Yet surprisingly in January 2009, the LA Times reported compact disc sales still make up the majority of the music industry’s revenue. People must like trudging to the store and struggling with that super-sealed plastic wrap. Go figure.

Well here’s a big reason to stop: a new study has found that downloading music could be better for the environment than buying compact discs!

Comparing the emissions produced by the most popular types of music purchases, academics from Carnegie Mellon and Stanford University concluded that digital downloads could reduce 40 – 80% of the carbon dioxide emissions that occur through retail CD purchases. Surprising? Consider how much energy and resources it takes to produce, package, ship and then sell a CD at a retail store. The study claims that just downloading the music and burning it to a CD-R could reduce retail “best-case scenario” emissions up to 40%.

So the next time you’re ready for some new tunes for that romantic evening or for a kicked-up workout, consider keeping it digital. There are a wide variety of online music stores that carry a larger digital collection than a standard retail store and they even suggest new songs to sample based on your search and purchase history.

No credit card in hand? Create a free station on Pandora or Last.fm by just entering any of your favorite artists or songs. The music industry executives and your CD collection may not like it, but the environment will.

For more info, check out the article The Carbon Case for Downloading Music from the New York Times.

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