If you love music – any kind of music, as the song goes – you are likely loving your social media feeds lately.
That's because users have been posting mosaics made up of beloved record albums across online networks from BlueSky to X. The viral phenomenon comes courtesy of an online tool called My9Albums, which lets you create a "poster" from the cover art of nine albums.
After creating their own posters, music lovers have been sharing them on TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, Substack, BlueSky and Threads.
Since My9Albums went operational on Sept. 28, more than 280,000 posters have been created, says Nahue Alberti, chief technology and ideas officer for Paisanos, a studio in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Persons from more than 190 countries have created posters,
with more than one-third of them in the U.S., he told USA TODAY.
A music lover himself, Alberti had been seeing these "my 9 something" challenges on social media, "but couldn't find something like this for music, so I decided to build it," he said. "I've always loved music. A huge part of who I am today was shaped by the things I listened to growing up, the artists I discovered, and the albums that stayed with me."
You can select the albums that "shaped you" from more than 2.3 million albums. "It's not necessarily about picking your nine favorite albums," Alberti said. "It's about choosing the nine albums that made you who you are."
The most selected albums so far are Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon," followed by "OK Computer" by Radiohead; "Abbey Road," The Beatles; "Nevermind," Nirvana; and "Disintegration," The Cure.
How to post your own My9Albums
- Go to the MyAlbums website.
- Search for the nine albums you want to include, filling the nine slots with thumbnail art of the covers.
- Choose a background.
- Hit the "Create a Poster" button.
- Once it's created you have several options – download a copy, post it to X, share it to various programs including Microsoft Outlook and Teams, or save a link.
Picking My9Albums can be tough
Many who posted their My9Albums have also mentioned in their online chatter how hard it was to narrow their choices down.
Music reviewer Mark Smotroff couldn't stop at one My9Albums posters, so he made three and merged them in a Facebook post. "So, yeah, this My9Albums meme generator thingie is addictive and impossibly unsatisfying limited to just 9 albums," he said. "Initially I did 18 but then realized there were more 70s/80s albums which needed to be listed so now I'm up to 27 (Note: I have not repeated any artists here and have kept to rock titles only… folk, jazz, blues, classical would be a whole other pandora's box)."
Music enthusiasts may get as much out of others' My9Albums as they do in compiling their own. "It made me go through a bunch of albums in my mind to see which could be included. Then I look at other people's choices with albums I didn't even consider that could have easily been in there. To be honest, I could have a 100 or more that really could fit on there," said public relations manager Kevin Clement, who also posted his My9Albums on Facebook. "The fun part is there's no wrong answers and this exercise has made me want to revisit many of the albums on pretty much everyone's lists."
Vinyl LPs and CDs showcased in My9Albums
The My9Albums challenge arrives as physical music albums are seeing an uptick even as streaming music dominates the $11.5 billion U.S. recorded music marketplace.
Vinyl LP sales, which had dwindled to $8.6 million in 2005, continue a 20-year resurgence, surpassing $1 billion, in 2025, an increase of 9.3%, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Music CD sales, which hit a low of $270 million in 2022 have sold more in subsequent years, were up 16% in the first half of 2026, according to entertainment industry data firm Luminate. (Some of the bump is attributed to sales K-pop bands' CD releases.)
Adding to physical media's allure is the album art found on vinyl LP jackets, which measure slightly larger than 12 inches by 12 inches, and, to a lesser extent, CDs.
"What makes me happiest isn't necessarily the numbers, though. It's seeing people from completely different parts of the world using something I made to express who they are," Alberti said. "And even better, seeing it spark conversations. We don't always talk about our personal tastes in everyday life. But when someone shares nine albums that define them, it's almost an invitation to get to know them better."
Alberti has already expanded what he called "a fun little idea I wanted to bring into the world."You can now post your favorite nine movies and favorite nine video games.
We broke the internet with my9albums. Now it’s time for films.
— Nahue Alberti (@nays1_) October 4, 2026
Some films stay with you forever. So I made my9films.
Pick the 9 films that shaped you, turn them into a poster, and share it.https://t.co/ku1r0k5xwo pic.twitter.com/I7dAQBtBjG
Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: My9Albums, a viral meme for sharing favorite vinyl, CD music
