The peak of CD sales came in 2000, when sales in the United States reached 1 billion copies. CDs aren't the only physical music medium to grow, and sales of vinyl records have been growing steadily over the past decade, reaching 39.7 million copies in the U.S. in 2021, bringing in $1 billion in revenue. MRC Data said vinyl records achieved 50.4 percent sales growth in 2021, while showing their highest weekly sales since 1991, with 2.11 million copies sold in the final week of 2021.
More interestingly, sales of a variety of physical media, such as CD and vinyl, saw their first increase since 1986. Of course, streaming is still king, with RIAA saying that paid subscription revenue in 2021 will be $8.6 billion, accounting for 57.2% of related revenue, while sales of CDs and vinyl combined are less than 11%. Physical music media were able to achieve sales growth in the streaming-based music ecosystem, mainly due to several female singers, including Adele, Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo.
When traveling, it is more suitable to choose the streaming way to listen to music, which is better than bringing a slightly bulky CD Walkman. However, when staying at home, the disadvantages of CDs are weakened, and they can provide basically the same sound quality as lossless music, while also satisfying the sense of exclusivity that music lovers want to have physical entities. In comparison, vinyl records are more special and offer unique sound quality.