The music industry is rapidly evolving, moving from a time when sales were guaranteed and the Internet and file-sharing didn’t exist to a future with multiple revenue strands coming from all directions. Many people think digital downloads are the future of the business, but it seems that the majority of people still prefer buying and using physical formats.

The iPod and personal media players, as well as the Internet, changed the way we think about and consume music. All of a sudden it wasn’t a physical commodity like a vinyl record or audio tape but an electronic file to be shared and stored.

The music industry has struggled to accept this change, being slow to take advantage of digital downloads and streaming music services. Only now is it starting to embrace the obvious future. But it seems consumers are also resistant to the change.

According to The Telegraph, a recent survey of 1,000 music lovers by MusicAlly showed that the vast majority still prefer buying CDs to digital downloads. A whopping 73 percent of the people questioned are still happy buying CDs. And this isn’t a generational thing either as a still impressive 66 percent 14-to-18 year olds prefer CDs to digital formats.

Tim Walker, chief executive of The Leading Question, the research division responsible for carrying out the survey, said:

Digital is still the future but rumors of the death of the CD are premature. The continued popularity of the CD should be looked upon as an opportunity. We believe that labels and online stores could and should be doing more to build on music fans’ familiarity with CDs to provide them with additional digital content and to use the CD as a bridge into the digital world. Music fans have spoken and digital is evidently not the clear cut replacement to the physical CD.

Interestingly, the same people who stream music online from a paid source such as Napster are the ones spending more money on CDs every month. So rather than one method of listening to music replacing another, it seems as though music lovers will consume music in any and every way possible.

At the end of last year, there were calls from some parties for the music industry to ditch the CD altogether in favor of a totally digital future. But as I said at the time, you cannot enforce your will on market forces as that just builds resentment on the part of the consumers you are trying to sell to. Which doesn’t help either side.

Digital downloads are clearly the future, for games, television, and movies as well as for music, but it’ll take time for us all to abandon the physical formats we’re used to using. There’s an indescribable feeling you get from purchasing a new CD, video game, or DVD that you just don’t experience with a digital download. Until that fades then CDs and the like are here to stay.

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Entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 1:40 am under Music, Opinion, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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