughly $108 million over the same stretch last year and is the sharpest percentage increase of any category highlighted in RIAA’s report.
Vinyl still brings in far more cash, generating $554 million through the first six months of the year. But vinyl revenue grew 17.7% over that span, meaning CDs easily outpaced it in terms of growth. Overall, physical music revenue rose 25.9%.
CD Sales on the Rise
The new figures arrive just a couple of months after another report showed CDs gaining ground at the cash register, too. As Consequence previously reported, Luminate found that US CD sales increased 16% to 16.3 million units during the first half of 2026, while vinyl sales rose just 2.4%.
K-pop has played a sizable role in that growth, thanks in part to collectible packaging and multiple album variants, but it doesn’t account for all of it. Even with K-pop releases removed, Luminate found CD sales were still up 6.7%.
Streaming Remains Dominant
It’s worth noting that the two reports aren’t measuring the same thing. Luminate tracks consumer sales, while the RIAA report looks at wholesale revenue net of returns. Taken together, though, they paint a pretty clear picture: more CDs are being sold, and they’re bringing in a lot more money than they were a year ago.
As one may expect, physical music is still nowhere close to challenging streaming. The US recorded music industry generated $6 billion in revenue during the first half of 2026, with streaming responsible for $4.9 billion, or about 82% of the total. Paid subscription revenue alone climbed 7.8% to $3.1 billion, with subscriptions reaching 111.1 million.
Meanwhile, downloads continued their long slide. Overall download revenue fell 12.7%, while individual song download revenue dropped 13.7%.
So, CDs aren’t about to take streaming’s crown — 2026 is still 2026. But for a format that spent years being treated like dead technology, nearly 60% revenue growth is hard to ignore.
Pixel P. Snarkbyte, widely regarded as the “Shakespeare of Sh*tposts,” is a video game expert with a unique knack for turning pixels into punchlines.
Born in the small town of Respawn, Pennsylvania, Pixel grew up mashing buttons on an ancient NES controller, firmly believing that “blowing into the cartridge” was a sacred ritual passed down through generations.
Pixel P. Snarkbyte: proving that life, much like a buggy open-world game, is better with a little lag-induced chaos.
