18/07/2026
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The CD comeback is getting harder to ignore. đź’ż
CD sales jumped 16% during the first half of 2026, reaching 16.3 million copies sold. That’s a much faster growth rate than vinyl, which increased by 2.4% during the same period.
A big part of the revival is coming from millennials and Gen Z, who seem increasingly interested in actually owning physical media again instead of having everything trapped inside a streaming app. In fact, approximately half of the millennial and Gen Z consumers buying CDs reportedly don’t even own a CD player.
For many younger buyers, CDs aren’t necessarily replacing Spotify or Apple Music. They’re affordable collectibles, a way to support artists directly and something tangible that can’t suddenly disappear because a subscription ended or a platform lost the rights.
Streaming is obviously convenient, but there’s still something better about holding an album, looking through the artwork and feeling like the music actually belongs to you. Apparently, those giant CD binders some of us refused to throw away were an investment after all.
Are you buying CDs again, or did you never stop?
