Remember those discs that came in a plastic case that contained your favorite artist’s latest music, called CDs? Well not too long ago, those same CDs seemed to be on their way out, replaced by their flashy new age competitor, the mp3. Gone were the days of going to the store and tearing open the newly released package.

For the past several years, physical album sales have been on the decline with 2010 being notably the worst. According to Nielsen Soundscan, 2010 was the lowest total year-end album sales since tracking began in 1991 with sales of just 326.2 million. With album sales continuing to drop while mp3 downloads skyrocketed across the board, the future of CDs looked all too grim.

Fast forward to 2011, and an entirely different picture is being painted in the musical landscape.

For the first time in four years, album sales are on the rise, up over three percent to 222.93 million, compared to 215.76 million at the same point last year. The most recent tracking shows that this is the 18th consecutive week of growth for albums to date, according to Billboard, the music industry’s bible.

The growth can be attributed to blockbuster albums by Adele. Her album “21” is by far the biggest-selling album of the year since its February release with 3.5 million copies sold so far, and counting. Along with Adele, others have achieved great chart success with their albums. Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” broke the million copies barrier within its first week of release, and Lil Wayne saw his “The Carter IV” shift over 900,000 in its initial release week.

Local record shop Finders, located in downtown Bowling Green, has also seen their business increase with students flooding the shop for the latest albums.

“It’s difficult to track actual numbers because everything is done by hand, but we had a pretty busy summer comparatively,” said store manager Laura Fredericks.

Finders has followed the trend of album sales across the country, according to Fredericks.

“Adele has been our biggest seller of the year,” she said.

The record store has also seen huge traffic for albums by Florence + the Machine and Kanye West.

As a result of increased sales, Fredericks has high expectations for fall and winter.

“It’s going to be a very good fall and winter for us,” Fredericks said.

Interestingly enough, another music format is also increasing in numbers.

“Vinyl has been very popular this year as well,” Fredericks said.

As they gear up for music’s fourth quarter releases, Finders is prepared for even more business with the holiday season looming closer.

This renewed interested in purchasing albums includes University sophomore Nicole Anderson.

“I’ve bought way more CDs this year,” Anderson said. “More albums appealed to me this time than they did last year, I guess.”

Some of her purchases this year include Adele’s “21,” Britney Spears’ “Femme Fatale,” and Jennifer Lopez’s “Love?” Anderson expects to buy even more albums this year, as some of her favorite artists are releasing new music.

“Coldplay has a new album coming out, and Rihanna; those are the two I look forward to buying most,” Anderson said.

While the music industry is enjoying its first influx in four years, some University students aren’t joining the trend. Case in point, University junior Scott Flowers, who believes this is just a temporary trend.

“Nobody really buys CDs anymore, at least none of my friends do,” Flowers said. “They’re bulky and overpriced.”

Flowers said, “Adele only sings sad, slow songs and a lot of people are sad, so they buy her music.”

Flowers prefers downloading mp3s over buying full albums.

“Record companies want you to spend your money on a whole CD; mp3s are better because you can just choose the songs you want,” he said.

With fall releases from some of music’s biggest acts, as well as a seasonal holiday album from Justin Bieber, the recording industry looks to cap off a successful year with more robust sales to come.