Ever since I got my Michael Jackson Thriller CD, I’ve been thinking, I have started to prefer physical releases more when it comes to films and music, because it’s nice to have something you own in your hands, lend to a neighbour, and rip to your devices.
With streaming, I’ve cut off some services as I got tieed with the price hikes and removals of specific titles, sure, your music might be lost if you lose your phone and you can just resign in with your account on say, Spotify.
But even those have issues where they can remove the track, with CDs and Blu Ray, it ain’t going away if you keep looking after it.
What are your thoughts on this? Are you big into streaming due to convenience, or do you go physical? Or maybe a bit of both?
Let me know in yer comments!
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I have a 50 terabyte NAS for storing my movies and TV shows. And access it from any of the TVs in my house.
For music…I have a music streaming subscription for convenience, but also have some vinyl records for the small-ish number of albums I want to keep forever.
I always rip my CDs and blurays so I can stream them from my server. It’s much more convenient and I don’t have to worry about the disks getting scratched. The disks are only used as a backup or if I want to re rip with a different video codec in the future.
I will not buy digital media if access can be taken away from me.
About a year ago, I started buying DVD’s from thrift stores. I rip them all and put them on my Plex server. I recently aquired a Bluray player and starting to collect those too. Since those take up MUCH more diskspace, I only watch bluray with the physical disk (storage in Europe is unfortunately more expensive than in the USA)
I also started collecting CD’s again (mostly from thrift stores too). I rip these to FLAC and also put them on my Plex.
The beauty of this system for me is that I still have to physically flip through stuff to build my collection. Since it takes up physical space, I limit myself to stuff I actually really want to see/listen to. But by digitizing it, I have the advantage of having acces to that curated content everywhere. The added timesink of ripping and metadata correcting gives me more satisfaction and appreciation for what I bought. A sense of pride and accomplishment, if you will.
So I buy Physical to make sure the collection stays curated and manageable, but digitize most of it for the convenience.
Due to the appreciation of my collection, I now watch more movies and listen to more music than when I had acces to netflix or Spotify.
I rip physical media and then store it for legal reasons. my nas is much better than trying to find whatener disc.
I buy FLAC files on Bandcamp. I have the highest quality at a cheap price, and it hopefully won’t rot if stored properly on my NAS.
This is what I was going to say. I don’t have physical space but I have digital.
Physical media can have certain bonuses that digital content cant/wont. Album art, bonus features, easter eggs, etc, but also the analog sound of vinyl.
The main thing I see these days though, is that the content cant be edited, censored, or modified in any way. Locally owned digital content also benefits from this.
I’m an old fart, and the minute I can digitize something, I do it. I’ve had thousands of 45s, LPs, CDs, etc, over the years, but most have gone by the wayside.
I still buy physical media, often at gigs, or online, but once it’s ripped it collects dust, seldom to be handled again.
It’s your license. Keep it in storage.
I got caught up in the vinyl revival, so I enjoy collecting that media. But even then, I consider it more of a novelty.
Generally speaking though, I prefer locally stored digital media without DRM over physical media. It’s just more practical.
That being said, I’m glad that physical media exists and hope it continues to be made. Choice is good.
Its the best when you buy an LP and get a download code for the album as well.
I listen to LPs mostly when I want music to be the primary thing im doing. There is a whole ritual involved with putting a record on. Whereas, sometimes I just want to listen to something while I’m doing dishes or driving, and then playing an MP3 over a Bluetooth speaker from my phone is just infinitely more convenient.
Buy physical. Because you have a physical backup, you can watch it without Internet, and they can’t change the media. Like removing scenes or episodes.
Nowadays I buy digital music (mostly via Bandcamp but there’s also HDTracks, Qobuz, etc.) & play the music that way. Can also stream my own music library if I want via Jellyfin or other applications.
re: physical CDs, yes I’ve got a ton of those too from before you could buy digital music but have already ripped them. Haven’t had a need to touch the physical discs in years but still keep them in CD binders just in case.
Also not sure if it matters but for me I’m always living in small apartments/rooms so I absolutely avoid collecting physical items, there’s just no space for that.
