The human obsession with everything being as convenient as possible is having real world negative effects on our consumption of art and information. Since the early 00âs we have been on a rapid path towards everything being consumed online, through streaming or through digital means. We went from LPs to CDs to music apps and VHS to DVD to streaming platforms. Even books, although definitely an outlier as eBooks are still not as popular as their physical counterparts, have seen a significant rise in recent years.
Although digitisation has its positives â we have access to the entire scope of human knowledge in our pockets at all times â it also has its serious drawbacks. When you buy a movie on Amazon, YouTube, or similar platforms, you do not own that movie. Instead, youâre buying what is known as a âlimited licenceâ which gives you on demand access to that movie for an infinite period of time. This means that, despite possibly having an Amazon purchased list in the 100s, the corporation could theoretically close your account and you could lose all of those movies.
In fact, exactly that happened to one Kindle user in 2012 when Amazon claimed that she had committed previous abuses on a different account, and so wiped her entire library and banned her account. Amazon subsequently refused to elaborate on the supposed abuses and went radio silent. This leaves all Kindle customers at risk. This is especially current as the number of eBook users has risen significantly in recent years (thanks to subscription services such as Kindle Unlimited being incredibly popular in the reignited romance market attributable to booktok). This number is only set to increase, with the global number of users in the ‘e-books’ segment of the digital media market forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2027 by in total 92.9 million users.
Kindle found itself in another scandal when they removed copies of (ironically) George Orwellâs 1984 from customers kindles under apparent copyright breaches. Due to the fact that the individual who uploaded the eBook did not own the rights to the novel, Amazon had to remove the novel from its store, but this left many customers out of pocket. Again this highlights the lack of permanence of anything bought digitally, with all customers at the mercy of the corporation.
Sometimes, media doesnât even reach our hands before it disappears from consciousness. Following the merger of Warner Bros and Discovery, they had the unique opportunity to claim a tax write off on certain projects, resulting in Batgirl and Coyote v Acme being canned. Batgirl was meant to be a Max streaming platform exclusive, and so due to the nature of streaming there was no physical scraps to save. Coyote v Acme was supposedly scrapped due to the firmsâ refocus on theatrical releases (unusual in the age of streaming) but yet it would not be suitable for a Max release. Although these decisions are also attributable to corporate reshuffling and politics, the permanent loss of these projects can also be attributed to the nature of streaming.
Your songs arenât safe either. One artist who self-published on Spotify for 5 years had all of his music removed after Spotify claimed it was âartificialâ. After some digging, the publication Medium discovered that it could be attributed to bots adding his songs to playlists or other indications of bot activity (high or low skip rates as well as high or low saves). The artist claimed he had never used bots to promote his music, yet could do nothing about Spotifyâs decision.
Artists also have more ability to remove their own music from streaming platforms in ways they couldnât in the physical age. Joni Mitchel removed her entire discography from Spotify in 2022 in protest of Joe Roganâs podcast deal with the company. Although well within her rights to remove her music in protest, it is a stark reminder that no one who had her music saved truly owned any of the songs. Her music didnât return to the platform until 2024. Similarly, the Phoebe Bridgers song Waiting Room was removed from Spotify on multiple occasions. This has been theorised to be due to the fact she does not own the rights of the Spotify version, it having been published by Lost Ark Studios as part of a compilation album. This particular removal was especially concerning due to the complete lack of a physical copy.
So how do we mitigate these drawbacks? A return to physical media solves most of these problems. Although the convenience of digital media can never be matched, many trends show physical media is on the rise. Vinyl sales have increased by 10% in the last year (greatly attributable to Taylor Swift whoâs 11th album scored the highest yearly figure of vinyl sales this century). The ability to customise vinyl – selling different versions with special editions which often help contribute to music chart success – has helped increase sales of physical media. As mentioned, books have always been the outlier in an age of digitisation. Print books consistently outsold eBooks for both adult and childrenâs media. However, the news is less positive for film and TV; DVD sales have dropped by 24% in 2024. One small light can be spotted, however. When looking at cinephiles as a market, producers such as the Criterion Collection are clinging on to physical film media. They are dedicated to publishing classic and contemporary films from worldwide film makers in ways that are reminiscent of DVDs of old; special features, boxsets, unique art. Criterion Collection is also reigniting the spirit of DVD with their online video series featuring celebrities who have the opportunity to choose and discuss their favourite picks from the âCriterion Closetâ. This format would not be replicable through streaming media, and so DVD lives to see another day.
Every time you make an intentional choice to choose physical media over digital, despite the inconvenience of setting up your record player, pulling out your old Blu-ray or carrying around a heavy tome, you help to keep alive something we seem to be losing; personal property.