Coming off a successful Black Friday edition of Record Store Day, and in the midst of a streaming explosion, music aficionados and casual fans alike might think compact discs have disappeared completely. Au contraire. While sales of the format have fallen off considerably, demand for CDs in some markets is actually exceeding supply as the industry scrambles to adjust to the changing needs of consumers.

According to a recent piece by Forbes, much of the manufacturing of CDs has moved to Mexico as major labels have divested in the format, and the output has decreased in the transition leading to longer lead times and some unanticipated shortages. Demand for CDs might surprise you. As Billboard reports, recent impressive CD Album units such as the soundtrack for A Star Is Born (111,000), Eminem's Kamikaze (68,000) and Greta Van Fleet's Anthem Of the Peaceful Army (47,000) have all sold well—or at least better than some industry experts might have guessed.

In fact, CD versions of some recent albums are selling out quickly, according to Forbes. And while the circumstances around CD manufacturing are partially responsible for this, there is still—and perhaps will always be—a niche market for the format.

But CDs still face a challenge and the numbers don't lie. The RIAA's mid-year outlook reported a 46.9 percent drop in units compared to the first six months of 2017. One glaring cause of the format's inability to compete is tied to genre. As hip-hop and R&B have recently eclipsed rock to become the most popular types of music with consumers, the major titles and artists in those genres have ignored the CD, with over half of the 25 hip-hop/R&B albums debuting in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 still without CD versions months after their release, according to Billboard. Of course, music retailers can't sell what they can't buy.

“If we had CDs on those albums, the [format’s] sales numbers would tell a different story,” Newbury Comics head of purchasing Carl Mello tells Billboard. “When 90 percent of the most popular music [hip-hop] in America doesn't show up on CD, of course sales will be down. Duh.”

Pop artists such as Adele and Taylor Swift continue to sell CDs, with the latter's latest album Reputation moving a total of 1.16 million copies as of two months ago, and Neilson Music sales numbers actually paints a more favorable picture for the format's decline. But with major retailers like Best Buy throwing in the towel on CDs this past July, it is unclear how much longer any artist will be able to break one million in CD sales.

The good news for CD lovers? Billboard also reports about 1,800 independent record stores carrying CDs, catering to the niche market for the format, with rock as the strongest genre. While compact discs may never enjoy the resurgence of vinyl, or even that of the cassette, the latest word from the shelves is they are not dead yet.

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