CD Sales Growth Outpaced Vinyl in the First Half of 2026
Luminate's 2026 report indicates that CD sales are outpacing vinyl growth, fueled by younger generations' interest in physical media and nostalgia. Mass-market retailers like Target and Walmart are seeing significant gains due to the collector-driven K-pop market.
Why it matters
The resurgence of physical music formats suggests a long-term change in how digital-native generations interact with music ownership.
For the better part of the last decade, vinyl has been the face of music's physical revival. But according to Luminate's 2026 Midyear Report , another format is quietly making an even bigger comeback: the compact disc.
During the first half of 2026, CD sales surged 16% to 16.3 million units, soundly outpacing vinyl's comparatively modest 2.4% growth. While BTS' blockbuster album ARIRANG played a major role in the increase, Luminate found the resurgence extends well beyond K-pop. Even after removing BTS and the broader K-pop catalog from the equation, CD sales still climbed 6.7% year over year.
The report also points to a broader boom in physical music. Total US physical album sales: LPs, CDs, and cassettes rose 7.8% through the first half of the year, reaching 38.2 million units.
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