While the roll-out of broadband Internet access to Asian users is helping, low bandwidth per user remains the greatest impediment to online music downloads.
Most users still access the Internet from relatively slow connections.
In addition, the wanton piracy of physical format music is another major barrier to converting physical format music users. The environment for online sales of physical format music is currently much more accommodating. IDC's survey of 40,000 Asian Internet users that year indicated that music CDs and cassettes were the second most common selling products online in Asia after books. The physical music format will remain dominant, but digital music downloads will be the fastest growing segment of the market. As the online music industry takes shape, record labels will need to develop innovative strategies to evolve with a rapidly changing market environment .