What the numbers show

The RIAA's published year-end reports are the reliable record for the United States, and they are worth reading carefully because units and revenue tell different stories.

By the 2024 report, vinyl had outsold CDs on units for a third consecutive year — 44 million records against 33 million CDs — and accounted for close to three-quarters of physical format revenue. In 2025 the gap widened again, to 46.8 million records against 29.5 million CDs.

Keep the scale honest, though. Streaming was around 84% of total US recorded music revenue in 2024. Vinyl is the largest physical format by a wide margin and a small part of the whole business — both things are true, and a headline that gives only the first is selling something.

Why it happened

The usual explanation is sound quality, and it is the weakest one. A record has measurable disadvantages — surface noise, inner-groove distortion, wear with every play — and most listeners comparing formats are actually comparing masterings, since a vinyl master is often cut with more dynamic range than the CD of the same album (see the loudness war).

The better explanation is that vinyl offers the things streaming removed. It is an object you own rather than a licence you rent. It has artwork at a size you can actually look at. It has a side that ends, which makes listening a decision with a beginning and a finish.

And it is the only way left to pay an artist a meaningful amount in one transaction, which is why so many acts now treat the record as the product and the stream as the advertisement.

The industry it rebuilt

Pressing plants had been closing for decades; the revival meant re-learning a manufacturing process that nearly lapsed, on machinery much of which is older than the people running it. That is a real constraint, and it is why lead times on a new pressing can still run to months.

It also rebuilt the record shop as a place rather than a warehouse — which matters, because browsing is the part of buying music that algorithms replaced least well.

Where it sits now

Vinyl is no longer a revival in any meaningful sense; it is simply how physical music is sold. The interesting question has moved on to whether the CD follows the same path, having spent long enough out of fashion to be rediscovered as an object — and the early signs suggest it might.

Did you know?

• RIAA year-end figures show vinyl outselling CDs on units for a third consecutive year in 2024.
• In 2025 US vinyl reached 46.8 million units against 29.5 million CDs.
• Streaming was roughly 84% of total US recorded music revenue in 2024, so vinyl's growth sits inside a streaming business.
• A vinyl master is often cut with more dynamic range than the CD of the same album, which explains part of the perceived difference.