Compact discs are making an unexpected resurgence in the United States, with sales climbing 16% to 16.3 million units during the first half of 2026, according to Luminate's midyear music report, even as roughly half of the format's young buyers admit they don't actually own a CD player.

The growth rate significantly outpaced vinyl, which grew just 2.4% over the same six-month period, according to Luminate, the U.S. market research firm that tracks music industry sales and streaming data. That marks a notable shift after more than a decade in which vinyl dominated conversations around the physical music revival, with CDs now posting a growth rate nearly seven times faster than records during the first half of this year.

K-pop has played an outsized role in driving the surge. Luminate found that K-pop releases accounted for roughly 10% of the entire CD market during the period, with BTS's 10th studio album, "Arirang," leading the charge after reportedly selling 567,000 CDs in 2026 alone. Successful campaigns from other K-pop acts, including Enhypen's "The Sin: Vanish" and Ateez's "Golden Hour: Part 4," similarly drove strong sales, according to Luminate's analysis, reflecting the genre's well-documented practice of releasing albums in multiple editions featuring different covers, photo cards and bonus items, which frequently encourages devoted fans to purchase more than one version of the same release.

Even so, the CD resurgence extends well beyond K-pop fandoms specifically. Luminate calculated that CD sales would still have grown 6.7%........

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