Physical media has been on the decline for the past couple of years for a multitude of different reasons. Physical media are items used to store and transmit data such as DVDs, CDs, and even books to some extent.

One of the biggest reasons why the world has seen a decline in physical media is because it is easier and cheaper to just put media online in the cloud. Another reason why physical media is not being used is because there is no second hand market for digital media so the company will always make revenue whenever their media is sold. These reasons are all why businesses would make the decision to produce digital media, but consumers also have reasons as to why they would buy digital media over physical. One reason that consumers would like the change from physical to digital media is that they can have their media wherever they go. For a physical DVD to function you would need the DVD and a big and bulky DVD player. This makes it hard to use the DVD when you are away from home. With digital media all you need is your small phone and you can watch what was on that DVD wherever you go without having to carry all the big items. Another reason consumers would buy digital media is because it saves space. Instead of having a shelf full of books you can just pull out a laptop that has all of those books already on it.

Zander Karnik said, “I think its better that we are not making stuff like that because it is a waste of materials so not using stuff like CDs and DVDs is actually better for the environment and just makes everything way easier.”

There are cons with having physical media go away completly with a big one being that without the internet all the digital media dissapears. Imagine you favorite musical artist only posts to the internet. This is good now but if the internet ever goes down, unless you downloaded the files, every song from that artist is gone forever. Another problem with switching to digital would be that you wouldn’t own what you are buying. Companies have been using subscription services to give you their art for a long time, but the problem is that once you stop paying for that subscription you get to keep nothing. If you buy a DVD you can watch it as much as you want, but if you pay for a subscription service you only get to watch the movie as long as you pay monthly, leading to the death of physical media.

Donald Westendorf IV said, ” I don’t like that idea.”

A lot of companies that sell physical media have been shutting down because of the switch. On January 11, 2022, Redbox, a popular movie rental company, went bankrupt due to not enough movies being sold. Public libraries are also on the decline due to the fact that you can buy books online and it is easier than ever to watch media at home.

Physical media is still important because it allows us to save art for generations. Digital media is good because it is a easy way to get art out and into the world. Both of them have their pros and cons, but they both work best when the run side by side with one another.