# Do you still buy physical media? Do you feel good about it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 2, 2011, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950 "2011-09-02T14:15:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/41 "2011-09-02T17:39:54Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > How’s the laserdisc market? Oddly enough, I don’t buy media as an investment. I buy it because I enjoy the work in question (Or think I will, at least.) and want the convenience of being able to enjoy it at my own convenience. LDs remain a durable medium, still sufficiently high quality to be enjoyable when I watch them. Perhaps it’s my experience as a former comic book reader - I don’t view entertainment purchases as an investment. The odds are that any fungible media purchase one makes will be worth pennies on the dollar once one chooses to divest oneself of it. If you’re not going to get your money’s worth in enjoyment from the original purchase - don’t buy in the first place. For the OP, there are a lot of formats, programs and features that you can’t get via online streaming. As my SN suggests, I’m a bit of an otaku - much of what I do watch is anime. For that I prefer to watch it in the original language, with subtitles. For the most part, online streaming sources do not provide that option. I also enjoy commentary associated with works I find interesting. Again, not something commonly available with the online options. For my musical tastes - I’m even more constrained by my tastes. A lot of the artists I like best are not easily found online. With online ordering, and eBay, it’s _easier_ to find many of those works in a physical format than it is to get a streamed version. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/42 "2011-09-02T17:50:13Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > Oddly enough, I don’t buy media as an investment. I buy it because I enjoy the work in question (Or think I will, at least.) and want the convenience of being able to enjoy it at my own convenience. LDs remain a durable medium, still sufficiently high quality to be enjoyable when I watch them. 😕 Do you have me confused with someone? My laserdisc remark was meant to be a light-hearted comment on **PSXer** ’s previous LaserDisc threads. I, too, believe that media is not an investment that you should expect to resell at close to what you paid for it. That was the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Feyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/fbc32d/32.png) [@Feyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feyrat)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/43 "2011-09-02T17:52:40Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > I’m your exact opposite; I hope to never buy another physical book in my life. This! I actually bought a specific, plain cover for my Nook specifically to take to book signings so I can still enjoy those and get autographs 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/44 "2011-09-02T17:54:31Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > I, too, believe that media is not an investment that you should expect to resell at close to what you paid for it. That was the OP. \ No it wasn’t. That’s apparently what everyone thinks is the OP, but it’s not the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/45 "2011-09-02T17:56:07Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > I didn’t mean to imply that I expect my media collection to grow in value like an investment, just that if I decide I don’t want it anymore, it’d be nice if it still had some residual value. Some things you expect to be worthless after 10 years, like PC, and others you expect to still have some use to somebody somewhere, like a couch or a car, even if you can’t get more than 25% of your money back. _Especially_ if there’s no physical degradation of the product. How much do you suppose you can get for your 10-year-old MP3s of Destiny’s Child, Dido, Jessica Simpson, Train, or Sugar Ray? The devaluation of these items has nothing to do with the deterioration of the physical or digital medium in which they’re fixed. It is due, entirely, to the fact that a pop song’s useful life is typically vastly shorter than the life of its storage medium. (Although not always, I’ll still give _Hey Ya_ or _Toxic_ a listen when it comes up on rotation.) Sure, there’s a very negligble cost of carry associated with physical media (the opportunity cost of storing them in your basement). But that’s true for digital media as well (the opportunity cost of storing them on your hard drive). Here’s the thing: they’re not in your basement because they’re broken down DVDs or anything like that. They’re in your basement because you just don’t really anticipate ever being inclined to watch _Crazy/Beautiful_ again. Thus, the question is, considering that you’ll get about six months of enjoyment out of any given pop song, how much are you prepared to pay for that access? I just did a quick scan of Adele’s latest album. It’s $10.99 on Amazon whether you get in physical or digital format. It may be that a towering stack of physical media of passé music and movies \*feels \* like a bigger waste of money than a directory labeled “Lady Sovereign” on your hard drive might, but I don’t think the economic case that justifies that sentiment can be made. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/46 "2011-09-02T18:06:19Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Put another way – circa 1998, I could still go shopping in a used music store and buy a CD for $10 versus a new one for $15. It was a bargain! And there was clearly a market for used CDs. 5 years later, the CD was such an inconvenient form factor that I didn’t even want my own anymore. The market agreed, and a used CD would sell for 50 cents on ebay if you were lucky. I know lots of stores in 2011 that sell used CDs for about $10 each. 😕 Maybe what’s really going on is that there isn’t much of a market for used CDs _online_. I like to be able to personally check the condition of a used disc before I buy it, and the experience of going out to used music stores and never knowing what treasures they will have that day is a lot of the fun of CD/vinyl collecting, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/47 "2011-09-02T18:12:55Z")
Reply to **Kimmy Gibbler** : Well, I watched them a lot more, even the old ones, back when I actually had a DVD player hooked up. As streaming formats replaced the way I viewed a lot of new releases, the DVD player became less and less useful until I finally didn’t set it up after a move. So there’s that. Plus, how many times have you watched 45 minutes of the Shawshank Redemption on TNT with commercials even though you have the DVD stuffed away somewhere? But I see your point. A lot of this stuff was destined to become worthless because it wasn’t very good to begin with. I also think I muddied the waters by talking about physical media, when the reality is that I don’t want to own any of it anymore. And I think that if I could resell it like I did my CDs, I’d be more inclined to buy in the first place. Since I can’t, I’ve sworn off the practice altogether. Hence the thread asking if/why others have or have not done the same. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/48 "2011-09-02T18:16:13Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > I hope you consider depreciation when you’re deciding what car to buy. I know I do. Why should media be an exception? Why should I? My last truck lasted 15 years and 200,000+ miles. Depreciation is meaningless to me. Ditto music. I still have over 3000 LPs in the house that will never be professionally transferred to digital. Why should I deprive myself of that music just because the current formatting is different? ---
**Author:** ![Krouget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b38774/32.png) [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/49 "2011-09-02T18:25:14Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > So now it’s Pandora and Netflix for me. Even if those go away, I don’t think I could handle the heartache of owning physical media anymore. I’d rather do without than eat more depreciation. For me, it’s not so much the money spent, but it’s the space they take up, and my refusal to get rid of them. ☹ The funny thing is, if someone else got rid of them for me, I’d probably be none the wiser, lol. ---
**Author:** ![Teufelblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@Teufelblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teufelblitz)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/50 "2011-09-02T18:30:06Z")
There apparently aren’t too many people like me who were glad to not have to purchase an entire album to own a song that I liked. Aside from a scant few artists, most albums had perhaps three songs that I liked and listened to regularly. And before you mention it, the songs I really liked weren’t necessarily released as singles. Even those singles I did purchase got recorded onto a mix tape and tossed aside. This was a pain back when I purchased primarily cassettes since I had to essentially suffer through the stuff I wasn’t fond of to get to what I wanted to hear. Either that, or listen to the fast forward churn away and pray that the player didn’t eat my tape from the overexertion. I place absolutely zero value on liner notes, packaging, art, or the physical act of cuing up music, so when we finally got to the point where I could get most things a la carte I was a happy camper. I always thought of elaborate cover art and inserts as trinkets used to pad cost. I understand how some folks can derive enjoyment from these things, bit I’m certainly not one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Krouget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b38774/32.png) [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/51 "2011-09-02T18:36:02Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > I hope you consider depreciation when you’re deciding what car to buy. I know I do. I don’t do this with cars, because they almost always depreciate in monetary value, sometimes by your own doing or otherwise. I consider the depreciation on a car as part of its worth to _me_, over the period of time that I drive it. In other words, I spend what I’m willing to bear, buy exactly what I want, and I \*use \*it. Once I’m satisfied, I’ve gotten my money’s worth-- anything I can recoup after this, is just a bonus. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/52 "2011-09-02T18:38:33Z")
I haven’t bought any new laserdiscs for over a year, sad to say. I haven’t found any at the flea market (and the last time I went was almost 6 months ago). They’re usually pretty cheap, but it depends on who is selling them I guess. Once I got 10 for $10, another time 10 for $40. But the first time, he only had 10 and some were bad but I bought every one he had anyway. The second time he had a lot and picked out 10 good ones I wanted. I’ve bought a few on ebay, but mostly in lots because it’s cheaper that way. One time I went to this store in the mall but he wanted $15 for 1 laserdisc. Too much. I think I messed up storing them in my crates at home, because they were not completely vertical and there was too much weight on the ones at the back and The Fly got warped so bad that now the first side is almost unwatchable. The second side still works fine, though. I haven’t checked every other disc, but some still are alright, so hopefully my carelessness didn’t cause too much damage. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/53 "2011-09-02T18:50:02Z")
I buy an occasional book. I haven’t bought a CD, DVD, or computer game for years. I routinely use Netflix to watch movies/TV shows and Steam to purchase/download computer games. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/54 "2011-09-02T20:14:30Z")
Part of the reason I still by CDs is BECAUSE I expect music formats to be different in the future. If I buy a CD, I can rip it to an MP3 now, and in 5 years, I can re-rip it to an MP8 (or whatever the future format will be) all without having to rebuy. I have zero belief that if I buy an MP3 today I won’t have to rebuy it in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/55 "2011-09-02T20:14:45Z")
Yes, I still buy physical media, and yes I feel good about it. I also buy electronic media. They both have some very definite advantages and disadvantages. That is, I could come up with a substantial list of ways in which physical CDs or DVDs or books are still preferable to the electronic versions; and vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/56 "2011-09-02T20:19:23Z")
> [@otternell](#): > > I don’t buy CDs because I think they will hold value. I buy CDs because I want the music and the cover art / liner notes. You are unhappy because you couldn’t sell used CD’s for the value that you paid. Here’s a shocker: music CDs are not the investment option people mean when they talk about CDs. Your expectation that they would retain value is silly. > > Edit: this whole “my CD collection is worthless”, yes and? Your MP3 collection is too. ^ this Surprisingly tho, I have quite a few out of print albums on CD (a couple hundred, actually) that would each sell for more than $50 (and a small number would sell for well over $100) if I were to put them on ebay. But mostly I buy them because a) I want the music at the best possible quality, b) I believe in compensating an artist for their work, and c) Hi Opal! Plus all the stuff what **otter** said. ETA: I also continue to buy real books (preferably hardcover 1st editions). I like turning the pages and I like how they feel in my lap as I read. I buy Blu-ray movies, because no streaming content is nearly as good as a BR, and sometimes the beautiful cinematography makes a good movie great. I also still subscribe to a magazine, and I love getting it every month. And occasionally, I give in and buy a newspaper (“give in” because I detest the LVRJ’s conservative slant, but sometimes I just need to read a newspaper). ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/57 "2011-09-02T20:23:01Z")
When I can, hell yes. I’ve worked with computers for more than 30 years. I have heard, seen and in some cases experienced first hand the loss of data when drives go bad, or be lost or stolen. I have never walked over to my bookshelf and had all the pages in a book be blank, or put in a CD and had it be blank. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/58 "2011-09-02T20:26:44Z")
I’m still wondering what non-“good” emotion the OP is expecting me to have when I buy a book. Guilt? Anger? Remorse? ---
**Author:** ![Teufelblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@Teufelblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teufelblitz)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/59 "2011-09-02T20:31:34Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > Part of the reason I still by CDs is BECAUSE I expect music formats to be different in the future. > > If I buy a CD, I can rip it to an MP3 now, and in 5 years, I can re-rip it to an MP8 (or whatever the future format will be) all without having to rebuy. I have zero belief that if I buy an MP3 today I won’t have to rebuy it in the future. I’m not sure I agree with this entirely. I see your point, but as portable audio devices inch farther away from walkmans and closer to tiny computers, more flexibility and legacy format support gets integrated. For example, I can listen to multiple music formats that are copied to my phone. The amount of digital formats that phones support won’t likely decrease for the popular ones. Consumers will want a player that works with their MP3’s as well as the newer compression types. The issue stops being with hardware limitations such as CD or DVD and becomes a comparatively simple matter of including codecs or converter software. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/60 "2011-09-02T20:39:20Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > When I can, hell yes. > > I’ve worked with computers for more than 30 years. I have heard, seen and in some cases experienced first hand the loss of data when drives go bad, or be lost or stolen. > > I have never walked over to my bookshelf and had all the pages in a book be blank, or put in a CD and had it be blank. Challenge accepted! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950.md?page=4)