Do You Do Digital?

While classic rock may be holding its own when measured by sales of CDs, vinyl LPs and concert tickets, the genre was near the bottom of the list of music acquired by legal digital downloading in 2008.

According to the reigning authority on cybermusic sales, Nielsen SoundScan, you can almost count the number of classic rock songs on their Top 200 song downloads on the fingers of one hand. By contrast, artists like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd and Metallica dominated vinyl LP sales in 2008.

This suggests that classic rock fans are more concerned about audio quality than convenience, and/or that part of the attraction lies in being able to see the album cover art and touch the physical medium (CD or vinyl) on which the music resides.

Only a small handful of classic rock songs were downloaded enough times to be counted among the digital elite. In order of rank and number of times downloaded:

• "Don't Stop Believing" (Listen/Download) - Journey
  #65 - 1,821,000
  From Escape (Compare CD Prices, Vinyl LP) released 1981
  Digital sales took off after it was used in the final episode of The Sopranos
• "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Listen/Download) - Queen
  From A Night At The Opera (Compare CD Prices, Vinyl LP) released 1975
  #118 - 1,348,000
  Song reached Top 10 twice, in 1976 and in 1991 after lead singer/songwriter Freddie Mercury died of AIDS

• "Sweet Home Alabama" (Listen/Download) - Lynyrd Skynyrd
  #119 - 1,346,000
  From Second Helping (Compare CD Prices, Vinyl LP) released 1974
  The oldest song on the download list, it didn't hurt that a popular 2002 movie had the same name
• "Eye Of The Tiger" (Listen/Download) - Survivor
  #155 - 1,306,000
  From Eye Of The Tiger (Compare CD Prices, Vinyl LP) released 1982
  Originally written for the film Rocky III, it won an Oscar nomination, a GRAMMY, and a People's Choice Award
• "We Will Rock You" (Listen/Download) - Queen
  #165 - 1,168,000
  From News Of The World (Compare CD Prices, Vinyl LP) released 1977
  Its infectious stomp-stomp-clap rhythm track makes it a perennial favorite at sporting events
• "Hotel California" (Listen/Download) - Eagles
  Just out of the Top 200 with 1,008,000 downloads
  From Hotel California (Compare CD Prices, Vinyl LP) released 1976
  Fans interpreted the lyrics to mean many things, but co-writer Don Henley recently told 60 Minutes that it was "about excess in America, something we knew a lot about."

While it's likely that many classic rock fans rip their CD collections to take advantage of the MP3's easy portability, it doesn't seem likely that digital will ever be the genre's dominant medium any time soon.

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