Somehow, someway, the compact disc has managed to become the cockroach following the nuclear blast of digital music. Sure, CD sales have dropped significantly over the years, but they still account for 80 percent of total music sales.

Perhaps our friends in the recording industry can explain why. In a report released in the summer of 2007, the Recording Industry Association of America touted the new average price of CDs to about $14.90. Seeing as CDs started retailing around $21, the drop of about 8 bucks seems like a good deal.

Except that, of course, that figure is only impressive if you don’t buy music. For the consumer who ends up in a store in a non-holiday season, the most popular albums are often between $16 to $19 and will make up the bulk of CD sales.

Then there are online prices. Ninety-nine cents a track or between $8 to $10 per album from iTunes, or as low as 30 cents a track from eMusic. Napster lets you transfer unlimited songs to your MP3 player for $15, but burnable tracks will cost you extra.

And then of course, there’s the very accessible black market.

Yet, the CD market hasn’t collapsed. It holds most of the music market. And they cost more on average? So what’s so great about the CD?

While most people buy individual albums based on their personal tastes, the value of music itself comes down to a few factors. We’ll assume that after meeting a certain threshold of vocal and instrumental competence, quality isn’t a factor in price.

Demand is. However, and this seems to have been the main force for driving prices up to this point. Bigger bands release bigger albums, and the labels plaster all the MySpace accounts, billboards and radio stations with promos for that album. In fact, when you spend that much on advertising, you have to charge a higher price just so your return pays off.

While that accounts for the higher end of prices for albums, it doesn’t explain why the average price is still so high compared to digital sales. RIAA may tout lower prices now compared to 1983, but the fact is that despite the precipitous fall in demand for CDs since the advent of Napster and the MP3, CD prices have increased about $2 on average and real prices adjusted for inflation have only dropped 9 percent since 1996.

And yet, album prices on iTunes have hovered at the same $9.99 average since its inception.

So why is that price gap not closing? Some might argue that physical purchases still hold more value than MP3 files, but they’re only half right. It’s not a matter of art or liner notes as the old vinyl enthusiasts would harp about.

In reality, true demand and, thereby, price, is determined by music’s portability. And right now, CDs are far more portable than MP3s.

I know what you’re thinking: You’re full of shit. iPods are everywhere and you can’t walk down a busy street without finding someone with buds in their ears.

And yet, CDs still account for 80 percent of all music sales. Who can you blame that on?

Well, Apple, for one. The iPod has saturated the market and easily became the dominant MP3 player. But even if you make the songs cheaper, you’re still paying a significant amount to have that format of portability. And for most people who buy an iPod, it’s not about buying and playing MP3s — it’s about converting their CDs to MP3s and having everything in one pocket-sized form. In that sense, Apple needs to focus on making its iTunes store more accessible, and demand for digital sales and iPods will increase.

But consumers still have those CDs. And those CDs, unlike vinyl or tapes, are transferable. And there are still plenty of formats ready to accept them and convert them.

And while portable CD players are being outsold by iPods and the like, most American cars still come with CD players and omit any port for an MP3 player.

But the fact of the matter is that CDs are pricier right now because it’s a hassle for most Americans to truck around digital music when older consumers don’t quite know how to do that. As the populace becomes more computer literate, this concern will drop off somewhat, but that won’t render compact discs obsolete, just less attractive.

The only way that digital music increases its market share or prices is if the supporting industries, such as automakers, audio hardware makers and retailers, make the switch themselves. And right now, no one is in the mood for a massive shift in business models — even if they should be.

Jason Smathers ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in history and journalism.