People Who Don’t Listen to CDs Are Still Buying CDs

Collected with AI, thought through on the shop floor, and put into words for the future of print.

BPJ Beta | Experimental Voyage

People Who Don’t Listen to CDs Are Still Buying CDs

From “a medium you play” to “a work fans own.” What the physical-media comeback says about the next business a printing company can win

This morning, while using AI to scan global news, I ran into a number that made me do a double take.

US CD sales were up 16% year over year in the first half of 2026. Unit sales hit 16.3 million. By growth rate alone, that handily beats vinyl’s 2.4% increase.

That “+16%” is not revenue. It’s unit growth. And while 16.3 million units doesn’t mean the US market is “back to peak,” it does look like a clear rebound from the flat levels of the past few years.

What’s even more interesting: among Gen Z and millennial buyers, roughly half reportedly don’t own a CD player. Gen Z generally means people born from the late 1990s to the early 2010s; millennials are roughly early 1980s to mid-1990s.

Buying a CD you can’t play.

It sounds like a contradiction. But it feels like a big clue about the era we’re in.

What they’re buying isn’t a disc for playing audio.

Proof they supported an artist they love. A work they can keep close. The unboxing experience—more like opening a photobook or cards. A collection to show friends, trade, and display. And the hard-to-get digitally feeling of “this is mine.”

Seen this way, CDs haven’t “gone back to the past.” Their job has changed.

They’re being reborn by changing roles.

This isn’t only music-industry news.

It’s a tailwind for the kinds of tangible things printing companies make—books and zines, trading cards, photobooks, packaging, limited merch, event handouts.

Today, let’s use the CD comeback to think about the next business in physical media.

What happened this week

1. CD sales rose 16%

Luminate is an entertainment-market research company that aggregates streams and sales, and is frequently cited in US industry reporting. According to Luminate’s first-half 2026 data released July 15, US CD sales reached 16.3 million units, up 16% year over year. Total physical albums across CD, vinyl, and cassette also rose 7.8%.

Here, “physical albums” means new album products—CDs, vinyl records, and cassettes—counted separately from streaming and digital sales.

It’s true that major K-pop releases pulled the market forward. But even excluding K-pop, CD sales still rose 6.7%.

So this doesn’t look like a temporary blip caused by a single blockbuster.

It may be that CDs are being re-evaluated by younger consumers as an “affordable collection.”

2. CDs have become something you “own” more than something you “listen to”

A K-pop album is not just a single CD in a case.

Photobooks, photo cards, posters, stickers, lyric booklets, limited artwork, retailer-specific bonuses—these are bundled so the entire package becomes the product. “K-pop” is a genre label, but what matters here is the culture of designing the experience of buying a CD. There are multiple bonuses, sometimes with randomized elements, and the whole thing is engineered from the start to make fans want to collect.

Even for the same release, multiple editions are offered. Fans choose visuals they like, and sometimes buy several versions to complete a collection.

Luminate’s analysis is that, for younger buyers, physical music is less about playback and more about beautiful ownership and a direct act of supporting an artist.

3. In Japan, “music + paper inserts + retailer experience” is still the play

On July 17, Warner Music Japan announced details for Weezer’s new Japan domestic edition release, including an enclosed sticker, retailer-specific postcards, a B1 poster available via lottery, and a TOWER RECORDS collaboration display.

A “Japan domestic edition” is a Japan-specific version of the same album—rebuilt for Japan with local distribution and bonuses (and often added liner notes). “Enclosed” means items packed inside from the start, designed to be discovered the moment a buyer opens the product. A B1 poster is roughly the size of a fully opened broadsheet newspaper.

TOWER RECORDS is a CD retail chain; here “collaboration display” refers to special in-store / front-of-store displays, signage, and dedicated sections.

You can listen to the music via streaming.

And yet, to keep domestic editions selling, the market has long combined enclosed items, store-exclusive goods, lotteries, and the in-store experience.

Japan’s sales floor likely understands this well: the value of a CD isn’t only inside the disc.

4. Digitally born IP is moving into physical cards

Bushiroad will launch a new card game based on the game Palworld worldwide on July 30. Before release, the planned global shipment volume for the first set has already exceeded 3.5 million packs.

“Planned shipment volume” here is less a confirmed number of packs sold, and more the scale the manufacturer decides to push into the market based on pre-orders and forecasts.

They’re extending a digital game’s popularity into newly commissioned illustrations, cards, packs, decks, sleeves, in-store training sessions, and tournaments. A deck is a ready-to-play set of cards. Sleeves are transparent protective covers that prevent scratches and dirt. In-store training sessions are easiest to think of as events where you can learn the rules and try the game.

This isn’t “physical instead of digital.” It’s designed as back-and-forth.

You discover it digitally, pick up cards, gather at stores, play against others, and share online again.

As online and physical formats reinforce each other, the world and business scope of the IP (intellectual property) expands.

5. The AI era is also forcing a rethink of creator compensation

On July 20, a US federal court formally approved a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and authors in a copyright lawsuit over how books were obtained.

Anthropic is a generative AI developer. $1.5 billion is about ¥225 billion (approx., at ¥150 to $1).

The core dispute was how books used for AI training were acquired and handled. In past rulings, the court indicated that using lawfully obtained books for AI training could qualify as fair use, while separately treating the mass storage of pirated books as a different problem. Here, “fair use” refers to a US copyright doctrine that can permit unlicensed use if certain conditions are met.

The more AI enables mass production of text, images, and music, the more important the questions become: “Who made this?” “Is it legitimate?” “Whom does this purchase support?”

At first glance, these are separate stories.

But they seem to point in the same direction.

The more infinitely copyable works become, the more people seek a relationship with the ‘real thing.’

A CD is no longer a container for music

Once, the CD’s role was simple.

To record music, and play it back.

But access to music is now overwhelmingly more convenient via streaming. If listening is the only goal, there’s no need to buy a CD.

And yet CDs are selling.

Which means the center of the product has shifted.

What’s being sold today isn’t only the audio.

• Time spent unboxing
• Artist photos and a sense of their world
• The satisfaction of owning a limited item
• The anticipation of not knowing exactly what’s inside
• The fun of trading with other fans
• A reason to go to a store
• An entry point that leads to concerts and events
• The feeling that you supported the artist

CDs are shifting from a “playback medium” to a product that makes the fan relationship tangible.

From a printing company’s point of view, this is crucial.

Because most of that value is made through paper choice, printing, surface finishing and die-cutting, insertion work, inspection to catch scratches/count errors/mis-packs, package design, and distribution.

Even if you can’t make the music, you can make the experience around the music.

That’s where printing companies come in.

Physical media becomes a “small theme park”

Great physical media has an “experience sequence” inside the box.

You notice the outer package. You pick it up. You open it. You feel the paper texture. You flip through a photobook. You pull a card. You check the limited number. You scan a QR code to watch a video. You post photos to social media (X, Instagram, and so on). You trade with friends. You bring it to a concert or event.

It doesn’t end the moment you buy it.

From before purchase through unboxing, sharing, and coming back again, the experience continues.

I think of this as something like a “small theme park.”

A theme park has an entrance, a world, surprises, souvenirs, and paths that bring you back.

CDs, zines, cards, photobooks, and boxed products should be buildable with the same mindset.

For example, for a music release:

• A standard edition at an easy entry price
• A limited edition with a photobook and cards
• Different postcards by retailer
• Limited video unlocked via a serial number
• Extra stamps added at the live venue
• Line up all versions and a single image is completed
• An online project only purchasers can join

These kinds of systems are imaginable.

The key isn’t simply adding more freebies.

It’s editing the work’s world—including the order in which it’s held and opened.

Printing-company work shifts from “printing volumes” to “giving shape to fan energy”

Until now, printing companies have often been pushed into the role of making exactly what they’re handed.

Size. Paper. Number of colors. Finishing. Quantity. Delivery date.

Of course, making it accurately matters.

But for fan-facing products, there’s enormous value upstream of that.

Who buys it? What makes people want to collect? Where will they want to take photos? Which moment will they want to share on social? How many variants stay fun—and beyond what point does it become a burden? How do you split limited and standard? What do you do with leftover inventory? How do you prevent mis-inserts and duplicates?

If you enter at the planning stage—designing for who buys and how they’ll want to collect—the work changes dramatically.

From printing one type of card to designing the whole collection.

From delivering a booklet to operating a system that spans pre-orders, manufacturing, insertion, shipping, and post-purchase touchpoints.

You can price value not only as print unit cost (“how much per copy”) but also for planning, prototyping, management, inspection, and logistics.

This connects directly to Bunseikaku’s idea of Beyond Printing. Bunseikaku is a company aiming to expand from print as a core into paper-based manufacturing and the surrounding operations. “Beyond Printing” is the business concept behind that—supporting not just production but also how something is sold and how the experience is designed.

Experiments we’d like to try at Bunseikaku

These ideas aren’t finished.

But if we were to start small, we could probably test something like this.

Build a “100-copy fan kit”

Partner with people or companies that have a strong story—musicians, illustrators, manga artists, photographers, small factories, and so on.

For example, the contents could be these six items:

• A 16-page mini booklet
• Heavy-stock art cards
• Stickers
• A certificate card with a serial number
• A QR code linking to limited video or audio
• Outer packaging that conveys the world

Start with just 100 copies and sell via pre-order.

HubSpot is a marketing/CRM tool that can centralize customer information and email distribution. We would take registrations and pre-orders there, then check what elements buyers respond to.

Print Navigator is a service that serves as Bunseikaku’s consultation window for finalizing specs. We would use it to discuss contents and build approach, then Bunseikaku would handle printing, finishing, insertion, and inspection.

If it sells, add more. If the reaction is weak, change the contents.

Before mass production, you can measure fan heat.

Use AI not for “mass generation,” but for “observing the plan”

Use AI not to create the work, but to observe fan response.

Organize frequently mentioned scenes and phrases from public comments and reviews. Compare multiple packaging proposals quickly. Draft English-language descriptions for overseas audiences. Summarize post-purchase surveys. Find candidates for the next project.

Humans make the final call.

By separating what AI speeds up from what humans must protect, you can increase the number of small projects without damaging the work’s appeal.

A deliberate reversal

As digitization advances, paper and CDs will disappear.

We’ve heard that for a long time.

It’s true that physical media whose only job is to carry information will probably shrink.

But the more digitization advances, the more some physical media gets stronger.

• Signaling that something is legitimate
• Signaling belonging to a work you love
• Trading with others
• Displaying and enjoying it visually
• Giving it as a gift
• Preserving memories
• Proving a limited time or place
• Sending money directly to creators

These roles are hard to replace with a screen alone.

In an era when AI generates huge volumes of content, the value may rise not in “you can see anything,” but in “I chose this, and I own it.”

For printing companies, the question is no longer only whether paper demand goes up or down.

What do people want to keep within reach?

From that angle, the future of printing still looks pretty interesting.

What we want to keep tracking at BPJ

• Whether the same shift is happening in Japan’s CD, vinyl, and cassette markets
• How K-pop-style deluxe packaging spreads to IP beyond music
• Limited-release designs that can work even for small creators
• The right boundaries for multiple editions and random inserts
• Collection design that doesn’t exhaust fans
• Proof-of-authenticity using serials, QR, and NFC (a short-range wireless tag mechanism)
• Ways to combine pre-orders with small-lot production
• How to preserve rights, compensation, and provenance for creators in the AI era
• Direct-to-fan support that integrates printing, insertion, logistics, and customer management

People who don’t listen to CDs are still buying CDs.

This slightly strange phenomenon doesn’t only show that physical media isn’t over.

It shows that people are starting to buy relationships, not information.

Listening can be digital.

But the feeling of “I love this” is something people want to keep within reach.

Turning that feeling into paper, cards, booklets, packaging, finishing, and an unboxing experience—that’s what printing companies have always been good at.

As I scanned the world’s information with AI, I found myself thinking it again.

Printing isn’t only a technology for carrying information.

It’s a technology for giving human energy a form you can touch.

Sources consulted

• The Verge | Why are people buying so many CDs?
• San Francisco Chronicle | CD sales are surging again, with help from BTS and K-pop collectors
• NME | Growth in CD sales outpaces vinyl in the US for the first half of 2026
• Warner Music Japan | Weezer Japan domestic edition external bonus / enclosed bonus
• Bushiroad | Palworld Official Card Game related announcements
• Palworld OFFICIAL CARD GAME | Product information
• Reuters | US judge approves Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement of copyright lawsuit

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