CDs Are Back, and We Think We Know Why

C Ds are booming again. According to an industry report by Luminate, the first half of 2026 saw a 16 percent surge in CD sales — and you might be surprised by who’s buying them. Gen Z and millennial fans are gobbling up those shiny, Nineties-coded aluminum discs, 16.3 million of them in the U.S. alone. This format is even outpacing vinyl, which rose by only 2.4 percent. It’s official: Today’s music fans have a bad case of Discman fever. It makes sense that younger listeners are turning to physical media, to make that direct tactile connection. They want to go off the grid when they listen, instead of asking a screen for permission. CDs might not be as sexy or romantic or glam as vinyl or cassettes — but they’re the best format ever for getting up close and personal with your favorite music. One key reason for the CD surge is Korean pop, which accounts for a substantial share of the boom. (BTS’ Arirang is the year’s top-selling disc so far.) But that’s only part of the puzzle. There are other cultural factors at play — especially the fact that 60 percent of Gen Z fans say they listen mostly to music from the Nineties or earlier. Five years ago, that figure was just 18 percent. CDs remain the best invention ever for deep listening, when you feel like spending an hour with an album. You’re not logged in anywhere. Nobody’s tracking you or harvesting your data. No password or software updates. Alanis Morissette is never gonna pause in the middle of the Jagged Little Pill CD to send a six-digit verification code to your phone. Whatever happens in your listening time is between you and Alanis. Also, CD sound is fuller, richer than the tinny bit rates of streaming. Sometimes audio quality matters. I mean, you claim to be a Steely Dan freak but you’re streaming Aja on your phone? Drink your big black cow and get outta here. Vinyl takes much longer to produce, which means sometimes it moves too slow to keep up. If you bought the excellent new Olivia Rodrigo album on LP, you probably paid 40 bucks for an incomplete listening experience — because the songs get sliced down to fit on wax. The vinyl edition means you get “U + Me = <3” without the “all my favorite Cadbury” bridge, which is like a mutilated doll. The CD gives you the full album, the way God and Olivia intended you to hear it. Streaming offers convenience and speed, but also constant distractions. Let’s face it, your phone is a clingy, needy, passive-aggressive housemate who’s sweet but a real pain in the ass, and you get sick of trying to have fun while it keeps barging in to ask “Hey, whatcha doing? Have you checked your emails?” Sometimes you want to leave the housemate behind. It’s tough to lose yourself in the music when your only source is the same device you use for texts, news, and videos of cats jumping on birthday cakes. That’s why physical books kept booming, long after the experts predicted they’d be replaced by digital readers. It turns out that what people want from a book is best delivered by a book. Who knew? But is it any wonder if music turns out to be the same way? CDs have always been the geekiest music format, which is why they’re surging in a music culture that’s more geek-driven than ever. Luminate cites K-pop and indie rock as the two genres where fans are most hardcore about physical media — an audience Luminate classifies as “purchase-based superfans.” And the physical medium they want right now is the CD. Let the Discman spin forever. Editor’s picks Deadicated, Various ArtistsThis 1991 compilation of Grateful Dead covers was the first piece of physical media that I stole from my dad. I loved hearing the Indigo Girls, Elvis Costello, and Los Lobos perform songs I grew up with. —Alison Weinflash Related Content Things Fall Apart, The RootsEarly copies of the Roots’ 1999 classic came with one of five black-and-white photos on the cover. Mine featured a baby in a bombed-out WWII landscape — a powerful image that matched the bold music. —Simon Vozick-Levinson The Queen Is Dead, The Smiths A perfect album, ideal for my teens. I bought this CD, along with tickets for their 1986 Radio City Music Hall show, at Tower Records in Greenwich Village. Sadly, that gig was canceled, and months later the Smiths broke up. —Sacha Lecca Control, Janet JacksonBeing Gen Z and born to Boomer parents, I missed out on the magic that was Control. I recently bought the CD, instead of just streaming it, so I could more fully immerse myself in the alchemy of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis’ classic production. —Elise Brisco Laundry Service, ShakiraThis CD was in such heavy rotation on my pink Barbie boombox that I lost the lyric booklet at some point over the years. But the memories of singing “Whenever, Wherever” into a hairbrush? Those are forever. —Maya Georgi Trending Stories Paranoid, Black SabbathThe track list is out of order, some songs are misspelled, and it sounds like it was mastered in a paper bag, but this bootleg CD cost $6 at Best Buy in the early Nineties and kick-started my love of the world’s first and greatest metal band. —Kory Grow Midnights, Taylor SwiftFor seven months starting in the fall of 2022, the only way to listen to the pop charmer “Hits Different” was on a copy of this lavender-hued exclusive CD version of Midnights. So I found many reasons to hop in the car and use my only CD player. —M.G.