Why do Disk Drives matter?

[IcaroRibeiro]

haxxiy said:

SvennoJ said:

I'm not physical only for games, but still am for music and movies. I do stream movies as well but that's replacing rentals. I've never bought a digital move but I don't rent movies anymore. For music I either buy CDs or listen to the radio, FM still. Never used Spotify and the problem with movie streaming is the fragmentation. At least Blockbuster used to have everything under one roof. Now it's figuring out which streaming service has what.

For games I still prefer physical. Installs faster, can delete without worrying about long re-installs. And good to have a set of games I can play during internet outages. Plus it's easier to find games, easier to share, and have resale value. No hassle with emulation either, just pop in the disc in the old system.

CDs are 3% of the industry revenue nowadays, DVD/Blu-Rays about 7%. Meanwhile, in consoles, the ratio is about 16%.

It stands to reason that more people are buying physical games but not music or movies despite the quality of the former being the same while things like Spotify and Netflix are just absolutely muddy in comparison to physical media. It's crazy that some people would latch on to physical console games but not care about the other stuff they consume.

Personally, I still own Blu-rays for the stuff I really care about and still download my music at the best possible quality. I own physical console games on the Switch and PS5, but I recognize that's mostly out of emotional rather than logical reasons.

The things with CDs is not physical vs digital, is purchasing vs streaming. Digital music never really took off either outside few market like anglosphere and South Korea, most of world was either in physical on went full on piracy. Streaming is popular because it's unexpensive. I'm a person who listen a lot artists and like to discover new music, I could not listen as much music If I need to buy everything I want to give a try. 

Streaming subscription is just much much better value than CDs, unless you only listen the same artists and songs over and over. The difference in quality is neglible unless you have top tier headphones. Needless to say services like Apple Music and Tidal offer high quality sound compression, no reason for CDs 

For movies I believe the issue is not about streaming being better value than DVD/Blue Ray movies, since catalog is scattered among multiple services in the end streaming tend to be equally or more expensive. That makes streaming more valuable is their TV/Streaming shows. They spam multiple episodes, and provide entertainment for a long time, more than a movie. They also aren't tied with TV schedule, you can watch them at your leisure whenever it fits your day. Unlike DVDs they don't come to homes months after TV, so public don't feel alienated to buy discs

If I already subscribe to a service go watch seriated animation/live actions I can simply starting to watch movies there as well, and save money with movies purchases. I don't even have DVD/BR player anymore, when I want something not on streaming I have no option but buying or renting it digitally. If I want the best experience I go to the cinema which is far far better than any Blue Ray for immersion/sound/screen quality. Indeed that's why cinema still a bigger market than home media