The music landscape in the US has been given a major shake-up, with CD sales storming ahead of their vinyl counterparts for the first half of 2026. A 16% surge in CD sales between January and June brought total units sold to a whopping 16.3 million, leaving vinyl's modest 2.4% year-on-year growth trailing behind by over a country mile.
It's a significant shift in the physical music market, which had been dominated by vinyl's revival in recent years – but don't think for a second that it means vinyl is losing its appeal. With 21.8 million records sold across the same six-month period, it remains the most popular format overall. And when you add in cassettes (which saw around 205,000 units shift), combined sales rose by 7.8% to an estimated 38.2 million units for the first half of the year – proof that fans are still hungry for physical music formats alongside their digital fix.
Luminate's 2026 Midyear Report says it all boils down to two key factors: collection building and price accessibility. And let's be honest, who can resist a good K-pop album? The success of BTS' 'ARIRANG', which shifted 516,000 physical copies in its debut week – including a record-breaking 208,000 vinyl copies since Luminate started tracking back in 1991 – is just the tip of the iceberg. And with K-pop albums often coming in multiple versions packed with exclusive merch, fans are being encouraged to buy multiple copies and get collecting.
But here's the thing: CD sales aren't just a one-trick pony reliant on K-pop's global phenomenon. When you take those sales out of the equation, US CD purchases still show a healthy 6.7% increase compared to the first half of last year – proof that there's something more at play here. Younger consumers, particularly Gen Z and millennials, are valuing CDs as affordable merchandise and collectable items, with around half of these buyers not even owning a CD player – just goes to show how the format is evolving beyond pure audio playback.
This renewed interest in physical formats is happening alongside the continued rise of digital music consumption. US on-demand audio streams saw a 4.8% increase, reaching 732.7 billion during the first six months of the year – and globally, streaming figures increased by 9.8% to 2.8 trillion, showing that the music industry's growing across multiple channels. And while this data gives us a snapshot of trends in the US market, it's clear that physical formats are still very much alive and kicking – just look at Harry Styles' 'Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally', which is already the UK's biggest-selling vinyl album of 2026 by mid-April.