GoKawiilIn a nutshell: It's time to dust off that old turntable and boombox: physical media is seeing a big resurgence, with both CDs and vinyl sales jumping by double digits in the first half of 2026. The news comes as public anger over digital media, from increasing streaming prices to buyers not actually owning their purchases, intensifies.
News of the latest increase in physical media sales comes from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It revealed that recorded music revenues for H1 2026 were up 6.9% from the first half of 2025 and outpaced inflation, with both streaming and physical formats posting gains.
It was physical media that grabbed the headlines. Revenue in this sector grew an impressive 25.9% as vinyl saw 17.7% growth and CD revenue went up a massive 58.6%.
Streaming, of course, remains the largest source of recorded music revenue by far. It generated $4.9 billion, up 4.7%. Paid subscriptions reached $3.4 billion, up 6.4%, while ad-supported free subscriptions were up 3.7% to $900 million.
It's fair to say that 15 or 20 years ago, many people would have expected CDs and vinyl to have vanished completely by now. But consumers are spending more money on these formats.
There have been plenty of reminders this year of why physical media isn't dying, one of the biggest being that buyers actually own their purchases. This contrast was illustrated perfectly in June when Sony said it was removing 551 movies and TV series from the PlayStation Store in the UK on September 1, 2026, due to licensing issues. The content will also be deleted from the libraries of customers who have already purchased it.
The same thing happened when Sony wiped more than 1,300 seasons of Discovery TV shows in 2023, another reminder that the EULA that comes with digital purchases almost always describes the transaction as the purchase of a revocable license.
– Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 22, 2026
Sony's decision to stop offering new PlayStation games on disc after January 2028 has also pushed angry consumers to embrace physical media – not that Sony cares.
Digital revenue did increase during H1 2026, too, so it's not like everyone is canceling their Spotify and Apple Music subscriptions and buying CDs instead; the RIAA describes the report as an illustration of a "diversifying marketplace." Still, it shows that CDs and vinyl aren't being added to our list of Once-Iconic Tech Products That Are Now a Fading Memory just yet.