CD sales grew for the first time in two decades in the United States in 2021, according to figures supplied by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The format’s shipment volume increased from 31.6 million in 2020 to 46.6 million in 2021, while revenue increased from $483.2 million to $584.2 million. The RIAA’s figures support a similar report published earlier this year by MRC Data.
Although CD sales are still well behind their 2000 peak — when almost a billion CD records were distributed in the United States — Axios observes that the growth is another critical component of physical music’s renaissance. Vinyl sales have been expanding steadily for over a decade and a half, and are expected to reach 39.7 million units in the United States in 2021, generating $1 billion in revenue.
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As a result of this combination, physical media as a whole had its first uptick in sales since 1996, but streaming continues to reign supreme. Paid subscriptions accounted for 57.2 percent of revenue, or $8.6 billion, as evaluated by the RIAA in 2021, while ad-supported streaming generated $1.8 billion. Meanwhile, total CD and vinyl album sales accounted for less than 11% of income.
Personally, I’m curious to see whether this renaissance in CDs continues as the world emerges from two years of pandemic lockdowns. While CDs are excellent for listening to music at home, I haven’t seen someone carrying around a bulky portable CD player in years. And, while vinyl has a different sound compared to digital music, CDs include digital audio that is practically comparable to what Apple and Amazon offer through their lossless music services.
However, CDs continue to provide something that merely digital services cannot: a pleasant tangible product complete with album art and a genuine sense of ownership. Additionally, there is a sense that a greater portion of your money is going directly to an artist, rather than the pennies per play supplied by streaming companies.
