CD Sales Revenue Jumps 58.6% in the US in H1 2026, Says RIAA

The disc is back. According to the RIAA, US CD revenue climbed 58.6% in the first half of 2026 — one of the strongest increases the format has seen in years, and a sign that physical music's comeback is no longer just a vinyl story.

Not the same as the vinyl revival

The mid-2010s physical resurgence was almost entirely vinyl-led. 2026 looks different: CD sales are now rising faster than vinyl for the first time in a decade, making this a genuine two-format recovery rather than a single-format novelty.

What's driving it

The report points to several factors:

• Younger listeners rediscovering physical ownership
• Cheaper unit prices and faster manufacturing than vinyl
• Artists releasing exclusive CD variants and bundling them with digital extras
• Collectors valuing physical formats as archive objects

Why it matters for dance music

For electronic artists in particular, CDs offer a practical edge: faster market entry without the months-long pressing delays that plague vinyl. Streaming still dominates revenue overall — but the numbers make clear that physical formats remain a meaningful, and growing, category. It's a notable counter-trend in a scene often assumed to have gone fully digital.

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Photo: "CDs, Seitenansicht" by Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.