CD Sales Surge 45.7% in First Half of 2026, Driven by K-Pop Collectibles
Quick Look
CD sales in the U.S. jumped 45.7% to 17.5 million units in the first half of 2026, according to the RIAA, with revenue up 58.6% to $171.1 million, driven by K-Pop special editions and collectible buying by Gen Z and millennials, despite most buyers not owning CD players; vinyl and other physical media also rose, but streaming revenue still dominated at $4.9 billion.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
CD sales had declined 22% from 2024 to 2025, making the 2026 rebound unexpected and notable.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), CD sales exploded in the first half of 2026. A new report from the organization says 17.5 million CDs were sold in the first six months of the year, up from just 12 million during the same period in 2025. That’s a jump of 45.7 percent, and 58.6 percent in dollars, which reached $171.1 million. What makes this all the more shocking is that CD sales actually shrank 22 percent from 2024 to 2025.
The RIAA isn’t the only one to notice the boom in CD sales. In July, research firm Luminate released a report saying that 16.3 million units were sold in the first half of 2026. It suggested that much of that increase was due to special editions from K-Pop acts like BTS and that Gen Z and millennials were treating them mostly as collectibles, saying that only about half of buyers actually owned a CD player.
Vinyl continued its resurgence as well, with the number of units sold climbing by nearly 21 percent from last year to 26.5 million. “Other physical” media, which includes CD singles, DVDs, cassettes, SACD, DVD-Audio… basically anything besides “standard vinyl and CD albums,” also surged by over 73 percent, to 1.6 million units.
Despite the increased interest in physical media and the ongoing iPod revival, people are not leaving streaming in droves. Streaming revenue grew by 4.7 percent to $4.9 billion — dwarfing all physical media combined.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
CD sales will continue to grow through the remainder of 2026 due to ongoing K-Pop collectible releases
Likely · Within months
Open Questions
- How long will the collectible-driven CD sales trend last?
- Will the increase in physical media sales continue into the second half of 2026?
- Are other music genres seeing similar collectible-driven physical sales growth?
