Even so, the market for downloadable music and digital music players is potentially lucrative.

Additionally, downloadable music, audio books and eBooks are available 24/7 from computers with Internet access.

Two of the biggest items on the Web in the last year were downloadable music - legal or otherwise - and shopping.

But freeing listeners from the computer has long been considered vital if downloadable music is to be embraced by mainstream consumers.

Though the compact disc still lives, downloadable music is threatening to make the record album history.

And young people view downloadable music as just another way to listen to what they want to hear.

Since last year, the Internet has seen an explosion of legally downloadable music by prominent artists.

But now, with downloadable music on the Internet, is such art headed for obsolescence?

It was among the first labels to experiment with selling downloadable music.

The Internet consumers have already chosen the operating system for downloadable music.