Netflix’s mail based service had a great 25 year run. The five remaining US distribution centers hit the stop button recently ending the red envelope era.
I believe that as a species we have achieved “Peak Culture.” In this new era, physical media still has a place.
First & foremost, physical media can never be taken away from you. Oh, you want to download/stream that again? Sorry, we’ve removed it from our servers for no real reason (i.e. to save money). Physical media never has that problem, it’s always there for when you want to use it.
Second, there are thousands of movies that never made it past DVD to Blu-Ray and likely will never be available on any streaming services, ever. Physical media is the only way to watch these movies, even if it is only on DVD. The up-scaling on modern Blu-Ray players is pretty good, which makes up for that to a large extent. We’re not all archivists, but for those with niche tastes, physical media may be the only way to go.
Third, owning physical media means you can make your own digital copies, having complete control over the video & audio codecs used, and most importantly, the bitrate. Not all videos are equal, even if the resolution is the same. A higher bitrate will look better than a lower bitrate, and streamers provide shitty bitrates. Blu-Rays have an average bitrate around 25,000, and streamers don’t come anywhere close to that, due to the fact that lower bitrates are easier to transfer.
Bitrate matters for audio, as well. A 128kb bitrate mp3 won’t sound as good as a 256kb bitrate mp3. Let’s put aside for a moment that all mp3s sound like shit.Music streamers either don’t provide lossless music, or charge a premium for it. Every CD I own is ripped to my desktop, and I can transfer whatever I want, whenever I want. I never worry about my music dropping out because of a wonky WiFi connection. Not to mention that data caps are still a thing, especially on mobile devices, and even streaming audio can add up pretty quickly if used regularly. And again, there are tens of thousands of CDs that will never be made available on any streaming services, ever, so physical media is again the only way to access them at all.
It even applies to gaming. Digital storefronts for older consoles get shut down, which means that physical media is the only real way to still use those consoles, if it’s even available in the first place. I know not all games are available on physical media anymore, and that’s a real shame. Modern games can have ridiculous sizes, so it’s understandable that you play your new game, finish it/have enough of it, and then delete it to make room for something else. You’d better hope it’s still available to download later when you feel like picking that game up again. Imagine if Steam shut down permanently next week, or Epic. How many games do you “own” that you wouldn’t be able to download & reinstall again, piracy aside?
Physical media for the win, always.