I’ve personally never rented anything & I’ve always bought physical media. I hate the whole idea of never actually owning the damn thing…
PHYSICAL MEDIA FOR LIFE !!
And what’s your current collection count?
I think the key part is the copy part at the end there.
For example: a bunch of 3DS games are dying due to age. So physical media can br lost just like digital.
If im recalling correctly, it’s due to the quality of cartridges and how the games were stored on the carts(?). In which case getting a copy online is your next best bet. I feel like this whole rental system is the same deal. If they remove the ability to access the products you paid for, then you’re perfectly fine to go grab a copy from somewhere.
The biggest reason to buy physical in my eyes is that having physical and digital versions of something acts as a failsafe for everyone when it comes to media specifically
Is a rent-based economic system something new?
I used to rent VHS tapes and DVDs to watch movies for years. I never bought a VHS or a DVD in my life, and I watched hundreds of movies in those formats. Same thing for SNES games. Most of them I played after renting their cartridges for a weekend.
The only difference now is that the publishers are renting their products directly to us and making this their main source of income, making owning the products harder (or just plain impossible). But most third-world boys like me are used to this. I would never own official stuff anyway but I still have been consuming their content for decades.
I don’t believe renting by itself is bad; however, the digital media delivery method is sus. It’s so new, will it still be accessible 20y from now? Probably not without a more complex method.
buying drm-free digital media is probably also okay, if you back it up yourself.
i don’t do any subscriptions, myself.
Yes, and you’ve got to remember to download it as soon as you buy it. I’ve been stung a couple of times by companies going out of business or inventing rationales for removing “old” things.
🤝 I download new music to check if I like it, and if I do then go over to Qobuz and buy it DRM-free and download the flac file, which is my flac file. Happy to support the musicians.
Are there any good alternatives to Qobuz? I tried it out and was annoyed that they didn’t seem to embed metadata in the files (like album art) unless you use their “downloader” and I think it’s silly that I have to install that to just… download some files. Or maybe I missed something?
I mostly buy music from bandcamp. Drm free, different format options, you can stream before you buy (if the band has it configured as such)
I use 7digital. But also MusicBrainz Picard is great for adding metadata to files
7digital looks promising, thank you!
Yes the way I see it, is if someone is spending $60/month on 3-5 creators that’s still more money going to “the arts” than if the same person spent double that on streaming services.
In this anti-subscription context, it’s nice, but for me the main point of physicals is reselling. GOG just like Steam and others benefits from the fact you can’t get your money back, and you have to buy from them.
Ah that’s interesting. I’m too much of a pack rat and the idea of selling some of my music makes me uncomfortable. Though I guess I have some games that were duds I wouldn’t mind selling.
I’m converting to physicals now that I realised, I’m probably never going to replay 90% of my games.
I’m planning to sell most of my 3DS games because I didn’t like them enough to replay besides two, yet enjoyed them enough/know what the deal is when people discuss them that buying was worth it. Now I can hopefully get half of my cash back (and I already bought them used!) once I find the time and energy to look for buyers. Don’t know how much pawn shops take.
You might even try to buy new games and just sell them after finishing (unless you love them), but I have enough of a backlog already…
Definitely ok. They key element is being DRM free which means you own that media, not just a limited license to use it. I’m not aware of anyone selling DRM free movies or TV tho.
“I’d like to pay rent for my heated seats!” -Statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged
They have played us for absolute fools
Exactly. We could crash it tomorrow if we just did this together. Each dollar you spend on it is a “yes” vote.
