Listen up: A great local business is evolving as it battles competition from the Internet. This story is a preview from the December issue of North Idaho Business Journal, which will be distributed next Tuesday in The Press.

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With Boots the shelter kitty purring on a desk top and classic rock rumbling in the background, Deon Borchard explains why the Internet has taken such a profound bite out of the retail music industry.

And it has little to do with the online sale of CDs.

“We’ve got two generations now that have never actually heard what music is supposed to sound like,” said Borchard, whose family owns The Long Ear on Fourth Street in Coeur d’Alene. “They’re downloading everything to their iPhones and they’re listening to it with earbuds. It’s so compressed, they’re not actually hearing the music the way it was designed to be listened to.”

While The Long Ear has survived 40 years in Coeur d’Alene, Borchard isn’t taking the next 40 days for granted. Long Ear has teamed up with an organization called CIMS — Coalition of Independent Music Stores — and the results are paying off.

Borchard said the store, which started with 400 records, 88 eight-track tapes and three cassette tapes, still offers the Inland Northwest’s greatest selection of records and CDs. The Long Ear boasts 18,000 separate music titles.

“People come in from all over the country, from Canada, and find on our floor things they’ve been looking for for years,” she said.

If all those hard copies are the business’s continent, then CIMS is helping Long Ear create a host of islands around the mainland. All along the Long Ear walls are clothing, handbags, posters, scarves, hats, and many other custom-made items from near and far. Fair trade and affordable prices are primary goals.

“We’re gearing up to be Coeur d’Alene’s go-to place for unique gifts and lifestyle products,” Borchard said. “It’s breathing fresh air into the business because we’re always evolving. We need to, because with the other CIMS members, we’re all under the same anvil of the Internet.”

In the meantime, with the 50 or so other CIMS members, she’s brainstorming ways not just to duel the Internet, but to train a new generation of real music lovers.

While talking about her business with NIBJ, Borchard came up with a path toward that possible reality: Having The Long Ear host “listening parties.” The idea is to open the doors to people and provide seating while they hear tracks played the way they’re meant to be played — on quality stereo equipment.

“It would be wonderful to re-introduce physical media to the public, and we’re all trying to figure out ways to do it,” she said.

A confessed “audiophile” like her husband, Borchard said they have two 7-foot tall speakers at home that can do the job. They’ve also got two others that are 6 feet tall and weigh about 300 pounds.

“They’re not hearing this,” she said of the music playing in Long Ear’s back office. “This is a pretty inexpensive stereo by our standards, but you can really hear the difference.

“It’s an immersing-type experience. There’s times you listen to music and it brings you to tears.”

The Long Ear doesn’t have a website but you can check out its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thelongear

Better still, go into the store at 2405 N. Fourth St. and hear for yourself. If they don’t have the music you want, they can often have it for you within 24 hours.