In transient: As with so many retro objects, evidently the following factor making a comeback is the CD. The humble compact disc is experiencing a vinyl-like resurgence that has seen CD music gross sales improve for the primary time in nearly 20 years.
The annual gross sales report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reveals that CD gross sales within the US rose from 31.6 million in 2020 to 46.6 million in 2021, with income leaping from $483.2 million to $584.2 million, marking the primary year-on-year development for the format since 2004.
Those figures are nonetheless a good distance from the near-billion CD album gross sales and $13.2 billion in income throughout compact discs’ peak in 2000, however any improve continues to be important.
Vinyl gross sales, after all, have been on the rise for over 15 years now; for the primary time for the reason that Eighties, vinyl album gross sales generated extra income than CD gross sales in the course of the first half of 2020. Last yr noticed 39.7 million vinyl items bought within the US in 2021, totaling $1 billion in income.
Combined with the CD gross sales growth, total bodily music gross sales have been on the rise final yr for the primary time since 1996.
Axios experiences that one issue behind the rise in CD gross sales has been the delays in vinyl albums, which some folks incorrectly blamed on Adele.
But none of this implies bodily music media is wherever close to difficult its digital various. CD and vinyl albums made up lower than 11% of all music gross sales final yr, whereas paid subscriptions introduced in 57.2% of all income ($8.6 billion), and ad-supported gross sales made $1.8 billion.
Image credit score: Brett Jordan
