Why Collect Physical Media?

Over the last few years, there has been a steady increase in the sales of vinyl records. As a matter of fact, if you keep an eye on what musicians are releasing to the public, you’ll not only see vinyl records of all different colors and variations, but also CD’s and even cassette tapes being sold. If you want any of these physical format items from popular bands, you have to move fast. Everything can sell out quickly… sometimes in minutes or seconds.  In the age of seemingly endless media streaming services, how can this be? What would make people want to buy something that may take weeks to arrive when they could listen to those same songs immediately on their phone for a lower price?

Before I dive into this, I should get some things out of the way. First of all, I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything. If you like digital music, I’m not going to try to convert you to vinyl or any other physical format. If, however, you are considering getting into the hobby of collecting physical media (vinyl, CD’s, VHS, Laserdisc… whatever), I think you may get some value out of this article. Secondly, this is not an academic paper. My points here are my own personal opinions, and while most of them are based on facts that can easily be discovered through a Google search, I will leave additional research up to the reader.

With all that being said, I believe the first question that probably should be asked is not “why do people collect vinyl records”, but why would anyone buy physical media of any sort over the digital product? There are tons of different physical media formats, and they have some major differences between them. There are some common threads though, and I believe that these are some of the most important:

Ownership:

When you purchase an album, a movie or an eBook from a popular source (think of the big digital streaming services), what you are getting is basically a glorified rental. If you do a quick Google search, you will discover many stories from people who realized that they have lost access to their “purchased” media when a service shuts down. Sometimes the service doesn’t even shut down, but the company removes access to the product anyway. This could be for any number of reasons, but the most common is a simple licensing issue. Perhaps the license for that song or movie has expired, and the company has no choice but to remove access to it.

As upsetting as it may be to lose access to something you paid for, it’s important to remember that when you signed up for the streaming service, you almost certainly agreed to the possibility that this might happen. Who actually reads all that fine print? Almost no one, and the companies who sell digital goods understand this. They also understand that most people are only interested in what they can get instantly and give little thought to what might happen to their purchase in the future.

Even if you manage to retain access to your digital music files by downloading or backing them up (which you should absolutely do if you can), what happens if you want to sell your collection at some point? When you buy physical media, it’s actually yours. You can carry it around, hang it on a wall, sell it or burn it for that matter. Very often, the digital download version of an album is no cheaper than the physical version. It might take a little more effort and patience to purchase the CD version of an album, but once you have it, the sky is the limit. You can sell it, copy it, use it as a coaster or rip it to your computer and create a digital version of any quality you wish. If your computer crashes or the cloud service loses your data, you can just rip it again, pretty much endlessly.

Some people may ask why you would ever want to sell a CD. They must be pretty much worthless, right? It might surprise you to know that many CDs are actually worth some money. Especially older ones. If you really want to be shocked, check out the price that cassette tapes often sell for on eBay! People aren’t exactly clamoring for 8-Tracks just yet, but there is a reason that bands are putting out cassette versions of their albums at a steadily increasing rate.

No matter what physical media you collect, that collection will always maintain a certain value. You can trade it in or sell it if you want to. In my case, I intend to pass my collection on to my family when I finally kick the bucket. I don’t expect them to want to hang onto very much of it, but I’m pleased with the fact that they should be able to get a little bit of cash out of something that I was able to enjoy so much while I was alive. When a physical album is purchased, that money isn’t lost. As a matter of fact, many people consider their collections to be an investment. When you look at the prices of used albums, it’s not difficult to see why.

Tangibility:

If you are into music and it’s been a while since you’ve purchased a physical record, you may be forgetting the coolness factor of actually being able to hold what you bought. Being able to check out the physical packaging and presentation of any product is an important part of the experience. While digital media almost always comes with some kind of cover graphic, it rarely gives the full experience of holding the real deal in your hands.

Back in the day when physical media was the only option we had, the album artwork, liner notes and packaging were all considered part of the experience. If you are old enough, you may remember hearing stories not just about the music from an album, but also about the artwork. Think of the Beatles “Butcher Cover”, the supposed “OZZY” written in blood on the cover of Mob Rules, or even the serial number of the plane on the Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill cover. How many album covers were considered so controversial that they needed to be recalled? Since the items were physical goods however, many of them still exist today and are often times worth a ton of money to collectors.

Quality:

You don’t have to look very hard to find posts and articles from people wondering why music generally sounds so bad on streaming services. There are several different reasons that this is the case. On some platforms, you need to pay for the premium version of the service to get access to a higher level of quality (and then you need to know how to turn that quality increase on, which is a whole other thing). Sometimes the tracks are compressed so they transfer to your device faster, and sometimes the quality of the file is just poor to begin with. In most cases, whatever stream you are getting is probably not how the artist originally intended for their music to be heard… and you don’t have to be an audiophile to hear this lack of quality.

There are some streaming sites that offer higher quality audio, but these often times come at a much higher subscription cost. If you are determined to stream music on your phone or some other device, there are better options out there than Spotify, but you need to seek them out. What does this have to do with physical media, you may ask? Well, if you purchase a CD copy of an album, you can do the digital transfer of the track yourself and have complete control over the quality level of your music. So, then you end up with not only a digital copy of the album, but a physical one as well. If you are really determined, you can also transfer your vinyl to digital files, but I generally would not recommend that. It’s a lot of work, and most of the time there are simpler but equally effective options.

Eventually, I might do an article discussing how you can take your high-quality digital files and stream them from your own server. This isn’t nearly as expensive or difficult as some people might believe, and if you are really into music, it can definitely be worth the effort. For now, if this is something that interests you, I would encourage you to look into a Plex server. It has all the resources you need to effectively digitize your physical media (movies and other files included) and stream them from pretty much anywhere.

With that being said, a physical copy of an album is almost always going to be better quality wise than streaming it from somewhere, unless you know the source of the audio. You can be sure this is the case by doing the transfer yourself, or if you are at home, just choosing to listen to the CD or record instead of an MP3 file or stream. It’s certainly a little more effort than clicking a button on your phone, but like most things in life, getting good results usually requires some effort.

Final Thoughts:

These are just a few of the reasons that people are increasingly making the choice to go back to physical media when they purchase music. I would also argue that these points are only scratching the surface of the practical reasons as to why someone would want to buy physical. There are other reasons, such as the social element of buying, selling and trading records with people of common interest, and even pure nostalgia that also come into play. What are some of the reasons you love records, CD’s or whatever else? Give it some thought.

Originally, I had intended for this article to cover some of the reasons people listen to and collect vinyl records specifically. While I was writing, I realized it was becoming a little too long before I got to that part. Since the spirit of this blog is really based on collecting and enjoying all types of physical media, an article covering these general points seemed in order. Next time, we’ll get specific with vinyl records and why I believe so many people are choosing to listen to and collect music in this particular format.