{"id":10167,"date":"2026-07-19T03:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T22:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=10167"},"modified":"2026-07-19T03:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T22:06:08","slug":"growth-in-cd-sales-outpaces-vinyl-in-the-us-for-the-first-half-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=10167","title":{"rendered":"Growth in CD sales outpaces vinyl in the US for the first half of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>CD sales have surged by 16 per cent in the US during the first half of 2026, significantly outpacing the growth of vinyl.<\/p>\n<p>The new figures were revealed in entertainment data company Luminate\u2019s 2026 Midyear Report, which found that 16.3million CDs were sold across the country between January and the end of June.<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, vinyl sales grew by a more modest 2.4 per cent year-on-year. However, records\u00a0remain\u00a0the\u00a0more\u00a0popular of the two formats in terms of units, with 21.8million vinyl albums sold during the same period. Around 205,000 cassettes were also\u00a0purchased.<\/p>\n<p>Combined sales of CDs, records and cassettes increased by 7.8 per cent to approximately 38.2million units during the first half of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Luminate attributed much of the rapid increase in CD sales to \u201ccollection building\u201d and \u201cprice accessibility\u201d,\u00a0as well as\u00a0a strong schedule of K-pop releases and the arrival of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/bts\">BTS<\/a>\u2019 hugely successful comeback album\u00a0\u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/album\/bts-arirang-review-3936294\">ARIRANG<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"BTS (\ubc29\ud0c4\uc18c\ub144\ub2e8) \u2018NORMAL\u2019 Official Teaser\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5ZLMJyoJIsk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0album\u00a0sold 516,000 physical copies in the US during its opening week, including 208,000 vinyl copies \u2013 the biggest weekly vinyl sales total for a group since Luminate began electronically tracking purchases in 1991.<\/p>\n<p>K-pop albums are often sold in multiple versions with exclusive photocards, posters, books and other items, encouraging fans to build collections and purchase several copies of the same record.<\/p>\n<p>However, the increase was not solely driven by BTS or the wider K-pop market. When all K-pop sales were removed from the data, US CD purchases were still up by 6.7 per cent compared with the first half of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The findings suggest that younger fans are increasingly treating CDs as affordable merchandise and collectable objects rather than simply a way of listening to music.<\/p>\n<p>Approximately half\u00a0of the Gen Z and millennial consumers buying CDs do not own a CD player, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>The physical resurgence is taking place alongside continued streaming growth rather than replacing digital listening. US on-demand audio streams rose by 4.8 per cent to 732.7billion during the opening half of the year, while global streams increased by 9.8 per cent to 2.8trillion.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"RAYE - WHERE IS MY HUSBAND! (Official Music Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rK5TyISxZ_M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/these-are-the-uks-best-selling-vinyl-albums-and-singles-of-2026-so-far-3940456\">Harry\u00a0Styles\u2019 \u2018Kiss All\u00a0The\u00a0Time. Disco,\u00a0Occasionally\u2019 was revealed as the UK\u2019s biggest-selling vinyl album of 2026 so far<\/a>, shifting 69,000 copies by mid-April.<\/p>\n<p>It was followed by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/olivia-dean\">Olivia Dean<\/a>\u2019s \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/album\/olivia-dean-the-art-of-loving-review-3895288\">The Art\u00a0Of\u00a0Lovin<\/a>g\u2019,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/gorillaz\">Gorillaz<\/a>\u2019 \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/album\/gorillaz-the-mountain-review-3931275\">The Mountain<\/a>\u2019,\u00a0the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/war-child-help-2-interview-james-ford-full-album-track-by-track-listen-3932764\">War Child charity album \u2018Help(2)\u2019<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/fleetwood-mac\">Fleetwood Mac<\/a>\u2019s \u2018Rumours\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/raye\">RAYE<\/a>\u2019s \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/raye-returns-with-new-single-where-is-my-husband-announces-2026-uk-europe-and-us-tour-3893632\">Where Is My Husband!<\/a>\u2019 topped the corresponding vinyl singles list, ahead of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/taylor-swift\">Taylor Swift<\/a>\u2019s \u2018The Fate\u00a0Of\u00a0Ophelia\u2019 and \u2018Opalite\u2019,\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/sam-fender-breaks-record-to-score-first-number-one-single-as-charli-xcx-tops-uk-album-chart-3930609\">Sam Fender and Olivia Dean\u2019s \u2018Rein Me In\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the continued growth in music consumption, questions\u00a0remain\u00a0over how much of the industry\u2019s increased revenue reaches working artists.<\/p>\n<p>The Musicians\u2019 Union continues to cite findings from the UK Musicians\u2019 Census showing that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/music-sales-hit-20-year-high-but-beneath-the-surface-uk-artists-earn-far-below-average-salaries-3827139\">the average annual income from music work is \u00a320,700, while 43 per cent of professional musicians earn less than \u00a314,000 a year from music<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('consent', 'revoke');\n  fbq('init', '370979561341328');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CD sales have surged by 16 per cent in the US during the first half of 2026, significantly outpacing the growth of vinyl. The new figures were revealed in entertainment data company Luminate\u2019s 2026 Midyear Report, which found that 16.3million CDs were sold across the country between January and the end of June. By comparison,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/compact_discs_rack.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}