Why are people buying so many CDs?

CD sales are apparently going up, reportedly thanks to fans realizing they're an affordable way to support their favorite artists. According to a new report from research firm Luminate, 16. 3 million CDs were sold in the first half of 2026 in the US, a 16 percent increase year-over-year.

The growth in CD sales was driven by "collection building, price accessibility, massive albums such as BTS' ARIRANG and a strong K-pop release schedule," Luminate says. Even if you remove K-pop sales from the data, CD sales still went up in the US, increasing 6. 7 percent.