Minidisc Sales Just Outpaced CDs for the First Time Since 1998
Independent retailers moved more minidiscs than CDs in the second quarter, and three quarters of them were blanks.
Minidisc outsold the compact disc across independent music retailers in the second quarter of 2026, the first time the format has led since 1998.
Figures published on Friday by the Independent Format Retailers Association put minidisc at 412,000 units against 397,000 CDs across the 1,140 shops that report to it. Both remain far behind vinyl, and both are a rounding error beside streaming. The association attributes most of the swing to blank recordable discs rather than pre-recorded releases: 74 per cent of minidisc units sold in the quarter were blanks, bought overwhelmingly by bands and small labels assembling short runs by hand.
"We expected this line to cross next year, not this one," said IFRA analyst Marco Belli, adding that the association has revised its 2027 projection upward and now expects blank media supply, not demand, to be the constraint.
We covered the revival in 2025, back when a working recorder cost 150 euros. It does not any more, and Friday's numbers explain why.
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