The Physical Media Revival

When CDs (compact discs) first came onto the scene at the end of the 20th century, people were sure that vinyl records would die out as a consequence, giving way to their cheaper, more portable counterparts. And for a time, this prediction seemed sound. Record sales plummeted. People began purchasing CDs en masse. Entire collections of records were donated, and in some sad cases, discarded entirely. The age of vinyl, it seemed, had come and gone in the blink of an eye. 

Just a few decades ago, nobody would have bet that vinyl would eventually make a comeback. Yet, starting around 2010, record sales have steadily been on the rise. Vinyl was a fire that never fully extinguished; kept alive by enthusiasts, those glowing embers that survived the dawning of the digital music age have once again managed to ignite into a full on revival of the medium. And it certainly won't be the only revival, in my humble opinion, that we see in the coming years.

Just this past week Sony announced that they would be phasing out physical discs, transitioning to a fully digital storefront for their media by the year 2028. This change will mean that going forward, Playstation gamers will no longer be able to own physical copies of the games they purchase. No lending to friends. No reselling. No keeping a library of media on hand. Beyond games, films purchased digitally via Sony will also no longer be available starting in 2028. I have no doubts that backlash following this, along with countless other anti-consumer announcements in recent years, will spark its own physical media revival. People are tired of not having ownership over the things they purchase. 

And the world of books is no different. Do you really "own" the books you pay for through Kindle? Amazon can change its licensing terms anytime Jeff Bezos likes. And they already have. Just a few months back, Amazon locked millions of Kindle users out of settings they previously enjoyed, killing the ability to download ebooks to personal computers and devices. Until then, you could access those files outside of the Amazon ecosystem. Now, that's no longer the case. People have long reported being permanently locked out of thousands of dollars of purchases they've made through Kindle. Editions of books have been altered or swapped without the consent of the user whose content has changed. Books that get removed from Amazon's storefront, also get removed, post-purchase, from Kindles that already own the content. 

Consumer rights are being eroded in every industry, and publishing is no exception. I have no doubt that as purchasing transitions more and more away from true ownership to licensing and renting, people will come around to the now novel, but once commonplace, concept of collecting physical media.

That is the only way to protect ourselves as consumers in this increasingly anti-consumer age. It is in the interest of corporations that our purchases hold as little legal value as possible, and going totally digital is the fastest way to help them rob us. They can take back files we've already paid for, but unless they're going to break into each and every one of our houses to claw back the books on our shelves, it ends there. 

For now, physical media isn't going anywhere, despite what those who'd benefit most from its disappearance would have you believe. I wager we're going to start seeing a shift in how people consume the books they read, and years ago I might've bet wrong and said it'll all be digital in a few decades. Now, I'm not so sure. I've seen what happened with vinyl, and what's currently happening with consumers rights. I think the writing's on the wall, or in this case, the page; purchasing physical books is timeless, and one of the easiest ways to secure your rights as a consumer. Own what you buy; can't believe that's become a novel (ha) concept nowadays, but here we are.