Much has been written about the demise of physical media. Long considered the measure of technological progress in audiovisual and computing fields, the 2000s saw this metric seemingly rendered obs…
What I liked about tape and CD, is that it wasn’t too difficult to write/record. Before mp3s and filesharing, you could still make a copy, or a mixtape (playlist).
The main strength that physical media has, is that it is completely offline, it is physically at hand, and it can be obscure stuff you will never find online.
An HDD/SSD is just as “offline” and easier to write though. No bulky extra equipment required, the capacity is bigger, and you can erase and rewrite over and over. While I underatand how people enjoy CDs as collectables, in a purely practical sense, I don’t see much value anymore.
But yeah, I do have some songs from Soulseek that are specifically from a CD release and don’t exist in the same form on Youtube)
Yup, I only buy physical media so I can rip it. If I could buy DRM-free digital media, I would absolutely prefer that. But I can’t, so here we are.
If I can’t find something on physical media from a first party seller, I have no qualms about piracy, but I do make an effort to legally aquire what I can.
I don’t pay for my media now because I’m poor by Western standards, but I did pay for some games unavailable on GOG - bought them on Steam, then downloaded a corresponding DRMless version. Wouldn’t want to buy physical media just to rip, because I don’t want it to occupy space, so I’d have to throw them out or resell. There are some exceptions, though - wouldn’t mind certain CDs as memorabilia.
What I liked about tape and CD, is that it wasn’t too difficult to write/record. Before mp3s and filesharing, you could still make a copy, or a mixtape (playlist).
The main strength that physical media has, is that it is completely offline, it is physically at hand, and it can be obscure stuff you will never find online.
I recently got back into minidiscs and it’s great.
Hell yeah. Few things are more satisfying than sliding a MiniDisc into a drive and feeling it click into place.
An HDD/SSD is just as “offline” and easier to write though. No bulky extra equipment required, the capacity is bigger, and you can erase and rewrite over and over. While I underatand how people enjoy CDs as collectables, in a purely practical sense, I don’t see much value anymore.
But yeah, I do have some songs from Soulseek that are specifically from a CD release and don’t exist in the same form on Youtube)
Yup, I only buy physical media so I can rip it. If I could buy DRM-free digital media, I would absolutely prefer that. But I can’t, so here we are.
If I can’t find something on physical media from a first party seller, I have no qualms about piracy, but I do make an effort to legally aquire what I can.
I don’t pay for my media now because I’m poor by Western standards, but I did pay for some games unavailable on GOG - bought them on Steam, then downloaded a corresponding DRMless version. Wouldn’t want to buy physical media just to rip, because I don’t want it to occupy space, so I’d have to throw them out or resell. There are some exceptions, though - wouldn’t mind certain CDs as memorabilia.