The film fans who refuse to surrender to streaming

Even as someone who has a DVD collection this is ridiculous. Almost half the movies I want can't be found on DVD . PLUS - There's nothing wrong with streaming. I watched Police Story and Fist of Fury on streaming.

That's not quite what the article is saying, though.

Is streaming enough for some people? Yes. Does it have everything that a dedicated film buff could possibly want to watch? Clearly not.

Look, if a movie I have a physical copy of is also streaming, I will usually just stream it to save some wear on the players. But it's also nice to have a backup for stuff that isn't streaming anywhere - and some special editions have bonus materials you cannot find anywhere else.

funny enough that is the only reason i collect dvds

Well, ironically I see multiples of that one on Amazon (including the DVD).

I think this is a reasonable thing to be concerned about, generally speaking, but I’m far more concerned about my ~50k-strong music collection. For now I keep it in mp3s backed up on many drives and memory cards, but of course, if these are somehow discontinued, or the USB ports become obsolete, then there you are. I’ve got the USB-C one too as these will supposedly be universal for now, but again, this is all temporary. I also still somehow manage to upload my updated library onto my iPhone every six months or so, but it’s getting harder and harder to do, so I don’t add as much newly discovered stuff as I’d like to.

Went to a business lunch a few weeks ago, where an acquaintance was talking about his uncle who’d recently died and left his music collection, all in Apple Music, no physical copies, to his wife. It was something he’d cherished and used to add to over his lifetime (that part strongly resonated with me as that’s exactly what I do — at least one song from every film I watch, more or less). The wife, when his affairs were being handled after his death, discovered that he didn’t have the right to transfer ownership of his library, and it had now effectively reverted to Apple. Now she’s suing Apple, which of course is insane, but she actually is, I’m not exaggerating. In any case, this is chilling.

Since I used to work in the legal sector (until very recently), I always read the small print and was always very well aware that streaming, be it music or films, is a lifetime (supposedly, that is) rent agreement, nothing to do with ownership. But still, I found the story depressing and disturbing. I’d have been devastated if that happened to my family. It actually made me resave all my mp3 to still more hard drives, but as with DVDs, if the infrastructure stops supporting it, then saving it is sort of pointless, isn’t it. I don’t know if there is a way forward given individuals are still at mercy of the infrastructure needed to consume most things.

I guess I really need to be thinking about putting my music collection on CDs, which, I still have plenty, but it sounds like a mammoth task, I don’t even know what that would look like, and they can still get scratched, damaged, etc.

Film-wise, I keep all my DVDs at my dad’s, he’s a cinephile in his own right, so I think they’re safe there for now.

C'mon, if you wanted to get a new DVD of it, the cheapest you could get (once you factor taxes), would be close to $40 - for a 20-year-old DVD!



I threw that out there as an example of what happens when a movie isn't easily available and now I get post after post condescendingly saying something along the lines of, "it isn't that bad!"

Seriously, how hard is it to understand that this is an outlier case? Because it clearly is. Most well-known 20-year-old movies from major studios are easy to find on streaming, and a new DVD usually would run you maybe $10 tops new.

You shouldn't have to a) resort to pirated copies from Russian sites, or b) pay as much as $40 with shipping for a new DVD for a that came out over 20 years ago.

Why is that point so incredibly hard to get across?

When legit access to a movie becomes that burdensome, then, sure, maybe that's going to encourage piracy. If someone here had tried to make that point, I would agree 100%.

And this example is one of MANY movies that have become near impossible to have easy, legit, and convenient access to. I can't keep track of every movie that goes OOP on physical media and/or can't be streamed anywhere.

And once we start playing Russian roulette with easy access to major movies (unless you're deeply committed to supporting piracy, which personally I avoid like the plague) then sooner or later you may find that something you badly wanted to see can't be found anywhere.

Okay, that’s totally fair. I should not have said that. I honestly think the situation as it currently stands is an absolute tragedy.

I'd say it's safe storage practice keeping your mp3 music files digitally backed up. Good for you that you have them on more then one drive. I don't think you'd need to worry about USB ports becoming obsolete, if that did happen there would be a change over period where you could move your files to a new storage system type. Sounds like you have a good plan for your music storage.

That's just why I personally would never use the Apple walled garden. Too propriety, too locked in. Though I admittedly don't use it, I stick to open source apps...so don't know much about digital music streaming services to make any suggestions.

What do other people do/use for digital music?

Thank you! I hope you’re right.

I do use it as storage because I’m too attached to the idea of having all my music at my fingertips on my phone, but never use the actual streaming. I do use Spotify (and pay for premium at that) to discover new music, but the moment I like something, I find it in mp3 form. I do pay for the mp3s where I can, but most of what I want just can’t be bought. Ironically, it all means I find myself downloading music I don’t strictly speaking love, but rather I wouldn’t want to be left without it, which wasn’t the case even ten years ago. Back then I was very selective and only kept songs in my library that I adored.

I’m sure there are more streaming music services that I don’t know about, but again, I’m not really interested in them. I’m relatively happy with what I have, but I hate the precarious feeling that everything can disappear because the streaming overlords willed it so. Which is why your first paragraph is especially reassuring.

Kind of the larger point I've been trying to get at... stuff is streaming, until it isn't. And then what?

Yes. I am very bothered by that and actually think about this issue way more than I should.