With the growing use of digital media such as downloadable music and movies, is physical media a thing of the past? Will CDs and DVDs go the way of the vinyl album and VHS tapes?
Customers will always prefer to have physical media. Like vinyl albums of the past, physical media provides pictures, lyrics, and information about the artists. These are essentail for a true fan to have.
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Physical media is a thing of the past. With growing memory capacities and the ability to carry countless songs and even video on small devices, there is no longer a need for physical media such as CDs and DVDs.
15 comment(s) so far
idesignthinks: I see physical media going away. At this point, I no longer use CDs to listen to music and I carry other digital files on a USB flash drive. Movies I still watch on DVD, but I have been known to watch via download services such as CinemaNow. The only thing keeping me from ridding myself of DVDs altogether is the inability to watch downloaded files on my TV. As soon as I resolve that, I can't see using physical media again.
Carlthinks: Whereas I have recently stopped listening to CD's and rely exclusively on mp3's, I can't help think that the total extinction of physical media may still be some way off... I still read books and although I have subscribed to mobile news services and, of course, have access to the web, there's still nothing better than the rustle of a good solid newspaper on a Sunday Morning! Having said that, I wonder how strong that feeling is amongst the generations that have come after me... maybe the physical media will vanish when me and my peers have gone!
kacuriskothinks: CDs and DVDs (like vinyls) are good collectables, so they will not disappear completly. However they will finish like vinyls, and the main core of users will move to a more comfortable technology, non physical media!
deiselthinks: I agree that there will always be a place for phsical media. It tells a story in most cases. Where else can you read the lyrics of your favorite songs, look at artists image, and really get to know the artist. It's seems to be a more inviting interaction to look at a CD cover versus looking at a webpage.
eyetecthinks: The media will die, but that doesn't necessarily mean we get nothing physical for our money. Perhaps we will associate an album with something else, like a badge or button, or just picture.
jkthinks: Physical media is being redefined - it was CD, VCD, DVD, Blue-ray. It is now memory; your computer; your mp4 player - infact any storage with or without the means for record or playback. Now, what would be interesting is giving the appearance of removing external physical media by replacing it with storage, record and playback offered by the human body. Our body will become the new physical media. So physical media will still actually exist, but perhaps at a cellular level. So can digital media exist without an actual medium? Now that would be clever.
badmojothinks: Solid state media is the future. No moving part that can break down, no parts that can get damaged. Eventually, it may nt be magnetic tranfer though, obviously it would evolve form this, but I think the end of physical media is near with the exception of the collectible world.
dingothinks: i'm curious to see how media will be tranfered in the future. possibly via electronic impulse through the air or memory engrained in standard plastics or product materials.
simpleenoughthinks: vinyl has certian appeal that cds just don't have. vinyl has a certain raw, analog quality that is lost in digital media. I can see why it is a collectable. I can't see the same future for what i consider sterile digital CDs. they just don't have that kind of history to them. just like the old saying, "they don't make them like they used to".
