Sales of CDs increased in the United States, although some buyers do not even own a CD player

In January-June, 16.3 million CDs were sold in the United States.

However, vinyls are still the most popular format: in the same period, 21.8 million vinyls were sold. Combined sales of all physical discs in the United States grew by 7.8 percent to approximately 38.2 million discs sold.

Luminates there are several reasons for the popularity of CDs: some American consumers want to collect physical discs above all, some prefer the format because of the reasonable prices.

The growth has been accelerated especially by the popularity of South Korean K-pop. The boy band BTS has been particularly popular Arirangcomeback album called It was sold as many as 516,000 CDs in the United States during the week of the album’s release in March.

Special editions of K-pop albums are often made, with which the consumer receives fan products, such as posters or cards. According to Luminate, Special Editions especially encourage fans to buy several different versions of the same album.

Growth however, it is not only due to K-pop. When all K-pop sales were removed from the statistics, CD sales had still grown by 6.7 percent, the statistics show.

According to Luminate, especially for younger consumers, CDs are primarily fan products and collectibles and not the primary way to consume music. According to the report, about half of the Americans representing generation z and millennials who bought CDs at the beginning of the year do not own a CD player at all. Physical discs are purchased alongside digital music listening.

In the US, subscription-based streams grew 4.8 percent to 732.7 billion in the first half of the year. Globally, streaming grew by 9.8 percent to 2.8 trillion.