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\n\tK-pop fans have fueled an unusual surge in physical album sales in 2026 according to Luminate\u2019s midyear report<\/a>. Fans of BTS<\/a>, Enhypen<\/a>, and Ateez<\/a> notably showed out in droves at stores like Target and Walmart to buy their favorite artists\u2019 albums. The burst in interest was most notable with CD sales, which are up 16 percent this year; K-pop albums accounted for nearly 10 percent of that figure.<\/p>\n \n\tBTS\u2019 Arirang <\/em>has sold 567,000 CDs so far this year, while Enhypen\u2019s The Sin: Vanish <\/em>sold 286,400 CDs and Ateez\u2019s Golden Hour: Part 4<\/em> sold 263,000 CDs. The report mentions that about half of Gen Z and millennial consumers who buy CDs do not own a CD player, showing that compact discs are now affordable novelties to some. Arirang <\/em>topped Luminate\u2019s both vinyl and CD sales charts.<\/p>\n \n\tCoupled with streaming numbers for K-pop and the Latin explosion in recent years, the dominance of English-language music is on the decline. Anglophone music now represents only 87.1 percent of streams with Spanish songs accounting for 9.4 percent and Korean music holding steady from fiscal year 2025 at 1.1 percent. Bad Bunny\u2019s Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos<\/em> accounts for 1.54 million album-equivalent streams this year, while BTS\u2019 Arirang <\/em>accounts for 1.49 million. Arirang <\/em>alone made South Korea the world\u2019s third largest music exporter behind the U.S. and U.K. respectively.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cCasual U.S. listenership of Latin music has hit an all-time high, with 54% \u2014 or more than one in two music listeners \u2014 now reporting that they engage with the genre,\u201d Jaime Marconette, Luminate\u2019s vice president of music insights and industry relations, told The Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cLatin music\u2019s cultural footprint is rapidly widening far beyond its traditional core base into the broader American mainstream.\u201d<\/p>\n