During Covid and the lockdowns that it brought with it, streaming services have seen a rise in popularity. Because of the inability to shop in stores, physical media – such as DVDs – has plummeted in sales. This raises the question, is there a place for physical media in the modern world?
During the first lockdown, due to everybody being stuck at home, movies that were proposed for a cinema release had to be put on streaming services. An example of this, would be the DreamWorks movie “Trolls World Tour”, which, despite ambitions for a cinema release, had to be released on streaming platforms. This was a dangerous move; DreamWorks didn’t know if it would be a success. However, this tactic paid off for them as it made around $4 million. Due to its success, many other movies followed suit, by releasing online to home audiences.
Not only this, but streaming services often release exclusive shows or movies which cannot be found anywhere else, such as Disney’s “WandaVision” or Netflix’s “Stranger Things”, this not only attracts new subscribers, but deters people from physical media as many exclusive titles are unavailable to buy on disc.
Another example of streaming take-over is in the music industry. Throughout the years, there have been many different formats to listen to music on, from vinyl to CD, but most recently, streaming has become the main way of listening to music. Most people, use services such as Spotify or Apple music to listen to music as people feel it is more practical than physically owning music. It is efficient, cost effective and much more transferable.
However, most artists, still do release their music on multiple formats, particularly vinyl. Vinyl was the most common format in the 1980s, and although it did fade out, it has seen a comeback with help from events (such as record store day) which encouraged people to continue to buy records. The difference now is that vinyl is seen as a more premium product, where people will only really buy vinyl if they want to own a certain album or song on the “best” format possible: they keep it, treasure it and look after it. With this in mind, while most people play music on their phones, there is still a place in the modern world for other formats such as vinyl or CD, but they are just not as mainstream as they used to be.
The same can be said for films. Currently the best format in terms of quality is 4k. There are approximately 500,000 movies in the world, and only 35,000 available on DVD, 4000 on Blu ray, and of those, only 600 have been released on 4k. This lack of 4k releases, is due to a variety of reasons, one (quite simply) is because they have only been available to buy since 2016, which does obviously have an impact on how many are in existence currently. Another reason, is that 4k discs are quite expensive to produce, compared to releasing it on DVD or streaming, therefore, manufacturers may feel that it would be a waste of money as not only does it cost them more to make, but 4k discs are also expensive for a consumer to buy. Why would you spend £25 on a movie, when you could spend £10? Or even a monthly payment of £4.99 for multiple movies?
In conclusion, is there a place for physical media in the modern world? In 2021, the total sales for physical media worldwide was 1.2 billion, which compared to 2011’s 6.8 billion it is a significant decrease in profit. However, this isn’t as bad as it could be, instead of being dismissed, physical media is instead more of a luxury and a niche and won’t go away anytime soon.
BY GABRIEL BOXALL AND FINLAY ANTCLIFF
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