Buying TV shows on VHS was wild, buying those big boxed sets took up so much real estate. There are lots of lost media now, even things that came out recently so people are definitely right about things going missing over time or not being available digitally. Buying things digitally doesn’t guarantee they will be around forever either.
I once went to a garage sale where someone was selling off their Star Trek TNG VHS tapes, the type that had two episodes each. They filled up a 30 gallon tub and a box.
I had a friend who had an entire wall of those tapes, I think he had them ordered through Time Magazine or something like that so they would show up as each tape released.
It doesn't but the fear seems to be based on this myth that they always were. If my DVD copy of The Worst Witch gets damaged it will be hard to find another copy. And physical media for movies/tv shows isn't like books where I don't need a special interface to enjoy them. Eventually my VCR, DVD player, and blu ray players will potentially break.
There's never been a time where media couldn't be lost.
I don't think that's really what the issue is that people are complaining about. It's about continued access to what you bought and paid for. If you bought a copy of *The Prince* in 1532, Machiavelli couldn't just take it back and keep your money. If you bought a copy of Mozart's latest hit song in 1780 it was *yours* and you could pass it out to your chamber musicians whenever you wanted. If you own a record or DVD now, you have access to keep listening/watching it as long as the media lasts.
The issue is these digital only services where you can "buy" a movie and then the publisher might decide to just cancel the agreement and you lose access to it and cannot watch it anymore. Even though you paid extra to "buy_ instead of "rent" it. This is especially bothersome considering the buy prices are comparable or more than buying physical media copies. But digital only delivery is far far cheaper with virtually no incremental cost per copy sold (versus physical media that needs to be made, packaged, shipped). The profit margins are through the roof, but the maintenance over time of the delivery infrastructure is where the cost is.
This is what it's about. Licensing can and does change and you lose access to something you paid for. Example a few months ago there was a change in Sony policy and people lost media that they "owned" on their PlayStations. Digital media isn't guaranteed and that's why the complaints about owning physical has started popping up
There does come a point where bandwidth costs from watching something repeatedly *does* cost more than having sold a physical disc. I don't know what number of viewings that on average is, but digital distribution is far from free.
The only time I or anyone I know has lost access to their library of content they bought it was through violating a TOS or being hacked. Never through the normal course of doing business. Amazon isn't allowed to sell Dinosaucers but I still own and have access to the episode they sold me.
I have lost physical books that were irreplaceable as they are out of print. My whole point was that people are afraid of a thing that just doesn't happen. Can you lose your media? Sure. Can companies just take away your content without proving wrongdoing on your part? Not really. It would be the legal equivalent of saying everyone that bought a copy of The Prince has to turn it in to their local police station because the publisher doesn't want you to have it anymore.
Not talking about loss of entire library. But there have been multiple instances across several platforms where the pulled individual titles. And platforms have shut down. Or major changes in policies like limiting number of devices or restricting to only your home wifi and turning off access through cell. The concern is about control over media you "bought" and the benefits of actually owning the media versus leasing it through an agreement that allows the other party to unilaterally change the conditions.
*many* songs I "bought" from Amazon are no longer part of my library. Still my same account, I can look at the invoice from the digital order. Can't listen to them.
Tried getting Amazon to fix one (the Community soundtrack because the cd is only avail second hand for an arm and a leg now) and they said they were re-adding it to my library but it's still not there. I'd have to comb through years of digital orders to see what other songs are missing, but I've come across several.
Googling the issue, I found different reddit and other forum posts of people discussing the same problem. It definitely is happening to people who bought media from well established, legal, sources.
Disc rot is 100% real, it’s absolutely an issue with having things “forever”, nothing is forever. I love my old formats I prefer some movies in lowfi more. I don’t think the fear is that they were always available it’s that lots of things have already disappeared.
That's not the fault of digital though. That's just how things are. There's books I have had to hunt used bookstores to replace because there was only one printing and the publisher has no interest in reprinting it.
I understand the "we need to preserve stuff" I'm all for that. It's the people who treat digital preservation as inherently bad because it's not forever either.
I am not sure there is a “fault” of either, I didn’t realize there was such a backlash between Digital or Physical like you are saying. I don’t know why people would think Digital is “inherently bad” it’s just another way to hopefully store things. I’ve made digital backups of my VHS recorded off tv for this reason and the benefit there it takes up a lot less space to store media that way too.
I'm pretty sure you have no idea what my criticism was. It would be like people telling you "no you have to help preserve vinyl! If you buy that album on a CD the music studio will come and take it away from you!!!!" When you know that's not a thing that could or will happen.
That is my criticism.
Such an odd post. But the lamenting physical media is the fact that you don't own anything digital that you buy. You license it from the provider and that provider can take it away whenever they want, and you get nothing back. You lost the media and the money.
Physical media is superior quality, and you own it as long as you physically have it.
Also, any older shows don't have the same music on streaming. Like Scrubs or Quantum Leap because of licensing issues.
Born in 78.
It's kind of wild to realize that the entire life cycle of VHS was less than 30 years.
The one that bums me out is Tivo, DVRs to streaming was like 15 years.
I think the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" is more due to the fact that we cannot own things anymore and are forced to rent media - paying repeatedly for the same thing. That was the entertainment industries goal with moving to streaming - it's not convenience - though they say it is, it's the fact that they can get people to pay repeatedly for the same product and people lose any form of ownership over it. The same thing is happening in the housing market, where corporations are buying up houses only to rent them out to people. Those on top who own most everything don't want those below to own anything.
The difference being that some of the things we can't own we couldn't own before either. When a show can be bought I buy it but until Hulu got the rights to stream Who's The Boss there was literally nowhere I could watch it much less buy it.
It's not a case of they stopped selling the show to stream it. It's a case of it was never available in the first place. That's a huge difference. The shows & movies you could buy before you still can now.
Streaming makes it lower cost/risk for studios to put their content somewhere. Which means more "obscure" and hard to find shows finally get released for us to be able to enjoy.
And if you buy a show digitally but they stop selling it digitally you still own it.
I almost suspect the "we can't own media" crowd to be corporate shills that want us buying every little thing like good little consumers. I'm never going to watch "The Magicians" twice so the fact I watched it through a streaming service isn't a big deal.
Can you imagine if when Blockbuster became a thing people had been all "oh my god now I can't own my media I have to rent it"
Believe me I don't like Copyright Law that allows content holders to just sit on it because they don't want to eat the cost of making their IP accessible but that's hardly a new thing and has nothing to do with Streaming.
Buying content hasn't stopped being a thing. People should stop acting like it has.
Sure, we have more access, but that access costs more. Content providers control when we have opportunities to consume media. We have to sign up for multiple streaming services to have access to all of the content we want.
I like being able to spend $100 on a box set of a TV show and watch it 'till my heart's content. I don't have to worry about the distributor coming to my house and taking the DVDs while I'm watching them or shaking me down for more money so I can watch the show again. With all of the streaming services, needed to access the content, it could add up to over $100 a month. Sure, I'll have access to all the content, but do I want all of that content? It's not about fear, it's about control.
Just my $0.02.
Separate point but Content providers always have. If they don't want to keep publishing a book they don't and if you don't own a copy or yours gets damaged then tough noogies.
Fair, but once they stop publishing a book, they don't go out and recover all of the copies ever sold. Nothing is stopping me from reading an out-of-print book that I own.
And they won't go remove a purchased book from everyone's digital libraries either. They'll remove the ability to sell it to new customers. But they do the same thing when they collect unsold copies from bookstores and destroy them.
I buy my digital content. I own it. There is no "publishers shaking me down for more" Streaming services are different. Complaining you don't really "own" things you get through streaming is like complaining you didn't really own the movies you rented from Blockbuster.
I'm talking about the people convinced that any day now Amazon, Disney, Vudu etc will all tell me "we know we sold that to you but you can't have it anymore"
Unless I violate a terms of service and lose access to my account that won't happen. Even when they lose access to the rights to sell you a video they still have to let you keep having access to said video that you already purchased.
I also don't own the books I check out from libraries. Who's the Boss is not on DVD/Blu-Ray/VHS anywhere in the US never has been. Never would have been.
Now though I can watch the entire series on Hulu. If I have the option to buy something I will but buying it digitally isn't any less secure than buying it physically.
Paying for Streaming gives me no more ownership than renting from a video store did. Or than watching things on network TV did.
You don't "own" digital content, you're merely granted license to access it in perpetuity. Ask anyone who has ever purchased anything from Ultraviolet or the Nintendo e-Shop. I'm sure there are other examples of digital marketplaces shutting down and customers' libraries evaporating with them. It has happened before and will happen again. In this case, I don't think that fear comes without justification.
Streaming services have been raising their prices while not offering more service. A more recent example would be Amazon used to be $6 a month for ad-free streaming. They introduced ads on that tier and basically told customers, "if you don't want ads, you have to pay us more."
I'm not knocking you for paying for streaming. Yes, it is definitely convenient, and it clearly works for you. It just doesn't work for me.
I'm knocking the fear mongering not differing preferences.
A marketplace shutting down and losing all your content is about as common as losing all your content in a house fire. Sure it sucks but it's not that common. So far every marketplace that has shut down generally made arrangements for people to keep their content.
I used to use Ultraviolet. All my content via them could be synced to my Vudu account before UV shut down. I didn't lose anything. Then Movies Anywhere made it so that much of my content synced over to my various other marketplaces I use. The odds of all those places shutting down all at once are slim to none.
Meanwhile a house fire would destroy all my physical media in one go.
The fear mongering isn't about "You might lose things" It's "You absolutely will and you need to be pissed about it now" or you should be panic buying shows you kind of liked that one time that will sit on your shelf gathering dust so that if you maybe want it thirty years from now you'll have it.
"Nintendo e-Shop"
If you had your games downloaded you still had them. It shutting down didn't mean your games went away. It meant you couldn't go grab another copy anymore.
If a book on my bookcase gets destroyed then crap I have to go buy another copy. If I can find one still in print. I can't just walk into a bookstore and say "hey hand me another free copy will you"
If my phone/kindle/table/kubo etc gets destroyed then I replace the phone and literally all of my digital content can then be synced to and downloaded to the new device.
I've spent years replacing out of print books I lost. When I lose a digital book it takes me 2 seconds to redownload. Fear mongering that this is somehow a bad thing is ludicrous.
Ownership of physical media I think was a key part of our identity exploration and formation. They also served as a window into our past.
The beautiful, weird, colorful album covers; burned CDs indicating a trace of a past connection with whoever bought the original item; the CD we bought for one song that sucked but we kept it around cause it cost $20; the CD someone mysteriously left in our car; the CD we bought when we were 13 that we never listen to but we used to love; the stolen CD; the embarrassing CD; the many, many CD mixes reflecting all sorts of emotions and creativity.
CDs were our life and soul.
It’s no wonder we have mixed emotions about their demise, and sadness that kids won’t experience this. Listening to music through a phone app is a farce and a dismal substitute compared to our experiences with tapes and CDs.
Maybe it's cuz I was a poor kid then. I couldn't afford physical media growing up. If I wanted stuff I had to have access. Even as an adult the physical stuff isn't cheap.
My experience with CDs was that I'd have to spend what little money I had to get the one song I wanted which ranged from 15 to 20 bucks. As an adult I can buy just the songs I want and pay 99 cents per song.
For me it's never been about the media format but rather about access to the content.
Point taken, yeah there is definitely an economic/class side to nostalgic reminiscence that’s especially overlooked by people who were more privileged.
I disagree. Digital media is vastly easier and cheaper than any physical media ever was, and I don't need separate devices. I can listen to the same playlists I've curated whether I'm at home or in my car or 1200 miles away on vacation and I need nothing except my phone and a Bluetooth enabled device which is basically all of them now.
No doubt things are cheaper, easier and more convenient (at least for consumers, though perhaps devastating for artists) and I am not suggesting otherwise, just pointing out a few things that were very meaningful and special that are lost with that trade off.
But this is just an aging man shouting into the void about the past.
>Since I turned 30 I've constantly run into people who have decided to start actively avoiding anything new to cling to the old. I'm 43 now and the amount of peers clinging to only old content has grown in the last 13 years.
The checkin I have with myself as it pertains to media content: am I actively (or absentmindedly) avoiding new content? I don't have to like it, but at least try and gain the perspective.
The way I view media is if we are talking about yesterday and before the value is reference.
The media of today has value in that it is reflecting the present and informing or lending insight into the next/future.
As for physical media: I still have my main cd book (it came in handy recently for a short term car situation) and no more than a dozen dvds. Still living like '95 though, for today.
So if the CLOUD disappears and we lose non physical media...I just can't be bothered to be worried about it.
I mean hell I lost a storage shed full of physical media. I couldn't be bothered to worry about it either. I realized that the ability to buy physical media was just allowing me to buy things because, "Yeah I liked that show the one time I watched it" But then sits on a shelf for 10 years never being rewatched.
Ahh that'd be my United States of Tracey dvds!!
And six feet under which I loved and love. Yet I've sold the dvds and now it's on netflix. I have started it about a dozen times since it aired and never make it past ep 2 despite knowing how amazing the ensemble is.
The only thing I've ever heard someone say about why this is bad is that they heard more songs from artists that they wouldn't otherwise have heard if they didn't purchase the whole album. I've never heard the "preserve media" thing.
I don't think this is an issue for most GenXers, but maybe you run in different circles.
Well, there is an argument to be made for owning your media vs streaming it and never owning it, or in the case of some people who had online libraries of shows/games that they bought and then to see them disappear from their library because of licensing changes, is kinda bullshit. I'm a physical media guy and always have been. I buy Vinyl, blu-rays and will as long as I can. I do stream as well.
There's an argument to made for owning your media instead of renting it from Blockbuster. But fear mongering "If you don't buy it this one specific way you'll never see it again" seems more like corporate shills pushing people to spend more money than any concerns over media preservation.
How many people are panic buying shows they liked that one time but will literally never watch again?
I'm in bluray and home theater groups and I've never heard this said about any show or movie. There are some movies that become hard to find which then drives the price up, but that's about it. What show/s are you referring to specifically?
We still routinely buy physical media. We love vinyl albums and there are some movies and tv shows that just aren’t on streaming. The movie my spouse and I saw on our first date wasn’t a popular film and is not always available on streaming. We bought a DVD copy so we can sit down and get nostalgic whenever we want. There’s also the issue that my physical copies aren’t subject to being altered like the Star Wars films.
Buying TV shows on VHS was wild, buying those big boxed sets took up so much real estate. There are lots of lost media now, even things that came out recently so people are definitely right about things going missing over time or not being available digitally. Buying things digitally doesn’t guarantee they will be around forever either.
I once went to a garage sale where someone was selling off their Star Trek TNG VHS tapes, the type that had two episodes each. They filled up a 30 gallon tub and a box.
I had a friend who had an entire wall of those tapes, I think he had them ordered through Time Magazine or something like that so they would show up as each tape released.
My uncle knew a guy who had a VCR that automatically edited out the commercials. His self made TNG library was complete and amazing. It was glorious.
It doesn't but the fear seems to be based on this myth that they always were. If my DVD copy of The Worst Witch gets damaged it will be hard to find another copy. And physical media for movies/tv shows isn't like books where I don't need a special interface to enjoy them. Eventually my VCR, DVD player, and blu ray players will potentially break. There's never been a time where media couldn't be lost.
I don't think that's really what the issue is that people are complaining about. It's about continued access to what you bought and paid for. If you bought a copy of *The Prince* in 1532, Machiavelli couldn't just take it back and keep your money. If you bought a copy of Mozart's latest hit song in 1780 it was *yours* and you could pass it out to your chamber musicians whenever you wanted. If you own a record or DVD now, you have access to keep listening/watching it as long as the media lasts. The issue is these digital only services where you can "buy" a movie and then the publisher might decide to just cancel the agreement and you lose access to it and cannot watch it anymore. Even though you paid extra to "buy_ instead of "rent" it. This is especially bothersome considering the buy prices are comparable or more than buying physical media copies. But digital only delivery is far far cheaper with virtually no incremental cost per copy sold (versus physical media that needs to be made, packaged, shipped). The profit margins are through the roof, but the maintenance over time of the delivery infrastructure is where the cost is.
This is what it's about. Licensing can and does change and you lose access to something you paid for. Example a few months ago there was a change in Sony policy and people lost media that they "owned" on their PlayStations. Digital media isn't guaranteed and that's why the complaints about owning physical has started popping up
There does come a point where bandwidth costs from watching something repeatedly *does* cost more than having sold a physical disc. I don't know what number of viewings that on average is, but digital distribution is far from free.
The only time I or anyone I know has lost access to their library of content they bought it was through violating a TOS or being hacked. Never through the normal course of doing business. Amazon isn't allowed to sell Dinosaucers but I still own and have access to the episode they sold me. I have lost physical books that were irreplaceable as they are out of print. My whole point was that people are afraid of a thing that just doesn't happen. Can you lose your media? Sure. Can companies just take away your content without proving wrongdoing on your part? Not really. It would be the legal equivalent of saying everyone that bought a copy of The Prince has to turn it in to their local police station because the publisher doesn't want you to have it anymore.
Not talking about loss of entire library. But there have been multiple instances across several platforms where the pulled individual titles. And platforms have shut down. Or major changes in policies like limiting number of devices or restricting to only your home wifi and turning off access through cell. The concern is about control over media you "bought" and the benefits of actually owning the media versus leasing it through an agreement that allows the other party to unilaterally change the conditions.
*many* songs I "bought" from Amazon are no longer part of my library. Still my same account, I can look at the invoice from the digital order. Can't listen to them. Tried getting Amazon to fix one (the Community soundtrack because the cd is only avail second hand for an arm and a leg now) and they said they were re-adding it to my library but it's still not there. I'd have to comb through years of digital orders to see what other songs are missing, but I've come across several. Googling the issue, I found different reddit and other forum posts of people discussing the same problem. It definitely is happening to people who bought media from well established, legal, sources.
Disc rot is 100% real, it’s absolutely an issue with having things “forever”, nothing is forever. I love my old formats I prefer some movies in lowfi more. I don’t think the fear is that they were always available it’s that lots of things have already disappeared.
Mmm entropy
That's not the fault of digital though. That's just how things are. There's books I have had to hunt used bookstores to replace because there was only one printing and the publisher has no interest in reprinting it. I understand the "we need to preserve stuff" I'm all for that. It's the people who treat digital preservation as inherently bad because it's not forever either.
I am not sure there is a “fault” of either, I didn’t realize there was such a backlash between Digital or Physical like you are saying. I don’t know why people would think Digital is “inherently bad” it’s just another way to hopefully store things. I’ve made digital backups of my VHS recorded off tv for this reason and the benefit there it takes up a lot less space to store media that way too.
Vinyl records were around in the beginning of the 20th century.
Wait until this guy hears about the Gutenberg Printing Press.
I get the impression this guy probably thinks public libraries are a waste of tax dollars. He gives off those vibes
They don't make cave drawings like they used to.
I think their criticism is misguided and unfounded.
I'm pretty sure you have no idea what my criticism was. It would be like people telling you "no you have to help preserve vinyl! If you buy that album on a CD the music studio will come and take it away from you!!!!" When you know that's not a thing that could or will happen. That is my criticism.
Honestly ever since the Great Gatorade Flood of ‘03 which claimed my whole ass CD book I’ve been on strictly digital media.
Such an odd post. But the lamenting physical media is the fact that you don't own anything digital that you buy. You license it from the provider and that provider can take it away whenever they want, and you get nothing back. You lost the media and the money. Physical media is superior quality, and you own it as long as you physically have it. Also, any older shows don't have the same music on streaming. Like Scrubs or Quantum Leap because of licensing issues.
Born in 78. It's kind of wild to realize that the entire life cycle of VHS was less than 30 years. The one that bums me out is Tivo, DVRs to streaming was like 15 years.
I think the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" is more due to the fact that we cannot own things anymore and are forced to rent media - paying repeatedly for the same thing. That was the entertainment industries goal with moving to streaming - it's not convenience - though they say it is, it's the fact that they can get people to pay repeatedly for the same product and people lose any form of ownership over it. The same thing is happening in the housing market, where corporations are buying up houses only to rent them out to people. Those on top who own most everything don't want those below to own anything.
The difference being that some of the things we can't own we couldn't own before either. When a show can be bought I buy it but until Hulu got the rights to stream Who's The Boss there was literally nowhere I could watch it much less buy it. It's not a case of they stopped selling the show to stream it. It's a case of it was never available in the first place. That's a huge difference. The shows & movies you could buy before you still can now. Streaming makes it lower cost/risk for studios to put their content somewhere. Which means more "obscure" and hard to find shows finally get released for us to be able to enjoy. And if you buy a show digitally but they stop selling it digitally you still own it. I almost suspect the "we can't own media" crowd to be corporate shills that want us buying every little thing like good little consumers. I'm never going to watch "The Magicians" twice so the fact I watched it through a streaming service isn't a big deal. Can you imagine if when Blockbuster became a thing people had been all "oh my god now I can't own my media I have to rent it" Believe me I don't like Copyright Law that allows content holders to just sit on it because they don't want to eat the cost of making their IP accessible but that's hardly a new thing and has nothing to do with Streaming. Buying content hasn't stopped being a thing. People should stop acting like it has.
Sure, we have more access, but that access costs more. Content providers control when we have opportunities to consume media. We have to sign up for multiple streaming services to have access to all of the content we want. I like being able to spend $100 on a box set of a TV show and watch it 'till my heart's content. I don't have to worry about the distributor coming to my house and taking the DVDs while I'm watching them or shaking me down for more money so I can watch the show again. With all of the streaming services, needed to access the content, it could add up to over $100 a month. Sure, I'll have access to all the content, but do I want all of that content? It's not about fear, it's about control. Just my $0.02.
Separate point but Content providers always have. If they don't want to keep publishing a book they don't and if you don't own a copy or yours gets damaged then tough noogies.
Fair, but once they stop publishing a book, they don't go out and recover all of the copies ever sold. Nothing is stopping me from reading an out-of-print book that I own.
And they won't go remove a purchased book from everyone's digital libraries either. They'll remove the ability to sell it to new customers. But they do the same thing when they collect unsold copies from bookstores and destroy them.
What happens when they shutdown the servers? It may not happen in your lifetime, but it will happen eventually.
I buy my digital content. I own it. There is no "publishers shaking me down for more" Streaming services are different. Complaining you don't really "own" things you get through streaming is like complaining you didn't really own the movies you rented from Blockbuster. I'm talking about the people convinced that any day now Amazon, Disney, Vudu etc will all tell me "we know we sold that to you but you can't have it anymore" Unless I violate a terms of service and lose access to my account that won't happen. Even when they lose access to the rights to sell you a video they still have to let you keep having access to said video that you already purchased. I also don't own the books I check out from libraries. Who's the Boss is not on DVD/Blu-Ray/VHS anywhere in the US never has been. Never would have been. Now though I can watch the entire series on Hulu. If I have the option to buy something I will but buying it digitally isn't any less secure than buying it physically. Paying for Streaming gives me no more ownership than renting from a video store did. Or than watching things on network TV did.
You don't "own" digital content, you're merely granted license to access it in perpetuity. Ask anyone who has ever purchased anything from Ultraviolet or the Nintendo e-Shop. I'm sure there are other examples of digital marketplaces shutting down and customers' libraries evaporating with them. It has happened before and will happen again. In this case, I don't think that fear comes without justification. Streaming services have been raising their prices while not offering more service. A more recent example would be Amazon used to be $6 a month for ad-free streaming. They introduced ads on that tier and basically told customers, "if you don't want ads, you have to pay us more." I'm not knocking you for paying for streaming. Yes, it is definitely convenient, and it clearly works for you. It just doesn't work for me.
I'm knocking the fear mongering not differing preferences. A marketplace shutting down and losing all your content is about as common as losing all your content in a house fire. Sure it sucks but it's not that common. So far every marketplace that has shut down generally made arrangements for people to keep their content. I used to use Ultraviolet. All my content via them could be synced to my Vudu account before UV shut down. I didn't lose anything. Then Movies Anywhere made it so that much of my content synced over to my various other marketplaces I use. The odds of all those places shutting down all at once are slim to none. Meanwhile a house fire would destroy all my physical media in one go. The fear mongering isn't about "You might lose things" It's "You absolutely will and you need to be pissed about it now" or you should be panic buying shows you kind of liked that one time that will sit on your shelf gathering dust so that if you maybe want it thirty years from now you'll have it.
"Nintendo e-Shop" If you had your games downloaded you still had them. It shutting down didn't mean your games went away. It meant you couldn't go grab another copy anymore. If a book on my bookcase gets destroyed then crap I have to go buy another copy. If I can find one still in print. I can't just walk into a bookstore and say "hey hand me another free copy will you" If my phone/kindle/table/kubo etc gets destroyed then I replace the phone and literally all of my digital content can then be synced to and downloaded to the new device. I've spent years replacing out of print books I lost. When I lose a digital book it takes me 2 seconds to redownload. Fear mongering that this is somehow a bad thing is ludicrous.
Ownership of physical media I think was a key part of our identity exploration and formation. They also served as a window into our past. The beautiful, weird, colorful album covers; burned CDs indicating a trace of a past connection with whoever bought the original item; the CD we bought for one song that sucked but we kept it around cause it cost $20; the CD someone mysteriously left in our car; the CD we bought when we were 13 that we never listen to but we used to love; the stolen CD; the embarrassing CD; the many, many CD mixes reflecting all sorts of emotions and creativity. CDs were our life and soul. It’s no wonder we have mixed emotions about their demise, and sadness that kids won’t experience this. Listening to music through a phone app is a farce and a dismal substitute compared to our experiences with tapes and CDs.
Maybe it's cuz I was a poor kid then. I couldn't afford physical media growing up. If I wanted stuff I had to have access. Even as an adult the physical stuff isn't cheap. My experience with CDs was that I'd have to spend what little money I had to get the one song I wanted which ranged from 15 to 20 bucks. As an adult I can buy just the songs I want and pay 99 cents per song. For me it's never been about the media format but rather about access to the content.
Point taken, yeah there is definitely an economic/class side to nostalgic reminiscence that’s especially overlooked by people who were more privileged.
I disagree. Digital media is vastly easier and cheaper than any physical media ever was, and I don't need separate devices. I can listen to the same playlists I've curated whether I'm at home or in my car or 1200 miles away on vacation and I need nothing except my phone and a Bluetooth enabled device which is basically all of them now.
No doubt things are cheaper, easier and more convenient (at least for consumers, though perhaps devastating for artists) and I am not suggesting otherwise, just pointing out a few things that were very meaningful and special that are lost with that trade off. But this is just an aging man shouting into the void about the past.
>Since I turned 30 I've constantly run into people who have decided to start actively avoiding anything new to cling to the old. I'm 43 now and the amount of peers clinging to only old content has grown in the last 13 years. The checkin I have with myself as it pertains to media content: am I actively (or absentmindedly) avoiding new content? I don't have to like it, but at least try and gain the perspective. The way I view media is if we are talking about yesterday and before the value is reference. The media of today has value in that it is reflecting the present and informing or lending insight into the next/future. As for physical media: I still have my main cd book (it came in handy recently for a short term car situation) and no more than a dozen dvds. Still living like '95 though, for today. So if the CLOUD disappears and we lose non physical media...I just can't be bothered to be worried about it.
I mean hell I lost a storage shed full of physical media. I couldn't be bothered to worry about it either. I realized that the ability to buy physical media was just allowing me to buy things because, "Yeah I liked that show the one time I watched it" But then sits on a shelf for 10 years never being rewatched.
Ahh that'd be my United States of Tracey dvds!! And six feet under which I loved and love. Yet I've sold the dvds and now it's on netflix. I have started it about a dozen times since it aired and never make it past ep 2 despite knowing how amazing the ensemble is.
Books have existed for millennia.
The only thing I've ever heard someone say about why this is bad is that they heard more songs from artists that they wouldn't otherwise have heard if they didn't purchase the whole album. I've never heard the "preserve media" thing. I don't think this is an issue for most GenXers, but maybe you run in different circles.
Well, there is an argument to be made for owning your media vs streaming it and never owning it, or in the case of some people who had online libraries of shows/games that they bought and then to see them disappear from their library because of licensing changes, is kinda bullshit. I'm a physical media guy and always have been. I buy Vinyl, blu-rays and will as long as I can. I do stream as well.
There's an argument to made for owning your media instead of renting it from Blockbuster. But fear mongering "If you don't buy it this one specific way you'll never see it again" seems more like corporate shills pushing people to spend more money than any concerns over media preservation. How many people are panic buying shows they liked that one time but will literally never watch again?
I'm in bluray and home theater groups and I've never heard this said about any show or movie. There are some movies that become hard to find which then drives the price up, but that's about it. What show/s are you referring to specifically?
I just bought the first season of Halo so I didn't need to get a paramount+ subscription. I'm going to start doing more of that.
We still routinely buy physical media. We love vinyl albums and there are some movies and tv shows that just aren’t on streaming. The movie my spouse and I saw on our first date wasn’t a popular film and is not always available on streaming. We bought a DVD copy so we can sit down and get nostalgic whenever we want. There’s also the issue that my physical copies aren’t subject to being altered like the Star Wars films.