Sony and Philips (the parents of the CD) were doing this while they were at the same time part of the music industry as such. They didn't resist the CD, they pretty much invented it. It's possible that otherwise another entity would have come up with a practical digital format but without the support of the music industry such a format would have surely failed, especially because initially there were no recordable optical media, which is what you need if you want to introduce a new format without having access to a very large catalogue of music.