CD sales are making an unexpected comeback amid a retro tech boom

Retro tech is making a comeback, and this week, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) enactment hard numbers to that inclination successful presumption of euphony depletion habits. Surprisingly, the enactment reported that CDs — yes, the shiny, circular things that Spotify supposedly killed — are increasing erstwhile again.

According to the RIAA’s caller report, CDs generated $171.1 cardinal successful gross during the archetypal fractional of 2026 — up 58.6% from astir $107.9 cardinal successful the archetypal fractional of 2025 — connected 17.5 cardinal units sold, up 45.7% from astir 12 cardinal units successful the aforesaid play past year.

That rebound is each the much absorbing due to the fact that it follows a unsmooth 2025. Last year’s full-year study showed CD gross had really fallen 7.8% for the afloat year, from $338.9 cardinal successful 2024 to $312.4 cardinal successful 2025, portion units sold dropped 11.6%, from 33.3 cardinal to 29.5 million.

The maturation comes amid a surge of renewed involvement successful simpler tech, similar alleged “dumbphones,” integer cameras, typewriters, landlines, and carnal media similar CDs and vinyl, among different categories. For Gen Z, the request for these devices represents a benignant of yearning for an epoch of tech they ne'er got to acquisition — wherever you had much power implicit erstwhile you engaged with exertion and how, and tech itself had little country to invade your beingness with its notifications, addictive apps, and algorithms.

Several startups are playing successful this abstraction now, too, including landline makers similar Tin Can, Ooma, and Pinwheel, and non-smartphones similar those from Light, Dumb Co, Minimal, and others, including the soon-to-launch BlackBerry-like Clicks. Meanwhile, Gen Z consumers are snapping up aged gadgets astatine thrift stores oregon connected vintage tech websites similar eBay oregon Retrospekt.

And to beryllium fair, the inclination could beryllium bigger than the RIAA’s numbers demonstrate, arsenic they don’t see utilized CD sales, similar those discs bought from thrift bins oregon store sales, nor bash they relationship for however galore CDs person present been handed down from Gen X parents to their kids.

We should enactment there’s 1 caveat to the inclination here.

The RIAA changed however it calculates dollar figures successful 2025, switching from estimated retail worth to wholesale value. That means the 2024 and 2025 gross numbers aren’t straight comparable. But portion sales, which aren’t affected by that change, archer the aforesaid cardinal story: 29.5 cardinal CDs sold successful 2025, down from 33.3 cardinal successful 2024. So CDs were inactive declining earlier this year’s unexpected rebound.