Music CD units shipped in the US

As music CD shipments have collapsed, self-storage facilities have multiplied, a correlation of -0.985 that suggests Americans are not storing their CD collections—they are replacing them with storage units full of other things. The CDs disappear into obsolescence, the storage units appear on every suburban corner, and the chart traces the transition from one form of American accumulation to another with the archival precision of a facility that charges by the square foot.

CD shipments declined from about 600 million units in 2005 to under 40 million by 2011, destroyed by digital music and streaming. Storage facilities grew from about 44,000 to about 48,000 during the same seven-year window. Both trends are about stuff: Americans stopped buying physical music (fewer CDs) but kept buying other physical things that needed storing (more storage units). The CD died because it was replaced by digital files; the storage unit thrived because everything else remained stubbornly physical.

Seven years of CDs and storage units is a story about the selective digitization of American life: music went digital, but furniture, clothes, and holiday decorations did not, and the storage industry absorbed the difference. The CD was replaced by a file. Everything else was replaced by a storage unit. The disc is scratched. The rent is due.