It’s finally time to admit streaming apps and digital distribution have ruined mostcreative media industries, and maybe physical media was the right choice all along.
Okay, that’s a tad dramatic. But it’s not exactlywrong.
To be fair, streaming apps aren’t all bad. Streaming services and digital storefronts make it easy to access our favorite shows, bands, and video games on just about any device we own. And they give us legal ways to support legacy media without succumbing to greedy scalpers or shady piracy sites. But what started as a way to “cut the cord” and stick it to cable companies and record labels has only birtheda new corporate overlord—one that does not respect its customers, the media it distributes, or the people who make it.
The issue with streaming and digital media
One could argueannoyances likeThe Office离开Netflix或the firstMannequinfilm is unavailable digitally while模型2:在移动is readily availableare just part of the reality of the new digital landscape.
But that impermanence is starting to seem a lot more like a bug than a feature.This past week, we learnedWarner Bros. Discoveryunceremoniously delisted TV shows from the HBO Max appfor no reason other than it wanted to stop paying residuals to its creators—sorry if you ponied up your $14.99 per month expecting HBO Max Originals content to actually be available on HBO Max.Meanwhile,digital video games are regularly delisted from digital shelves, making them impossible to purchase or redownload, even asinevitable server shutdowns render multiplayer modes—or even entire games—unplayable even afteryou’vepurchased and downloaded the game.
It’s not just music, movies, and games—even ebooks and comics are in peril due tostreaming and all-digital platforms. Just look at thebacklash against Amazon’s recent Comixology overhaul, which made purchasing new comics almost impossible for certain users, and rendered some comics and manga unreadable thanks tounwanted layout changes.
All streaming apps, regardless of media, revoke your access to their free libraries if you unsubscribe, they experiencea sudden service outage, or they permanently go offline—not to mentionstreaming business models notoriously screw over the artists和创造者,分配他们的工作through these apps.
These issues and moremake it increasinglydifficult for customers to enjoy their purchases, and make media preservation virtually impossible.
You know whatdoesn’thave those issues? Physical media.
That’s not to say physical media is immune to problems.Streaming does genuinely make mediamore accessible and in seemingly “unlimited” supply (as long as it remainsavailable), whereas physical media can only exist inlimited quantities, creating circumstancesripe for exploitation by companies and resellers alike. Plus, physical media—like all physical substances—deteriorates,and can be lost, broken, or stolen. However, when it comes to ownership, customer agency, and media preservation, physical media is superior to digital and streaming in pretty much every way.
Streaming has issues, but isn’t physical media dead?
I’ll admit that buying a hard copy might not be right for every person or every purchase, but physical media is worthwhile to more people than just hobbyists, historians, or hawkers. And don’t let anyone fool you into thinking physical media is outdated or useless—most media still receives afull physical release. Major theatrical films get Blu-ray releases, and mostfull seasons of TV shows are still sold in those big, multi-disc boxes. They may just be harder to find.
Video games are trickier. Many new “physical” games still require online connections, even if they’re technically an offline single player game, but plenty of new games are fully playable on the disc (or on the cartridge, in the Nintendo Switch’s case). Buying older games,vintage consoles, and rarer releases can be exorbitantly expensive, but companies like Limited Run Games, Super Rare Games, and Strictly Limited Games print physical copies of indie titles that wouldn’t normally get boxed releases, and in some cases even reprint runs of older games. Physical video games also typicallydrop in price much quicker than their digital counterparts, sometimes seeing steep price cuts just a few days or weeks after release (except for Nintendo games, that is).
CDs remain an excellent way to collect and listen to music at high quality, and“outdated” formats like vinyland cassette tapes are popular once again thanks to indie record labels and distributors and the collector market. While these retro throwbacks might’ve started as hipster cred currency, they’re quickly becoming more reliable ways to access music than streaming. Plus, buying physical music directly from artists or labels is a better way to support them financially than earning them a fraction of a fraction of a penny viastreaming.
What about thecost?
Another concern with physical media is the cost:Wouldn’t purchasing every new piece of media cost more than your monthlystreaming bills?
Sure, especially if you buy lots of new stuff to watch, play or listen to—but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Personally, I find I engage more with media I’ve purchased, rather than stuff I stream or rent. Streaming has a tendency to make artistic work fill like throwaway “content” to be milled by our brains into dopamine. That said, streaming or buying something digitally absolutely has its place, and is a worthwhile option when you don’t necessarily care about what it is you’re watching/playing/reading, and don’t mind if it suddenly disappears.But even if you don’t see a difference between owning something and streaming it, the fact remains that physical media is always more reliable than digital.
Digital content comes and goes, servers go offline, andusers lose content if they migrate to different apps, but that shelf of movies in your living room isn’t going anywhere. Andas long as you have the right equipment, you can enjoy it forever,whenever you want, without having to subscribe to a new service, download an app, or fuss over your wireless connection.