Dubai: As tangible music products begin to transform into bits and bytes of music files, music lovers debate the fate of the CD.
Those working in music stores insist that CDs are sticking around for a while.
"CDs will never die," said Virgin Store Manager Charlie Al Hayek. "Whenever you buy something and it's not there in your hands, it's not real for you. People like to come in and browse."
It is the experience of wanting the actual CD, owning the cover, the small booklet with lyrics and information about the artist, the special edition and stacking the CDs on a shelf at home that makes CDs special and bound to last, Al Hayek said. He added that buying from online music stores was impractical because if your hard-drive crashed you would lose hundreds of dollars worth of music and it has to be purchased again if you do not have back-up.
Frederic Copper-Royer, Music Manager for Nokia Middle East and North Africa, said that it is difficult to determine the fate of CDs because their older counterparts, vinyl records, are making a surprise comeback as a niche market in Europe now.
"Buy your CD and enjoy. As long as it's not a pirated CD — we all the know the DVD lady that comes to our building from time to time," he said.
"We will convince people that our model is better for them."
