CD sales outpace vinyl growth in first half of 2026 — physical music is back

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Figures prove CD sales have grown more than record sales so far in 2026

The data has been presented as part of a physical media boom

Time to buy a CD player again — or a portable CD Walkman?

In yet another stat that seems to confirm ‘ Sony ending PlayStation discs is not what we want ’, new data suggests music CD sales growth has eclipsed vinyl in the first half of 2026.

It's hard to deny that a physical media boom is underway. First, there's the continued collective love for vinyl. Then, there's the backlash at Sony discontinuing physical games (along with removing the ability to play a standard CD on both the PlayStation 5 and 4) as well as the pushback regarding Netflix's 'streaming one minute, removed the next' movie library. All of this makes the physical product increasingly valuable and desirable. Did I mention Blu-Ray sales are also on the up in a big way?

To prove the point as far as tangible music products go, a report from Luminate Data suggests that physical media is more popular than ever. Sales of hard-copy LPs, CDs and tapes rose 7.8% through the first half of 2026, apparently.

But more intriguing is precisely what people were buying more of: the data suggests that CDs are spiking in popularity far more than records, which conventional wisdom would suggest is the format in vogue.

Apparently, while records grew by 2.4%, CDs jumped by 16.3%. This tracks with what we've been seeing recently, with retro-inspired CD players getting released all over the place.

No more vinyl?

(Image credit: Future) For a good long while now, general consensus has been that records are the audiophile format of choice — the groove essentially is an analog wave of sound. The best turntables are on sale everywhere and new music gets released on vinyl as standard.

The thing is that digital (still very breakable, scratchable and delicate) compact discs might simply be another way forward, and sales certainly suggest a revival is underway.

It makes sense, since CDs are capable of pretty high-quality audio at 16-bit/44.1kHz, which is the starting point for hi-res audio (unless you're going for Super CDs, which can boast even higher bitrates and overall quality). Also, vinyl will always sound 'warm' and subject to the odd pop or crackle, owing to its design — and the fact that pesky dust particles exist, however much we try to eliminate them.

CDs are also slightly more compatible with modern software; you can burn them onto your computer or digital audio player relatively quickly — although granted, many decks now have a USB port for digital safekeeping of your more abstract presses and recordings.

What I'm saying is, this doesn't mean turntables and records are on their way out. There's something ineffable about the process of putting them on to play and hearing the imperfections and flaws. It's just that people are now seeing CDs as valuable too — and despite the fact that hardly any of the best laptops sport a disc drive these days…