The resurgence of physical media is starting to sound like old news. We’ve been reporting on the artists and trends behind rising vinyl sales for almost a decade, while 2024 was, according to Music Week, the first year in more than two decades to see overall physical sales register year-on-year growth.
In the same year, a survey by Key Production showed that a greater proportion of Gen Z was listening to music in physical formats than any other age group.
Since then, physical revivals have blossomed in the strangest of places. In 2025, for instance, cassette sales rose by 200 per cent and companies such as We Are Rewind and Gadhouse released brand-new cassette players, infusing old tech with modern twists such as Bluetooth and USB-C charging.
US vinyl sales also hit $1 billion in 2025, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, with a significant proportion of sales coming from Gen Z customers.
An Audio Tech Lifestyles report from Futuresource Consulting even reported that nearly 60 per cent of Gen Z were buying vinyl – even though almost 30 per cent of respondents didn’t own a turntable.
Connor Winyard, a 28-year-old sales assistant at Sister Ray Records, London, says the store’s customer base is “a half-and-half split between Gen Z and people of older generations”.
Speculating on what motivates Gen Z to buy physical formats, Winyard says, “I’d like to think it’s because people are increasingly disassociating from subscription models and are tired of not being able to physically own anything. That’s definitely how I feel about it. But I think younger buyers mainly either want to put CDs in their cars or just think that they are cool items to own.”
Ashli Todd, owner of Spillers Records in Cardiff, believes Gen Z’s motivations for buying vinyl have more to do with impact on artists.
“I think the message about physical music being a far more beneficial way to support an artist is really getting through,” she says. “The rough deal that artists get from streaming services has been much discussed in the press, and rightly so. It’s very much a heart-on-the-sleeve sort of situation. You come across people who are collecting records before they’ve had a chance to buy a record player.”
As a Zoomer myself, I can attest to my generation’s growing appetite for physical media. In the flats of countless friends, modest record collections have been cobbled together from parental hand-me-downs and record-store trips. In my own house-share, a communal collection has steadily grown to fairly respectable numbers.
So if Gen Z is leading the rise of physical sales, what impact is that having on the charts?
Take a look at this week’s vinyl albums chart: at number one sits 26-year-old Maisy Peters, shortly followed by Yungblud, at the ripe old age of 28. This week’s top ten also includes The Roystone Club (who are all in their mid-20s and, notably, made their 2025 debut album available on cassette), Bleachers, Olivia Dean, Hayley Williams and Marmozets.
The closest we come to a legacy offering is Ed O’Brien’s new album Blue Morpho at number four, and Paddington – The Musical’s cast recording, which, frankly, I’m unsure how to categorise.
Compare this with the same period’s chart from 2024, and the differences are stark. The top ten at that time saw Paul Weller, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac and Lenny Kravitz all holding dominant positions.
Looking to the best-selling vinyl albums list for 2026, the trend is only reinforced. So far this year, Harry Styles and Olivia Dean have occupied the top two, while Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, and Geese have all made it into the top ten.
Admittedly, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Arctic Monkeys’ AM have survived the changing tides in sales, but those are the only two top-ten albums more than a year old. They are also nostalgic favourites among Gen Z.
In contrast, 2024’s best-selling vinyl albums chart saw the likes of Oasis, Fleetwood Mac, the Cure and Coldplay in its top ten – a far higher proportion of older acts.
These shifts have a real effect on the ground. At Spillers Records, for instance, Gen Z’s tastes have started to inform stock choices. “Record Store Day has helped to give us confidence in stocking artists like Olivia Dean, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish,” says Todd. She explains that Dean’s Live at the BBC 7-inch Record Store Day release was “huge” for the store.
“We’ve seen repeat custom from people who might not otherwise have thought about going to their local independent record shop,” says Todd. “Those artists being involved with Record Store Day gives us confidence in what we stock and also gives certain customers confidence in coming into their local indie, which probably isn’t what they’re used to.”
We can’t be sure if the records Gen Z buy are making it onto turntables, but it seems that the generation’s taste for physical media is nonetheless having a palpable impact on the way music sells.
Whether these vinyl discs end up bluetacked to bedroom walls, or played until their grooves wear down, increased physical sales means greater payouts to artists and retailers alike – byproducts that are pretty hard to sniff at.
Could it be that after an adolescence invaded by screens and ever more pervasive social media, Gen Z is returning to record stores in order to sate a craving for a real-world, tactile connection? In doing so, they might be keeping music alive.
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