CD sales jumped 45.7 percent in the first half of 2026, with 17.5 million units sold and $171.1 million in revenue, according to the RIAA. That revenue figure represents a 58.6 percent dollar increase over the same period in 2025. The timing is jarring: CD sales had contracted 22 percent from 2024 to 2025.
Luminate corroborates the trend independently, reporting 16.3 million units sold in the same window. Two separate research bodies arriving at similar numbers rules out a data artifact. Something structural is shifting in how people buy music.
The full piece is worth reading for what drives the reversal and whether the growth is concentrated in specific genres or retail channels. A one-year collapse followed by a near-50-percent rebound is not a normal market cycle, and the explanation matters more than the headline number.
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