CD sales in the US increased for the first time since 2004.
Alina Bradford/CNETPut down your vinyls records and dust off those long-forgotten plastic binders, because CDs are making a resurgence — CD sales in the US increased in 2021 for the first time in 17 years, according to the annual sales report published by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The data shows that CD sales grew by 21% to $584 million last year.
While music-streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal are still the primary way people enjoy their music, physical music sales have been on the rise the last several years. In fact, physical music sales reached $1.65 billion in the US in 2021 alone.
This is mostly due to the growing trend of vinyl music. Vinyl sales revenue increased by 61 percent in 2021 to $1 billion — a milestone that hadn’t been reached since 1986.
