Retro tech is making a comeback, and this week, the Recording Trade Affiliation of America (RIAA) put onerous numbers to that pattern when it comes to music consumption habits. Surprisingly, the group reported that CDs — sure, the shiny, spherical issues that Spotify supposedly killed — are rising as soon as once more.
In response to the RIAA’s new report, CDs generated $171.1 million in income in the course of the first half of 2026 — up 58.6% from roughly $107.9 million within the first half of 2025 — on 17.5 million items offered, up 45.7% from about 12 million items in the identical interval final yr.
That rebound is all of the extra fascinating as a result of it follows a tough 2025. Final yr’s full-year report confirmed CD income had really fallen 7.8% for the total yr, from $338.9 million in 2024 to $312.4 million in 2025, whereas items offered dropped 11.6%, from 33.3 million to 29.5 million.
The expansion comes amid a surge of renewed interest in simpler tech, like so-called “dumbphones,” digital cameras, typewriters, landlines, and bodily media like CDs and vinyl, amongst different classes. For Gen Z, the demand for these units represents a type of craving for an period of tech they by no means received to expertise — the place you had extra management over once you engaged with know-how and the way, and tech itself had much less room to invade your life with its notifications, addictive apps, and algorithms.
A number of startups are enjoying on this house now, too, including landline makers like Tin Can, Ooma, and Pinwheel, and non-smartphones like these from Light, Dumb Co, Minimal, and others, together with the soon-to-launch BlackBerry-like Clicks. In the meantime, Gen Z shoppers are snapping up outdated devices at thrift shops or on classic tech web sites like eBay or Retrospekt.
And to be truthful, the pattern could possibly be greater than the RIAA’s numbers show, as they don’t embody used CD gross sales, like these discs purchased from thrift bins or storage gross sales, nor do they account for what number of CDs have now been handed down from Gen X dad and mom to their youngsters.
We should always observe there’s one caveat to the pattern right here.
The RIAA modified the way it calculates greenback figures in 2025, switching from estimated retail worth to wholesale worth. Meaning the 2024 and 2025 income numbers aren’t straight comparable. However unit gross sales, which aren’t affected by that change, inform the identical basic story: 29.5 million CDs offered in 2025, down from 33.3 million in 2024. So CDs had been nonetheless declining earlier than this yr’s sudden rebound.
Vinyl gross sales proceed to develop, too. The truth is, so-called bodily media income within the first half of 2026 jumped 25.9% to $731.5 million, pushed not solely by the 58.6% enhance in CD income but in addition by a 17.7% enhance in vinyl income.
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