Declining sales of CDs over the past decade may indicate a grim future for music shops, but Ikuo Minewaki believes there is still a place for brick and mortar retail outlets.

"CDs are no longer items that you can leave on the store shelf and expect customers to purchase," Minewaki, CEO of Tower Records Japan Inc., said in a speech Friday in Tokyo at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.

Retail music chains "need to do what Amazon and other online retailers can't" to compete with them, he said.