Sales of CD and vinyl music sees strong resurgence amid physical media backlash — US sales of ‘retro media’ were up 59% and 18%, respectively, in H1 2026

Some CD albums and vinyl records — (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

There was good news for the U.S. recorded music industry this week, as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced revenues outpaced inflation in H1 2026. “U.S. recorded music revenue reached $6B in the first half of 2026, up 6.9%,” noted the association. Probably more interesting, though, is that consumers have been seriously splashing cash on retro or legacy physical audio formats. A strong resurgence in CD and vinyl music sales saw both up double figures in the latest figures. “Physical revenues jumped 25.9%, powered by 17.7% vinyl growth and a 58.6% increase in CDs,” reported the RIAA.

With the extremely strong headline growth in ‘retro’ formats, one could be excused for thinking consumers are pulling back from digital music distributors like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and so on. However, the RIAA underlines that “every major revenue category grew, reflecting a healthy and increasingly diversified marketplace.” While we focus on streaming, this digital segment generated $4.9B in H1 2026, up 4.7% and remaining the largest source of recorded music industry revenue. Other digital stats worth highlighting are the 6.4% growth in paid subscriptions, reaching $3.4B, and the 3.7% growth in free streaming, reaching $900M.

Latest Videos FromTom's Hardware

Watch full video here:

Overall, the numbers do seem to suggest that the boom in physical music distribution isn’t conclusive evidence that consumers are rejecting how the music streaming industry is changing its offerings (pricing, catalogs, etc). However, there may indeed be some backlash here, as we have seen in the TV/movie streaming business. Some consumers are increasingly frustrated with video streaming offerings and are building up home media catalogs by purchasing DVDs, Blu-rays, etc. We’ve started to see a bit of this in video gaming, too, as the high-profile case regarding Sony PlayStation digital game ownership has stirred some gamers into action.

TOPICS

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

4 Comments Comment from the forums

ezst036

Admin said:
.........sees strong resurgence amid physical media backlash............
https://i.imgflip.com/83im0l.png
Um. Let's not act like (some) customers don't prefer the convenience of completely digital solutions.

The "backlash" (incorrect terminology) would be one set of customers revolting against another set of consumers.

There's a whole evolution of consumers we could recount moving from 56k, to broadband, here comes napster, here comes ipods until it results in the death of Blockbuster and eventually almost the medium itself. Reaching the logical end of its conclusion.

This is a customer vs customer war.

Honestly I think the customers who get bitter and they cling to their CDs and their vinyl, with antipathy toward digital solutions, are the ones who are correct here. The providers be it the Spotifys of the world or the Sonys and Microsofts of the world, those middlemen. The middlemen cannot be trusted.
Reply
expired56k

I think you are missing the point, people who actually enjoy music are fed up with all the licensing nonsense, decreasing quality, and many other things. Now AI is the final straw. Due to these similar issues, I also felt like I was not enjoying music like I used to. I have been going back to physical for a few years now and couldn't be happier (though to be honest, I never full left, I kept all my physical media in storage; also been buying UHD movies for many years now - same reasons).
Reply
IAcidBurnI

ezst036 said:
https://i.imgflip.com/83im0l.png
Um. Let's not act like (some) customers don't prefer the convenience of completely digital solutions.

The "backlash" (incorrect terminology) would be one set of customers revolting against another set of consumers.

There's a whole evolution of consumers we could recount moving from 56k, to broadband, here comes napster, here comes ipods until it results in the death of Blockbuster and eventually almost the medium itself. Reaching the logical end of its conclusion.

This is a customer vs customer war.

Honestly I think the customers who get bitter and they cling to their CDs and their vinyl, with antipathy toward digital solutions, are the ones who are correct here. The providers be it the Spotifys of the world or the Sonys and Microsofts of the world, those middlemen. The middlemen cannot be trusted.
I don't comment here as you can obviously see but I had to for you. I can't comprehend how you can miss your mark so bad. What's this has to do with different generation of customers? This just has to do with owning your stuff. I doubt anyone likes buying but actually just renting.
Reply
TerryLaze

IAcidBurnI said:
This just has to do with owning your stuff. I doubt anyone likes buying but actually just renting.
This ship has sailed decades ago...
From the moment that a game needs to connect to a server, even just once per new install, you stop being the owner of that game and are at the mercy of the company to keep up the support for that game, you have a "rented" (limited time) game even if you have a physical copy.
Same for consoles that can get updates, that can make older games stop running on your console.

We are like the slow boiling frog ,now that we exploded from being cooked we finally want to do something about it.
Reply