Is it ever exhausting? The constant monthly subscriptions, everything as a service, and endless advertisements even after paying? Did we forget how to thoughtfully and intentionally enjoy media as it was meant to be enjoyed? These days, we pay fees to unlock endless hours of sub-par shows by streaming companies that are clearly just trying to keep you interested enough to forget about the slow drain on your bank account every month. I think there’s a better way, a way of consuming media that we’ve seem to have forgotten about. A way to purchase media and really own it, free from services. Today I’m introducing the Physical Media Movement.
The Physical Media Movement
I know there are others feeling the same way I do. Heck, I may even be preaching to the choir and everyone is beginning to feel the burden of maintaining subscriptions to five different streaming services. I’m starting to feel the bubbling of a new movement of people like me who want to really own what they pay for. Pay money and receive a physical item with intrinsic value. To not have that item taken away from them next month when the streaming service cancels.
It’s a slow bubble, more of a ripple really, that I think began a few years ago when owning vinyl records became cool again. Quite a few music fanatics starting purchasing turntables again and returned to the joy of pulling a record off the shelf, dusting it off, and listening to an album from start to finish. The only way that album can be taken from them is through physical forces. They own it, it’s theirs. They intentionally bought that record and they intentionally listen to that record and will likely continue to do so for years to come. Others I’ve seen are going back to buying CDs and ripping them for their personal enjoyment. Buying up used iPod Classics to listen to those ripped CDs. Going back to Blu-rays, DVDs, and even VHS if you’re really hardcore.
I’ve always thought physical media was a neat thing to own, even being almost too young to remember when it was all there was before all the streaming services took over. I have a small record collection and have started buying some CDs, but I plan on going much further with this. I’m going to document my journey on this blog to show that this movement is not just old dudes refusing to change, it’s young people too. We’re tired of being bombarded with ads and paying ever-increasing monthly subscriptions. Hear me Netflix? I’m going to give you a run for your money in any way I can.
Who’s behind this site?
I’m Will, and currently it’s just me with a tiny fragment of an idea. My formal education is in Computer Science, right now my day job is in web development. Older tech has always been pretty interesting to me. Some of that may come from learning about the history of computing in the classroom, but there’s been quite a few other influences in my life that have made me really interested in antiquated ways of gaming, listening to music, and watching movies and shows.
To give you a little idea of the age range I’m in, I just barely remember a time before MP3 players and iPods got popular and CDs were the modern way of listening to music. Growing up I would often buy MP3s online and I had many different MP3 players. I remember a time before Netflix did streaming and my family would rent DVDs which were mailed to our home. Needless to say, I’m quite young to a lot of people attempting to push this “new” idea of media ownership. However, I think that puts me in a unique position to grow the movement and get more young people to care. There will be a point of disinterest where even the possibility of owning new media vanishes, so numbers are everything in keeping media ownership alive and viable.
So what’s the plan?
Right now I’m in an exploratory phase. The plan is to build out the site and continue writing about my experiences. I plan on having tutorials and maybe some videos. There will be posts about latest trends and news highlights. I’ll be attempting to follow what media companies are doing in order to keep them in check and bring awareness to actions that go against this movement. Most importantly, however, I’ll be trying to have some fun and I urge you to do the same
Some house-keeping items
I just want to really quickly go over some things before closing this initial post. Firstly, I’m going to treat this site as a little side project and as such, there might be some periods of time with no posting. I haven’t abandoned you, I just got a little busy. It also needs to be mostly self-sustainable. After it gets some traction, I may put a few, unobtrusive ad spots on the site. I may do some sponsored posts, and there is a chance of some affiliate links. This site needs money to run so I have to figure out how to let it generate some revenue without being in your face about it and maintaining the core values of this physical media movement.
That’s all! I hope you enjoy reading and watching my adventures into this old-school world and I hope many take inspiration and follow along.
