The days of purchasing CDs as a way to listen to music are long gone — or are they?
In 2021, streaming music took an 83% market share of all music consumed. Just behind that were vinyl records, at a much smaller 6.9%.
What Happened: CD sales have been declining for 16 straight years, shrinking from $11.4 billion in annualized sales in 2004 to just $584.2 million in 2021.
Yet 2021 marks the first year in 16 years that CD sales have reversed, showing growth. In 2020, annualized revenues for CD sales were $483.2 million.
Provided by the Recording Industry Association of America
Compared to vinyl, CDs are able to produce a wider dynamic range and more bass, according to Gear Patrol.
Why It's Important: CDs offer high fidelity files, as compared to streaming services like Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) and Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) Apple Music, which compress the music files to take up less space, resulting in less vibrant-sounding music.
Streaming services have been piqued to this notion — now, services like Tidal offer lossless or uncompressed audio files that are able to deliver audio quality similar to CDs.
