Do you buy physical media (CDs, Records, DVDs, etc.)

[lovesbabysquirmy]

i had that cabinet stereo in my house for YEARS!
recently I decided that I was going to go through all my cds and sell them to a local shop

[TheClassCalico]

I sometimes buy physical games (Gameboy, Switch, and DS cartridges) and a few books, if they count. Otherwise, I tend not to keep physical media.

Physical copies are excellent for better preservation, but they take up space and can unfortunately become damaged over time. I have been tempted to get a VHS player, though.

[Beldarna]

Minty_Magic that one is amazing! I once had a stereo that had two casette decks, a cdplayer and a vinyl player on top. It was as broad as my bed back then. My room was small so it was litterally standing by the foot of my bed against the wall with the speakers facing the bed. Dad had a huge player that almost took up an entire wall in the livingroom. Those were the days when the music players were furniture .

Vinyl is on the rise. A lot of metal bands are releasing their musics as vinyls now (Within Temptation even released casette tapes with the last two releases). I wish I could have room for a vinyl/cdplayer but there is none. I have all my CDs and some casettes in my storage room.

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

I love physical media! I do use streaming for music (Tidal), but not everything I listen to is on there, and theoretically anything could be taken off of streaming at any moment. So part of the reason I buy physical media is so that in case an artist I like gets removed from streaming, I still have access to their music. If I buy a release that's not on Tidal, I will rip it to FLAC so I can listen to it on my laptop and phone. I do also just enjoy collecting things that I like and displaying them. Seeing media I enjoy lined up on my shelves makes me happy much like ponies and other toys do.

The majority of my physical media are CDs, but I do also have vinyl, a couple cassettes, games, DVDs, Blu-Rays, and books.

[Beth3346]

so after over a decade of indecision I finally purchased a record player. my husband has some records but i have no idea if they'll play. i also plan on buying some records once it's all set up. i haven't decided what my first record will be. i'll probably get a few at once.

Update: I bought Fleetwood Mac: Rumours. Gold Dust Woman is one of my favorite songs.

[Eskara1862]

I have also been going back to fully analog whenever possible. I just got a cd player from 2002 and the sound quality on it is sooooo much better than the modern ones I've tried! Luckily, I flat out refused to get rid of any of my CDs, so I still have all of them. They're in a giant CD binder from the 90s. I have all the cases in a storage box because I'm not about to get rid of them, even if the CDs and insert pamphlets are in the binder.

I do still buy physical CDs when the music really speaks to me. My last purchase was After the storm by Ofdrykkja. Took a while to get here, but well worth the wait.

As for DVDs, I don't own a player or television. I pretty much sail the high seas for all shows. I do still have all of my DVDs from years ago and I buy any MLP DVD or VHS I don't already own. Whenever I get my hoarded out storage room cleaned up, I plan on buying a TV, VCR, and DVD player from an estate sale so I can get quality ones from the 90s or early 00s and not the current crap in stores that breaks after a few years. I don't want a smart tv, I just want something that turns on and plays whatever I put on it. My television has no business connecting to the internet.

I'm going so analog that I've started wearing a wristwatch again and carrying a physical planner instead of using Google Calendar. Screw corporations; they don't need my data or to know when I'll be somewhere. And the watch thing is so I don't have to pull out my phone to check the time and then get sucked into whatever notifications have popped up.

[Beth3346]

yeah i regret getting rid of my old 90s boombox after i moved everything to MP3s. i was a tech early adopter for so many things back in the 2000s-2010s. but lately everything feels so broken that i'm reverting to analog. i'm a disaffected tech worker now i guess. i had high hopes for tech and now i'm just sad. i don't work for a tech company though. i work for a company that actually makes stuff.

i love the convenience of having all of my music in one place and the variety i get with streaming. i don't think it's all bad. i've definitely found music i never would have known about if it weren't for streaming. i don't miss the way music was when i was in school where you just had to know people who were "cool" enough to introduce you to music or spend hours listening to the radio. but i do hate the data collection and the way streaming platforms prey on artists. especially the more niche artists who will never make money from Spotify, etc.

records are so expensive compared to CDs so i think i'll probably buy some CDs soon too. CDs are way more affordable for albums where i don't necessarily like all of the songs. i just need to find a good cd player.

i also hate, hate, hate the data collection model. every year when i get that spotify wrapped it just reminds me that they're collecting all of my listening habits. it didn't have to be this way. a lot of these tech companies are still burning cash even while selling our data. of course the executives still have more money than god.

i also use a physical planner and notebook now. it's so nice to just pick up a pen and write something down instead of making notes on my computer that always end up getting lost anyway. it's also much faster to just write it down instead of trying to deal with multiple windows.

i have an apple watch but there are so many notifications that it's unwearable. i'm not getting texts or anything fun either. it's junk texts, junk calls, and notifications from my security cameras. heaven forbid one of my neighbors is moving their lawn. going back to an analog watch sounds good at this point. all of the notifications are stressful.

[Artemesia's Garden]

I have a Rakuten Kobo reader that works well for me. It connects to my local library service. I prefer it now since I find it easier to read larger text than wear my glasses in bed. But I don't oay for any subsciption on it. I bought a few books when someone gave me a voucher, but prefer to stick to the classics.

I still use my old collection of reference hardbacks, paperback fiction, CDs and to some extent DVDs because I like to repeat watch certain films. However, my husband doesn't and has never forgiven me for throwing out some of his box sets that you now have to pay to stream like Downton Abbey and Steptoe and Sons. I thought they belonged to his late wife. Anyhoo.

We have a small house and the media does take up a lot of room, but I stand by my decision to keep most of it. The reference books are really useful for avoiding trash on the web and the information just stays where I last put it. We are lucky to be fairly settled, but moving house last time was a trauma.

Post Merge: February 27, 2024, 12:10:36 AM

yeah i regret getting rid of my old 90s boombox after i moved everything to MP3s.

MP3s lacked quality for me even at high bitrates so I never quite cut the cord. I wish I still had my Dad's old Akai tape deck though.

i was a tech early adopter for so many things back in the 2000s-2010s.

Same here!

but lately everything feels so broken that i'm reverting to analog.

I only use MLP Arena in terms of social media. We got Amazon to help buy kid's things quickly when we needed them but I need to cancel it soon. So I can go back to exploring my collections of physical media. It just takes longer to find things, but the handling it and pondering are all part of it that we've lost. I have so many books I haven't really read. Cookbooks where I've only tried one recipe. A whole drawer of violin music, most of which I've not played.

i'm a disaffected tech worker now i guess. i had high hopes for tech and now i'm just sad. i don't work for a tech company though. i work for a company that actually makes stuff.

I'm glad to hear that actually, I've heard that things are pretty tough in Tech right now

i love the convenience of having all of my music in one place and the variety i get with streaming. i don't think it's all bad. i've definitely found music i never would have known about if it weren't for streaming. i don't miss the way music was when i was in school where you just had to know people who were "cool" enough to introduce you to music or spend hours listening to the radio. but i do hate the data collection and the way streaming platforms prey on artists. especially the more niche artists who will never make money from Spotify, etc.

I miss the copied tapes kindly given to me by other kids, with hand written sleeves. Sometimes swapping tapes was my only real friendship at school. Kids who wouldn't be seen with me might still share a record or a tape with me. I also miss listening to John Peel on late night radio and scribbling things down. Although most of the DJs from that era are now being criticised for their sexual behaviour it wasn't something I was aware of at the time. I must admit I learned a lot via the old YouTube algorithm. Google dumbed it down considerably for a while but it seems to have revived again a bit for me.

records are so expensive compared to CDs so i think i'll probably buy some CDs soon too. CDs are way more affordable for albums where i don't necessarily like all of the songs. i just need to find a good cd player.

The 12" records I bought in the 90s and 2000s are still about the same price on a lot of second hand sites. One or two have gone up in value but not many. So I think I must have had bad taste in music 

i also hate, hate, hate the data collection model. every year when i get that spotify wrapped it just reminds me that they're collecting all of my listening habits. it didn't have to be this way. a lot of these tech companies are still burning cash even while selling our data. of course the executives still have more money than god.

Ick. Same here!! I loathe it. Now that the NHS data is being sold to Palantir I feel as though this is a paradigm shift in British society that will affect my life forever, but particularly my child's life. Very depressing.

i also use a physical planner and notebook now. it's so nice to just pick up a pen and write something down instead of making notes on my computer that always end up getting lost anyway. it's also much faster to just write it down instead of trying to deal with multiple windows.

I never stopped. My black Moleskine diary is viewed as an eccentricity in my family. So nice that someone else gets it. I use Outlook as quite a serious tool for work though.

i have an apple watch but there are so many notifications that it's unwearable. i'm not getting texts or anything fun either. it's junk texts, junk calls, and notifications from my security cameras. heaven forbid one of my neighbors is moving their lawn. going back to an analog watch sounds good at this point. all of the notifications are stressful.

Good to know. I wish my husband would get why it's not good for the mental health to leave his phone to hand all the time. It's like having a constant leak in your sanity. He thinks I'm odd for reading the Bible. I call his smartphone the Devil's Window. Or should it be Mirror. I also like to read Sci Fi written during the 1950s and 1960s. I'll sign off now!

[Leave a Whisper]

Last year I snagged myself 9 cds from Motorhead, Danzig, Megadeth, Metallica, Elvis, Motley Crue, Soundgarden, Iron Maiden, and Billy Idol. I wonder what I'll find this year?

[BlackCurtains]

^ Dang! Nice haul


I just bought a physical PS4 game and a cassette came in of a friends band.

[cowboyopossum]

For games I prefer to physically own them. Movies too.
Once I find the old DS, I plan to get the Ace Attorney games.

[BlackCurtains]

Bought another DVD. The Black Phone is only 5 bucks on Amazon.