# 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:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**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, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/61 "2011-09-02T20:46:08Z")
> [@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. But also as someone who has worked in computers for that long you must also know the importance of redundant and remote backups. CD’s can be scratched, cracked, and dropped. Depending on the situation, any number of things can happen even if you try to be careful. It just seems simpler for me to have a backup hard drive or flash drive than it is to have boxes and shelves filled with plastic. And no matter how much hardware changes, 1’s and 0’s will always be able to be transmitted. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/62 "2011-09-02T22:35:17Z")
Vintage 8 tracks used belt drive. After 30 plus years they dry rot. 1977, I bought my parents a really nice Zenith console stereo with 8 track recorder, AM/FM and record player. Everything stills works perfectly, except the 8 track. fat chance of finding a belt for it. My parents have a box of at least thirty 8 tracks. beautiful furniture. they still play records on it occasionally. > [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > What, no 8 tracks? ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/63 "2011-09-02T22:45:22Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Vintage 8 tracks used belt drive. After 30 plus years they dry rot. > > 1977, I bought my parents a really nice Zenith console stereo with 8 track recorder, AM/FM and record player. Everything stills works perfectly, except the 8 track. fat chance of finding a belt for it. My parents have a box of at least thirty 8 tracks. > > beautiful furniture. they still play records on it occasionally. [http://www.studiosoundelectronics.com/8track.htm](http://www.studiosoundelectronics.com/8track.htm) I haven’t used them but I know people replace belts on old computer floppy drives and game consoles that used discs, so it shouldn’t be that difficult if you are handy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/64 "2011-09-03T00:00:47Z")
> [@Teufelblitz](#): > > 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… This is what I love about iTunes. I bought my first LP in 1965 and loved all the songs on it. I don’t think that 100% enjoyment experience has happened since. Worst case, I’ve bought a double album for just one song. I have no need to do that anymore. Yippee. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950/65 "2011-09-03T16:32:07Z")
> [@Teufelblitz](#): > > 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. Sometimes there are restrictions in iTunes which prevent this. There’s one song I would like to download, but iTunes requires you download the entire album to get it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-buy-physical-media-do-you-feel-good-about-it/594950.md?page=3)