TEXAS \u2014 Music fans are turning back to compact discs, with CD sales increasing as younger listeners embrace physical music collections.<\/p>\n
CD sales rose 16% in the first half of 2026, according to data from Luminate. They are now outpacing vinyl sales, according to the company\u2019s midyear report.<\/p>\n
Brad Sigler, who has worked in the music industry for 40 years, said he did not expect CDs to make a comeback.<\/p>\n
At Dead Wax Records\u2019 downtown Garland location, CDs now account for nearly 30% of sales, an over 20% increase, Sigler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s mainly kids; it\u2019s crazy. It\u2019s, uh, 13 to 24-year-olds buying new and used CDs,\u201d Sigler said.<\/p>\n
Leigha, who went out to shop at Dead Wax Records, says she started collecting in the last few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFound my way back to it a couple of years ago, and I first started collecting CDs probably three years ago,\u201d said Leigha.<\/p>\n
For some listeners, the appeal is partly nostalgia. Others say they want to own their music rather than rely solely on streaming services.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like technology advanced a little too much, I want to say, but I don\u2019t know. I think it\u2019s really cool\u2026I love it,\u201d Leigha said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sigler said physical media offers something streaming cannot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something very cool, you know, to be able to read liner notes, pictures, own something other than just streaming,\u201d said Sigler.<\/p>\n
Korean and Japanese pop are among the bigger sellers at Dead Wax Records, Sigler said. But younger customers are also showing interest in older artists.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill Jeff Buckley, which is crazy, you know? I mean, Jeff is still selling like crazy,\u201d Sigler said.<\/p>\n
Sigler said it is difficult to predict where physical media trends will go next. For now, he is happy to watch the resurgence unfold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014 Music fans are turning back to compact discs, with CD sales increasing as younger listeners embrace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,910,1570,102,138,2777,19797,223,82,27,1569,835],"class_list":["post-414770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-business","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-entertainment","tag-michael-lozano","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}