CD Sales Increase More Than Vinyl Mostly Due to Kpop Album Sales

The report claims that “the act of buying physical music is as much about aesthetic ownership and direct financial support for the artist as it is listening to the music on the product itself.” This data supports claims that young buyers treat vinyl as a collector’s item even if they do not necessarily own turntables. The overall increase from last year is surprising considering that sales were on the decline last year. At this time last year, CDs sales were dropping sharply and vinyl saw no changes. The RIAA’s 2025 mid-year report said CD sales were down 22% year over year, and vinyl sales down 1%.

In Billboard’s breakdown of the report, it was noted that while R&B and hip-hop have declined in popularity, they still dominate in streams: “Approximately one in every four streams today are for songs that fall into the R&B/hip-hop classification, but the genre’s share of listening has continued to decline year-over-year for the last few years.” The loss for the genre has been attributed to “growing genres like dance/electronic, country and Latin.”

There’s been a surge in Spanish-speaking music’s popularity. English-language songs have made a slight decline, down from 88.1% in 2025 to 87.1%. In 2026, almost one out of every ten US streams is in Spanish. Korean-language music is also steadily rising to a U.S. market stakes of 1.1%. Per Luminate, “It remains the third most popular language for music in America, owing to the continued strength of K-pop hits.”