"According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), vinyl posted its 18th straight year of growth in 2024, generating $1.4 billion in retail revenue, its highest share of physical format revenue since 1984. Meanwhile, CDs may have fallen out of fashion in the mid-2000s, but they're not a dead medium. In 2024, the RIAA reports, 33 million CDs were sold in the U.S., up 1.5% from 2023."
"For some fanbases, they're becoming a more popular collector's item: Taylor Swift, for example, has a longstanding partnership with Target and tends to sell several versions of her albums in the format, including the upcoming Life of a Showgirl album, which will include three exclusive CDs. Charli XCX also gave the CD an injection of instant cool last summer, when her brat CDs sold out almost instantly."
Jewel is a Norwegian company making high-end display cases for CDs, offering products from a $130 freestanding four-CD case to a $300 wall-mounted 16-slot case. The brand soft-launched online in Europe and plans expansion to the U.S. The founder argues that vinyl's renaissance presages renewed interest in CDs. Retro tech and physical media show a comeback among younger consumers seeking less social-media engagement, spanning iPods, Game Boys, film cameras, and pagers. Vinyl revenue reached $1.4 billion in 2024, while U.S. CD sales rose to 33 million copies, up 1.5% from 2023. CDs are resurging as collector items for major artists.
Read at Fast Company
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