The CD turnaround is finally happening, when will it hit Australia?

“I know you just ripped the packaging off your CD/If you like me, you reading the credits right now,” said Jay-Z on “Hova Song,” from the Vol. 3 The Life and Times of S. Carter album.

The album came out in 1999, and most of the 3 million people who mostly bought it on Spotify and Apple Music would have no idea about the experience the rapper was singing about. Twenty years later, it’s a different story.

CD Revival

The CD revival that’s been muttered about these past two years looks like it’s actually happening. Sales have been growing abroad, and in the UK retailers and music executives are actually talking about a rise in CD sales for the first time in twenty years by the end of 2024. CD player sales are also on the rise. The significant return of the format was underlined when Yamaha went to the market with the 5-disc changer named the CD-C603. Cue the shrieking of those who years back threw their CD collections into the dumpster because, like, the idea of owning a music product was so, ugh, Kodak-stick.

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Streaming

No one is expecting streaming to be replaced as the main format of consuming music. There’s too much working against it, including rock stars who warn that making physical records is environmentally uncool. It’ll be some time before we see CD players back in cars (where much music is listened to), and record companies allowing more releases to be out on the compact disc format.

But it’s interesting that vinyl and CDs were cast on the scrapheap of history are creating their own jukebox heroes. 

CDs were never as sexy as vinyl. They were so perfect to listen to that they virtually became background music.

Pearl Jam sold mostly CDs but it was vinyl they sang about in “Spin The Black Circle” in 1994.

Same thing with Aerosmith in “Big Ten Inch”, Jeffrey Lewis’ “LPs”, Bruce Springsteen’s “Mary’s Place” (“Your favourite record’s on the turntable​/ I drop the needle and pray​”) and Elvis Costello & Paul McCartney’s “So Like Candy” (“Here lie the records that she scratched/ And on the sleeve I find a note attached.”)

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke once snarled, “I fucking hate CDs, they’re a nightmare!”

But some are having a rethink. Ten years ago, Jack White maintained “streaming and vinyl are the future, and I’m OK with that.”

Portable

Now he says of a compact disc, “It’s portable, it still has the artwork and lyrics, and it sounds really good.

“And you can turn it up really loud.” 

It’s hard to believe how the CD absolutely dominated the way we listened to music. Eight years after its arrival, it became the dominant format surpassing the audiocassette. Total CD album sales of $4.3 billion in 1991, made up 55.4% of the total recorded music revenue that year, according to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). In 1999, consumers spent $13 billion (or $23 billion in today’s money) on CDs – 88% of the $14.6 billion spent on music.

Fast forward, and streaming king-kong’d all over vinyl and CD. In Australia, CDs went into free-fall, even more than vinyl. According to the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), the silver thing dropped in 2019 by another 17% to make up 5.6% of total revenue. 

In comparison, vinyl rose that year by 32% to be 5.4% of the Aussie music market. In 2022, CDs were dipping by 17% from the year before while vinyl was up nearly 23% to $36.9 million. Compact discs declined again in 2023, with revenue down 16.1% and volume sales down 19.1%.

In March 2024, ARIA released wholesale figures for 2023, which showed fifth consecutive year of growth. This was fuelled by streaming up 39.9% to becoming 69% of the industry, and sales of vinyl albums up 14.1% to $42.1 million The next report from ARIA, covering the first half of 2024, could tell if the CD resurgence sees a sales jump or if that will happen in 2025 in Australia. But it’s a different story elsewhere in the world, where sales are definitely moving in 2024.

In the US, CD sales grew this year to the point they were virtually neck and neck to vinyl sales. According to research company Luminate, in the first six months of 2024 CD sales in America reached 16.3 million units and catching up to vinyl’s 17.4 million. 

CD did 20.9 million in all of 2023. This is a far cry from the format’s peak in the early 2000s when annual sales exceeded 700 million units. This is a far cry from the format’s peak in the early 2000s when annual sales exceeded 700 million units. The Luminate figures showed that fans of the fastest growing genres in America when it came to streaming were also partial to compact discs.

Latin, K-Pop

Consumers of Latin music and K-Pop are both 32% more likely to buy CDs. Country music aficionados are 3% more likely. Heavy metal fans are +28% more likely to cite sound quality as an important factor when making a music purchase.

In England, figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for the first half of 2024 showed that CD sales still slipped, by 2.3% from the same period in 2023, to 2,383,681 units. It was a drop of 75,000 copies. But what is getting British music executives excited is that CD’s 2.3% drop is slower than in previous years. In the past 20 years, the decline in some years has been up to 20%. In 2023 its drop was 6.9%. In other words, the decline bottomed out in the first quarter of 2024, and there are some estimates that the end of this year will see the CD rise for the first time in 20 years.

Back in 2004, CD sales were 163 million copies. BPI CEO Dr Jo Twist told trade magazine Music Week: “Vinyl sales have been on the up for quite some time, and if this year’s growth continues, it will be 17 straight years.

“But the big difference now is that CD’s decline has dramatically slowed and is even hinting at a return to year-on-year growth. 

“Such an outcome would be truly astonishing given the many expectations that the format would become obsolete. 

“But these had perhaps not fully reckoned on the extent of the complementary relationship that physical enjoys with streaming, nor on the rise of superfans, who are such keen collectors across an artist’s output. 

“Or indeed of fans more generally, including younger consumers, perceiving the compact disc as such great value for money – at around £10 (AU$19.40) – and investing in it once again.”

Vinyl albums in the UK cost £27 or AU$52.38. So it’s cheaper to rebuild a CD collection.

Twist added, “Of course, it’s extremely unlikely that CD will become truly mass market again, but the format still accounts for close to 11 million sales annually and continues to play an important role in our music ecosystem. 

“Our labels always put artists and fans at the heart of everything they do, so I feel sure that our record industry, in partnership with retail, will help to support and grow the market so long as there is viable demand.”   

Lawrence Montgomery, MD of independent record store Rough Trade, said “The latest market figures actually understate the results.

“We are selling double the amount of records and CDs so far in 2024 than we did five years ago. 

“As long as labels and artists continue to value the role of independent shops, we believe this growth will continue.”

This will be through more releases of boxed sets, compilations and limited editions. Retail chains HMV and Le Fop are opening more stores in the UK, and giving space to stock and showcase physical records. Recent figures from UK digital entertainment and retailer association ERA for the first six months of 2024 saw vinyl album sales up 13.5% to £86.3 million, bolstered by a successful Record Store Day and Taylor Swift, while CD sales showed a 3.2% increase to £57.9 million. 

The value of UK music sales (combining vinyl, CD and downloads) grew by 7.9% in the first half, beating video sales (up 5.4%) and video game sales (down 29.4%). The CD revival is not just pushed by Baby Boomers or Gen X nostalgias. It’s by Gen Z – those born in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Data from SNEP, the French record industry group, shows that 43% of CD buyers are under 35, with another 20% between 35-44 years old. It is helped by Gen Z fave acts releasing their latest albums on the CD format. 

The Tortured Poets Department

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department sold an astounding 2.47 million CD copies in America in the first half of 2024. Others were Olivia Rodrigo, and Beyoncé and K-Pop’s Stray Kids, 5-Star, Tomorrow, X Together, NewJeans, Twice, Seventeen, and BTS member Jung Kook.

The attraction of the CD for younger consumers are the attraction of owning the music, better audio quality, and cheaper than vinyl. Listening on the silver disc provides the way the artist wanted an album to run throughout rather than chopped up by streaming playlists. Finally, album artwork and liner notes don’t match those on vinyl releases but they’re better than digital. The return of the CD has created slang for it in America: C-Dizzle, coaster, ultimate frisbee, a Volkswagen peace wheel, discgrace and scratchrileges.

Meantime, in 2022, Mixdown celebrated the CD format’s 40th anniversary, click here.