Makes you wonder if physical media isn't actually in decline, but companies want it gone, so people will have to perpetually rent them forever through streaming.
Your computer is your property, but the OS licence is really what you are paying for, not so much the general hardware, and that goes for all software - no more CD copies now, just a download. The consumers always moan when Microsoft or Apple introduce some new fandangled OS, or decide to remove access to older platforms because................ THEY decide, not us!!
It's chicken or egg at the moment. Many younger people who only know streaming see it as the status quo, and the lower demand justifies phasing out physical media which perpetuates the decline in demand for the physical media. The end result will be the same regardless of the protagonist -- force everyone onto streaming services so you can charge them whatever you want.
what a boomer thing to think the simpler answer is that its easier to buy games on steam than it is to drive to wal mart not to mention, big retailers just suck in general, even if steam didnt exist, going to them sucks
We need physical media to stay alive. Streaming services can take anything down at any time for any reason, so physical media is the only way to make sure we can always have access to our favorite movies, music, video games, etc.
@@Larissa-eo3pt Or if you have actual moral issues with acquiring warez. Which, I suspect, is a lot more likely among this channel's main demo, myself included, than Gen Z/Alphas.
@@Larissa-eo3pt and when planet earth explodes what then. Look, everything breaks, both digital and physical are subject to something happening to them.
As a 17 year old , I’m not giving up on physical media yet. I’m still collecting dvds, blue-rays, and hopefully soon some CDs or cassette tapes. I also go to my local library to get dvds as they still have large selection. Using physical media is just better than streaming services or online.
I have to totally disagree, and I say this as an almost 40 something who still owned a black and white television in the 90s. Technology progresses and not everything is bad because it is modern. You wouldn't have liked having to carry around an entire backpack's worth of cds to play music on a road trip, or have a CD player that would scratch the disk if it got knocked out of your hands. Or have to have a bunch of double A batteries. DVDs were nice, but now, we have a lot more access to a lot more things, and I don't have to dedicate an entire section of my house to store all the things I want to watch and enjoy.
It's dead to the mainstream crowd but thriving with the collector's market. I feel like this this is the golden age. Tons of 4K releases and boutique labels putting out great stuff. There just isn't much of a purpose in putting out anything other than new releases in stores. If you want an older title, it's best and more efficient to them to be sitting in a warehouse to be shipped when sold.
As a physical media collector. With over 7,000 titles in my collection. I wouldn't call it a golden age for collecting. Not when virtually all Brick and mortar stores are eliminating their media sections. Yes there's plenty of online retailer's. But i prefer to go to a store and look and hold the item I'm about to purchase. So for me it's becoming a barren wasteland.
I am so disappointed in seeing most of all the Blue Ray DVD’s disappear from stores. Now all that is left is the junky standard def square format stuff that they charge inflated prices for. Really sucks! I really have to search to find any Blue Ray’s anywhere and when I find them, I snap them up.
@@thisshouldbeentertaining3386 It’s went back to the collectors just like it always was intended. DVD was an anomaly. When stuff like UHF is getting a 4K release, it’s the golden age. As long as you have access to buy the stuff, that’s all that matters to me. A store would be nice but I understand the challenges of that.
Maybe I'm an outlier, but the big box stores are rapidly offering no reason whatsoever to ever set foot in the store. I can remember the early 2000's when I could walk into Best Buy and find every new anime release, just about every recent PS2 release, and even a number of big box PC games sitting on the shelf. Even Target had a robust DVD/game selection. I'll stick with physical media until the end. When you buy content digitally, you never truly own it - you're at the mercy of the content provider. One of my policies is that I will not pay full price for digital games - if you want me to use my storage and my network bandwidth to buy a $50 game that I may lose access to at some time in the future, then sell me the game for $25.
I miss those Best Buy days too. Now BB has very little physical media (at least the ones around here), they mainly stock dishwashers and refrigerators.
I used to be a Target employee. My guess as to why the big-boxes are behaving this way is because they're all wanting to be Amazon. They still have their in-store option for shopping. But, it's clear in their heavy investment into shipping in-store products to fulfill online orders and parking lot pickup orders they want their customers to choose the not-in-store shopping option as much as they can convince them to do so.
Same , But we live in the era where the current generation is just too lazy. They don't want to hop in a vehicle and have to visit a GameStop or Walmart. And definitely not visit a video rental store. Grew up in the 80's and going to the video store was a treat. And was a social hangout. Same for the Malls. But as this channel shows they are disappearing also. 😞
@@thisshouldbeentertaining3386Completely agree, I remember getting off work on a Friday night, and my son and I stopping buy BlockBuster and getting some movies and then going next door to Papa Murphy’s and getting a pizza. Those were such fun times. We enjoyed them so much. Same as going to the mall on a Friday or Saturday night, having something to eat, people watching and walking around to see what the stores had for new stuff, meeting people you knew (my hometown was small, so you would run into almost everyone at the mall). It was a very different time.
@KW-ew7lla totally valid response! Granted, I didn’t do a deep dive into the section but just seeing the box art on some of these games had me feeling nostalgic for something I didn’t know was still on shelves.
Sad thing about physical PC games now is that most that aren't older casual ones are just codes-in-a-box, so no better than a download. Most computers haven't come with optical drives for a few years now, and I've only seen special collectors edition games that come on USB drives.
I've commented on this before, and always feel a bit awkward doing so because it probably sounds like I'm being smug or something, but I actually just find it fascinating more than anything. I'm an American in my 40s, and grew up in suburbia with BlockBuster, Walmart, Target, Redbox, numerous go-to shopping malls and big-box stores, etc., but for the last 5 years of my life, I've been living in Japan. And the contrast is... stark. When I've commented before, it's been about malls, because... yeah, dead malls aren't much of a thing here, as shopping malls are very much alive and well across the country, and especially in the cities (any cities, not just Tokyo and such!), are absolutely thriving and always packed. This time, the contrast you've made me acutely aware of, though, is in regards to physical media... because yeah, again, physical media is still very much thriving here. Not so much in the Japanese equivalents to Walmart and Target (though you will find a serviceably sized physical media section in Don Quijote here, at least, which is one of the major department store chains), but... rather, in their own dedicated shops, or in the Japanese equivalents to Best Buy (most notably Yodobashi and Bic Camera, both of which still always have HUGE physical media sections on offer!). Those aforementioned dedicated shops, though, consist of a lot of familiar names, such as Tower Records and HMV for music and some movies (both of which are still found all over the country here), as well as a record shop called Disk Union that's been popping up a lot here lately. But then there are also the used shops like Book-Off and Hard-Off (yes, it's actually called that!), which tend to have massive multi-aisle well-stocked selections of music, movies, and games available, as well as... video rental stores! Those are still a thing here. Tsutaya would be the Japanese equivalent to BlockBuster, and they're still all over the place... but remarkably, there's even a competitor to them (I guess you can think of it like the Japanese equivalent to Hollywood Video?) called Geo that's still super common as well. And both Tsutaya and Geo feel very well-stocked with not just movies for rent on DVD or blu-ray (or even VHS, sometimes!), but also music CDs for rent -- illegal in the U.S., but 100% legal here (whereas on the flipside, game rentals are illegal in Japan; it's very strange!). Tsutaya and Geo also often have "rental-ochi" sections, which roughly translates to something like "rental fall-off." Essentially, when a DVD or blu-ray (or VHS tape, or CD) becomes unpopular and stops getting rented for long enough, the store will just straight-up sell it at a huge discount, rental case and all. Retail culture in Japan is seriously booming, to an extent that I don't think I've ever seen it boom in the U.S. in my entire lifetime. Even when I was a kid mallratting with my friends in suburban Pennsylvania, I don't think I've ever seen malls as crowded as I often do now, on weekdays, in 2024. I'd love to see you visit Japan sometime and document some of this retail culture for yourself, as it's genuinely heartening and honestly quite nostalgic. I think you'd be floored by what you'd encounter here. Like me, you may never want to leave. ;)
Japanese CDs are really expensive, especially if you need them shipped to the US. I was lucky to find some used CDs by The Lethal Weapons. They sound so good on my big KEF speakers.
@@pilotgrrl1 Japanese CDs are getting a lot cheaper. They used to be 3000 yen apiece, standard (which is like $20 at the moment), but newer releases are only charging that sort of premium if they're in box sets with some kind of bonus content (Babymetal's new album coming with a jigsaw puzzle, for example). If you buy just a CD on its own, in a standard edition, it'll typically be 1500-2000 yen now, which is much more reasonable. And that's only if you buy new -- if you buy used from Book-Off, that price absolutely plummets. And even just a few years after a new release, you can expect to find the album at Book-Off for like 500 yen or less most of the time. (Shipping to the U.S., though, certainly doesn't help matters!)
@@Wyrdwad Glad to hear that, I know prices on Japanese CDs were high for a long time because the licensing costs there for music in particular was really high. For the small but growing CD collecting community, Japanese releases from 80's and 90's artists (think Metallica and even Sting) can be very expensive! Soundtracks of anime and video game music being imported to the US has gotten so common in the last 10 years I think that's also helped bring prices down a little. Stores in the US that import Japanese CDs like Kinokuniya Books do really well.
I feel like the "death" of physical media is somewhat accelerated by companies. I mean, I see plenty of people online, and meet plenty in the real world, who still buy physical copies of games, movies and albums, all while companies insist that physical media is dead. I guess what I'm trying to say is that companies are trying to push digital media onto the public by removing it from shelves, when I imagine people would still be buying it if they had the option. Or maybe I'm wrong, I don't know, this is just me hypothesizing. But it's definitely strange to walk into stores that used to have full selections of physical media like Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and even the occasional surviving FYE, and see it replaced with a single shelf of poorly organized LPs. It always kinda bums me out.
It's definitely a thing. They've been downsizing physical media for years even before streaming took off. Even the movies sections of like say 2010 were way smaller compared to ones from 2006. Then from like 2015 onward companies have slowly been removing our options to buy physical media while saying "See? People aren't buying them anymore! Sales have dropped!" It is for sure a self-fulfilling prophecy on the end of these companies that are pushing that narrative.
100%. The "death" of physical media is a way for companies to force you to get nickel and dimed on their streaming services. I don't think a lot of consumers actually want physical media to die.
Out of all the ones u mention Barnes and noble and Walmart are the only stores 🏬 that are gonna keep supporting physical medial and they have a larger selection compare to target 🎯 Best Buy already gave up so there out of business in a couple of years 😅😅😅😅
@@Finfection This is conspiratorial nonsense. Blockbuster didn't go out of business due to people still buying and renting VHS tapes and DVDs. Hell, Netflix was struggling in the beginning and Blockbuster had a chance to buy them and refused. Blockbuster died before streaming became a thing. Hell, streaming wasn't a major contender for years until it finally was. The truth is, for the last 20 years, the sales decline has been measured and real. People do not buy physical media anymore. RedBox died for the same reason.
I am a huge fan of physical media. My friends make fun of me for it, but I prefer ownership to convenience. So I'll continue to purchase it until it is no longer available.
I still use a later era Sony cassette walkman, really slimline and sounds great. You should see the looks I get when I grab a cassette out of my pocket, when changing my 'playlist'. It makes me chuckle!!!
Walmart was in talks with SDS (Studio distribution services) about taking them over and helping manage their physical media business., the largest distributor of DVD, Bluray and 4k UHD discs nationally. I started collecting movies on physical media again a year ago out of nostalgia and frustration over subscription services. I'm currently close to 2000 titles now which I now own forever. As a huge movie fan and growing up around a video rental store, I find that this is in a way protecting the integrity and vision of directors. Along with the artform of filmmaking.
Walmart caters to a lot more rural areas, where internet is not as good currently, requiring physical media. In fact, until the demise of Redbox last week, Redbox was pretty busy at our local Walmart.
@coreym162 this is correct though. If we all disappear and our computers stop working there won't be any record of our civilization and culture beyond a certain point.
Most empires last around 250 years. Coming right up to that. We're at the point where companies are stagnant and can't really post more profit for shareholders without simply raising their prices, slowly pricing out everyone quarter-to-quarter. McDonald's struggling being the most recent example. Welcome to late-stage capitalism. The fall is soon.
Streaming music, games, TV shows and movies can be a ripoff. Your access to whatever you buy can be revoked at any time (e.g. Sony's removal of anime content on Crunchyroll that was supposed to be forever). Long live physical media!
Yeah convience over quality is not better 😮😮😮 ur paying a free for all access ince ur subscription expires ur fuckec gotta pay again Not with physical medial pay once urs forever 🤟🤟🤟💿💿💿
I still buy blu rays especially if they have good extras like commentaries. They’re also a good backup if my internet is down. There’s also something more intentional about putting the physical disk in as opposed to scrolling a streaming service for 10 minutes and not making a choice.
I used to work for a guy who worked at a video store. One day he notices that the digital copies are just going unused so he essentially stockpiled hundreds of movies that way.
@@andysorensen1737 That's pretry smart. Last summer I wanted to make a spreadsheet of all of my family's movies (which ended up being around 900), and I noticed that a lot of our digital codes were unused, so I redeemed them. The good thing about them is they either don't expire, or take 10+ years to do so.
I’m in the Northeast, and my retail experiences have been different. I wanted to let you know that Walmart is also moving away from physical media. Some of the Walmart locations in my area have completely removed Blu-ray and DVD sections altogether. In both Target and Walmart locations in my area, it’s the Xbox section that is empty while Nintendo and PlayStation are typically plentiful. My closest Target has more movies and CDs than yours does as well. For CDs, we have new releases and big sellers, though it’s on a shelf the size of the DVD selection in your area. In my area’s Target, movies still have a full aisle too.
@@MacUser2-il2cx I’d love that! I really hope Nintendo doesn’t go full digital on us just yet. I think they’re the ones dragging their feat toward an all digital experience the best! 😊
I'm just old enough to remember when vinyl was still the king of audio formats, then tapes came, then CD's and vinyl dried up. Now we're back to a time when tapes and CD's are nowhere to be found in stores but there's big displays of vinyl. It's sad to see physical media in general dying out, I do plenty of streaming but still prefer to have a physical copy of the music and movies I really enjoy because who knows when they'll pull the plug on these services or remove certain portions of the selection.
Vinyl is only popular because of stupid assed hipsters. More than %60 of record owners do NOT own a record player. Just dipshits who want to say "I collect records".
Doubt it. The reason vinyl goes through phases of resurgence is because it literally sounds different. Vinyl has a rich fuller sound that you can't get from any other medium. People aren't going to buy CDs because of how they sound.
@@pixelbat A lot of it has nothing to do with the sound, because many people buying vinyl don't even own a record player. It's more about having a physical representation of your favorite albums with the largest possible artwork, or as a status symbol, or simply showing support for the artist.
@@roberto8442most CDs I get have been brickwalled which is why I quit buying them. These engineers seem to think everyone listens to music on crappy apple ear buds and the music is mastered at extreme volume levels. Very harsh to the ears.
@@pixelbatif cassettes have made a resurgence, CD definitely will. I've been picking up tons for pennies. Anything the last 10 years will be especially rare.
It's worth mentioning that not only does Walmart have physical media still, but many stores have their own steelbook section and Walmart has reprinted a lot of previous Best Buy exclusive steelbooks back into their store. Walmart picking up where Best Buy left off, I hope it stays that way.
I am big on physical media just because of how many things have been pulled from streaming and digital stores, a physical copy is like a permanent record of a movie, game, or album existing.
Man I miss the days of being a kid (about 12-15 years ago at this point) and going down the video game aisle of Walmart/Target and getting to pick out a DS game from those large glass cases. Back when the entire aisle on both sides was all lined with just video game cases. I always dreamed of getting older and being able to go down those aisles with my own money, but now that I have my own money those days are long gone.
I've been an avid DVD/Blu-ray collector for the last 20 years, and seeing every place that stocks physical media drastically downsize or get rid of it completely depresses me greatly. I've been advocating for physical media, I try to buy it whenever I can and encourage other people to show that's there's still a demand for it, but it feels like all us like-minded folks are losing the battle. I really don't want to see physical media disappear completely.
With a DVD/Blu Ray/4k collection of over 7,000 titles it's depressing for sure. Especially since I'm the type who prefers to look and hold the item I'm about to purchase. I still buy a lot of my physical media from yard sales and flea markets. But the past few years I've noticed a decline in finding them that way also.
@@thisshouldbeentertaining3386 Streaming services also, understandably, compress their streams to hell to save bandwidth. This makes fast moving scenes look terrible. A Blu Ray/4K it the best way to view a movie outside of a movie theater.
@@thisshouldbeentertaining3386 While my collection is nowhere close to 7,000 items, much of it has been obtained from thrift shops, yard sales, clearance sales/discounters, and the like. I like physical media, but I do not care to pay retail if I can avoid doing so.
My media dollars are almost completely spent at second hand stores like my local GameXChange and the far away McKays. I value my CDs, Blu-rays, and NES games. They are mine.
The fact that Best Buy cut off their Bluray, 4K and DVD sales altogether is WILD. When I worked there they made decent and steady money off of 4k and Bluray special editions, and this was just a few years ago. I expect it wasn't completely their decision but also the film studios (scary). The product categories they are filling that space with instead of is also just the sign of a dying company. Why would anyone go into Best Buy and buy a 4k TV and a 4K disc player if the store doesn't sell 4k movies? What a flop of a format (reminds me of 3D movies).
@@super256colors2Even before Best Buy officially stopped selling all physical media like DVDs(supposedly for now this announcement excludes physical video games, but I bet one day Best Buy will stop video games too), I feared that decision would eventually occur. Due to the fact they had slowly cut back the size of their DVDs/Blu-Ray selection, in recent years before that announcement. It's sad Best Buy decided to stop selling DVDs/Blu-Rays altogether, but I saw the warning signs that Best Buy was heading that way. Don't forget that sometime in the early or mid 2010s, Best Buy decided to stop selling CDs altogether. That was the first hint they were moving away from physical media, along with cuts to the size of their physical media selection. Remember how big their CD selection was, like 10-15 years ago or more years ago? I do.
You are lucky to have a Walmart that well stocked. All the ones in my area have severely shrunk their media sections. Down to like 10% of what they were 10 years ago. And they have since January been getting rid of the video game sections by clearancing out that department game by game.
One exception is stereoscopic 4K HDR content (as found in the Apple Vision Pro), on physical media stereoscopic content is limited to 1080p SDR (as found in Blu-Ray 3D), since 4K Blu-Ray doesn't do stereoscopic at all.
I couldn't imagine not having a disc player or my surround sound setup but instead using streaming only and a 2ch soundbar like most people nowadays....It's just gone backwards in quality and all about convenience which sucks!!
@@DavidMander-rs4uk Most people didn't care about quality even then. They never had a 5.1 system despite DVD-Video supporting 5.1 audio as a first-class feature (no secondary audio stream needed) and DVD-Video remains the most popular optical disc format even today, surpassing Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray combined.
I'm a physical media person 100%. Mainly for CDs which I have many. I do have DVD's and some blu-ray's but I don't hold the same value for those. I am actually surprised Red Box is still a thing, thought that would have been doomed years ago.
I'm one of those people who would rather have a physical copy of a CD, DVD, or Video game. I'm not too fond of subscribing to a streaming service, e.g., Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, or the like. It gets too expensive.
So at 4:24, the albums are the right actually are CDs as well. The Kpop market puts so many inclusions on these albums, so it's not like you are just getting the CD, you are also getting the items inside the album as well (think like movie DVDs where the extras, documentaries, commentaries). Kpop fans go crazy when they see these, so the CD industry in Korea is actually doing pretty well solely because of that (and a group named Aespa released their CD player, but I believe it's only available in South Korea so good luck). The albums are normally $25-30 at Target. Edit: 5:27 the Kpop section in Walmart too btw. Pretty impressive
I just started buying DVDs again on the resell market of my favorite TV and films. It's annoying to hunt for a film/show to find it’s not streaming or on a paid site.
Honestly I mostly thrift what I can with physical media minus video games (that are newer gen). The local thrift store near me has crazy prices for DVDs that I could prolly do a movie night off of 1-5 $ DVDs with friends alone. Also I kept a LOT of my DVDs as a kid, the only ones I let go were either out of my age range when I got rid of them or got bored.
Of the three big box giants Best Buy, Target, and Walmart, Walmart seems to be the store that carries the most physical media lately. I do think the way the medium is going is pretty sad. I do contribute to its demise by buying digital games on my Switch and PC and I have an Apple Music subscription. They're convenient to use plus my PC is devoid of a disc drive lol. Despite that I still cherish the times I consumed physical media. The sweat equity of washing my dad's car so I can get money to buy a CD at the Wherehouse (who remembers those stores lol) is something not many younger generations will go through anymore. Collecting music was fun. More fun than creating playlists on a subscription service.
I totally miss physical media, specifically CDs. I regret selling my 600ish CD collection about 10 years ago. I hate that "renting" music aka Spotify is the norm now. There is just something different about owning a tangible copy of your media. I think it adds emotional value to it. Something you don't get with streaming services. Streaming feels so sterile
I was listening to Eminem's new album for free on his official youtube channel when it came out this past Friday and it honestly felt like less of a big event just for the fact that I wasn't having to rush to the store in excitement like I would have for one of his CDs 20+ years ago. It's crazy how that instant access just makes it feel not as special.
@RobertQuant Yep, but you're missing the point. Albums and movies come out on digital months before they are out on physical now. I've already heard Eminem's new album for free on his TH-cam channel. Years ago I would have had to wait until I was able to run to the store, buy a copy, then get back home and listen to it if I wasn't listening in the car. The point is that the excitement and anticipation of listening to a "new" album is gone. Buying the CD in September now won't have that same anticipation since he decided to release it for free digitally first.
@@Finfection how u think Artist makes money before by buying their cds 💿 Streaming killed that stealing all the artist royalties and The reason why Eminem is the number 1 rapper cause his fans never streamed his music All of his first albums sold a lot of copy’s cause people were buying his cds in the 1990s streaming and the internet never existed back them people actually bought the albums
I think the days of physical media being mainstream are coming to a close, but with the nostalgia younger millennials and zoomers have for them, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a small but dedicated subculture keeping DVDs and Blu rays alive the way there is for LPs and cassettes.
The problem with physical media now is it's either a box with a code in it or people just don't have space for it all, I can feel the pain on that sadly. Though I will always champion physical media.
I feel physical media still has demand, because of movies and games that can easily be bought without a subscription service. But I find retailers like Target and Walmart reducing their physical media because it’s not a big part of their overall business anymore. Target only sells physical media based on limited edition with music and movies, while the Nintendo Switch is still popular physically because it’s the only console this generation that has standard support of physical media, because it’s a portable console! Walmart at least has a decent selection of physical media because they work with those distribution companies.
As someone who's been lucky enough to work with many of the boutique labels (Criterion, Arrow Video, Shout Factory, etc), all I can say is "nope". From a brick and mortar standpoint? It can certainly look that way (thanks Best Buy). But titles still sell quite well online. So basically digital sales of physical titles... a foot in each door, basically.
Before I watch this video: I would say absolutely not. People said personal printers would take down the print shops, yet print shops are still around and plentiful, at least in my area. Perhaps on a bit of irony, the records and record players are becoming increasingly common, something I'd bet many didn't expect.. I thought I'd never see a normal store carry that stuff, yet even Walmart and Barnes and Noble are likely to have records nowadays, something I certainly don't remember either store having much/if any a decade or two ago.
And after watching: Honestly, I think this video reflects what I said. I will say, I refuse to buy anymore non-physical games. I think American Truck Simulator is the last one I bought digitally, and that was years and years ago! I don't want anymore digital games, and I can't say I want digital paid applications period anymore. Refraining from it because I don't want my access to something which I paid for revoked at the click of a button.
I love physical media, but for the casual consumer, i totally understand streaming etc. My vinyl and DVD collections are massive, but im pretty self-depracating about it lol
I have been very impressed with Walmart's selection of DVDs/blu-rays this past year or two. They really have a great selection. I've been buying from them regularly. Neither the selection at Target nor Best Buy have ever impressed me. I predict physical media will be treated as a niche thing for a few more years, and then slowly rise in mass popularity as streaming services become closer to cable services (with ever increasing prices). I don't think it will ever go away in our lifetime.
I don't think physical media will ever go away completely but it's clear that the pivot to digital is very apparent with how small the physical media sections have been in-stores as of late. Walmart is probably our best option for the moment, there's now little reason to go to Target and Best Buy with how non-existent their selection has gotten and honestly I've pivoted to just go thrift shopping and getting media for a dollar a pop. If there's one thing to take advantage of right now it's the bargain bin prices you see of DVDs and Blurays at thrift stores.
@@Not_Always Nobody is a pretty bold claim to make when there are people in this world who do still buy physical media. I do agree that there is very little incentive for most people to buy physical music and movies at stores like Best Buy or Target but there is a very high chance that the people who do consider buying physical these days would rather go thrifting unless they are after a new release.
I love having digital games and DVDs and blue rays discs. Never liked digital, you can always sell or trade your games when you don't want them. Can't do that with digital.
Great video! It is sad that a lot of stores are no longer going to be selling movies and games. I am a big movie fan and collector and one of my favorite things to do when I was younger was to go to Walmart, best Buy, FYE, or my local video store and look through the movie section. So, I hate that a lot of stores will no longer stock movies. I don't think Physical Media is completely dying. I do think it is in stores, but not online. Their are so many companies that are releasing films on blu-ray or 4k in really nice editions. So, for collector's like me, physical media is not dying, we just have to go online to get almost everything now.
In recent years, I’ve come to appreciate physical media much more. As the PSN-Discovery incident and the Sony-Funimation acquisition show, digital copies are illusory and can vanish in a blink. Nice to capture the Redbox, I never used one but they’ve been a constant feature of every supermarket I can think of the last (almost?) two decades. Kinda like how you just don’t see landline phones outside of work settings now
That Funimation scuffle with all their old digital copies just vanishing is WILD. The average Funimation fan is not young enough to have grown up solely with streaming, so it just reminded all those collectors to keep buying physical anime, especially when it's a favorite series.
I still like to have some physical media. With most digital platforms, you still have to watch it through the app or website, you can't actually download it to your computer. So when the platform goes down, or if you lose your account, you lose access to it forever. And I like to be able to watch stuff if the internet is out. Also, physical media will still have behind-the-scenes features and commentary. These are pretty rare in streaming.
Digitizing your media (DVD, CD, even VHS) to Plex is easy and it is on your local network, not requiring an internet connection to access and watch. Think your own Netflix on your local network at home. It works great.
I remember a couple years ago a really bad storm came through my area and it knocked everyone's internet out for like 3 days. Everyone was losing their minds because they couldn't stream their movies or shows without internet. And many of them had long since gotten rid of their physical media. Not me though! 😁
@@Finfection When I was in college, it was pretty common for a storm to knock the internet out for a day or so at a time. Roommates and I each had a decent little DVD collection so we'd still have stuff to watch. My Indian roommate got really into The Simpsons cause she got into my collection during one of the outages, ha ha.
@@StarlightPrism Yea, ignore all the people that has lost their entire collection due to house fires. Just recently, a friend of mine lost everything because bad wiring caused his house to go up in flames, destroying one side of his home. Guess what he lost. All of his physical media. Guess what he didn't lose. His accounts to his digital media. So when physical media collectors like to claim physical media is forever, remember that they'll never talk about the countless people who lost everything they own because it WAS PHYSICAL MEDIA.
@@AllStarHealer ... No one is claiming that physical media is indestructible and will survive forever. People are just saying that digital media is vulnerable in different ways and that it's not a good idea to totally phase out physical. A big concern is that all digital creates a system where there may only be one platform to access a piece of media, and when that platform goes down or removes the media, the media becomes inaccessible to the masses, maybe even lost entirely. Your friend lost their physical media collection, but those weren't the only physical copies of those things.
Depressing AF I miss the old days when physical games where thriving not only on console but PC too. I remember going to Best Buy in the early to mid 00's and just seeing a whole aisle of PC games. I miss those old stores like Media Play, CompUSA,Circuit City, ect.. Not only was it great to have physical media back then but the games where a hell alot of better then modern gaming which is mostly trash these days.
I think if you like this sort of thing you should stock up on physical media and keep your older tech in good running order because I think all this streaming stuff is going to be subscription based to get money out of you monthly instead of just single purchase. also with streaming they can just pull something off of the service at any time for any reason but if you have physical media, they can't cancel it
16 years ago when I was 15, I got my first ever job working for a brand new Best Buy store that was just opening. I helped open the store and it was quite a popular location. My section on the floor was CDs and DVDs/BluRay, and it was like 8 shelves. MP3 players had already taken over and some early adopters were even listening to music on smartphones at that point. I am honestly amazed sections have even remained this size.
Best Buy was the place I bought most of my CDs 25 years ago when I was 15. It was the only place that you really could buy music in hometown after all the indie stores and chains closed down when the big boxes showed up. I remember watching the music section go from a whole side of the store to a perfunctory 3 or 4 racks in a corner somewhere.
I really miss how Bestbuy was in the 2000s. Their movie section spanned multiple isles each with tall shelves and they had every single release you could think of. Their movie section put everywhere else to shame that wasn't FYE at the time.
Yeah Best Buy was the biggest store known for cds 💿 and physicsl medial I would buy all my cds 💿 from them and even become a Best Buy rewards member Man I miss the 1990s 💿💿📀📀💽🤟🤟🤟 cds 💿 forever Streaming can go to hell 🤮🤮🤮🤢🤢
My 2 local Walmarts had movie sections like you showed but they remodeled in the last month or so and cut down to basically what your Target had. They clearanced all the movies in the big bins as well
Before Best Buy stopped carrying movies, I was visiting my local store at least once a month and purchasing new ones. Unfortunately I was an outlier. The place just doesn’t seem the same without movies for sale. They still carry games but their selection is tiny. I’ll still support physical for as long as possible but I think the writing is on the wall. My local Walmart still has a pretty decent selection for movies at least.
The blank spots for games usually means they’re in the back. You ask an employee & they go get it, similar to the old Toys R Us model. Walmarts are hit or miss for physical media. I’ve noticed the more lower socioeconomic bracket stores tend to have _more_ physical media & the more affluent area stores tend to have _less._ I take that to indicate the assumption that people with more disposable income tend towards streaming, even though we all know streaming services guarantee you nothing on access to a particular movie or show. If it’s around while the rights contract is active, you’re golden. If not, SOL. Physical is the only way to own it. Physical media’s time is up _at retail._ It’s all shifted online where it’s booming in 4K. Between the usual outlets, there’s other companies like Shout Factory, Vinegar Syndrome, et al selling 4K releases or Blu-ray for a lot of films. It’s actually quite the renaissance. Most people prioritize convenience over longevity, so that’s why retail stores are backing off on it as, to most, streaming has won. Plenty of collectors however holding the torch. Just look at the Blu-ray forums for avid fans.
I never stopped buying physical media and now have a collection of hundreds of movies and games that I still have full access to at all times. Big companies removing movies, games or shows from streaming or download services (especially when you lose access after you paid for the media) is why piracy continues to be so popular. No one that streams or uses online stores actually owns anything at all, they own a pass that allows them limited access to the piece of media.
I could go on all day about how bad losing physical media is to stores and to console makers, however that would require a long eassy post. In short when Best Buy did away with their movie section they closed down more stores and when Target limited their selection while not addresing their stock has also fucked them up. Meanwhile Walmart doubled down and has made them bank and even went into the Steelbook business. Xbox is also fucking themself over ditching their physical media and their shitty DRM (looks at Starfield and the Hellblade sequel). In conclusion if you shorten your reach the less people will buy your product.
I don’t even have a way to play any physical media in my house. Haven’t for a few years. No dvd player, no disc drive in my pc or ps5. Hell my last 2 cars haven’t even have a cd player
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment also made Chicken Soup for the Soul pet food. Good call on not doing business with a failing company. I prefer physical over cloud based. At least they can't pull something I own off my shelf. Or can they? I don't know anymore!
I'm 60 and will always be a physical media person. I'm in the middle of purchasing a PS5 and am opting for the"with dsc drive" version even if it's another $50.
It's worth it for the backward compatibility with PS4 games. And also, a lot of PS4 games that have PS5 versions will let you download and play the PS5 version for free, as long as you have the PS4 disc in the drive.
The future of DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray is like Laserdisc was back in the day. Laserdisc never was a big seller in the United States only peaking at 2% of American households but it lasted for almost 20 years until DVD overtook it in the late 1990s. Laserdiscs were generally not sold at Walmart or Target but at specialty electronic stores and video stores. That’s future of DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-rays in the sense that it’s going to be aimed at videophiles and movie buffs like Laserdisc was in the 1990s. That maybe 20 years from now but that’s probably the future. Laserdisc was able to survive that way. Plus DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray will survive for a while because up to a third of American households either don’t have access to good quality internet access or don’t have internet access at all for a variety of reasons. Plus over 5 or 10 percent of American Households that have access to the internet only have dialup as their only form of internet access so there is still going to be people using physical media for movies, and TV shows for a long while yet. So the tech press and mainstream media saying that physical media is dead don’t know anything about Laserdisc and how it was popular with videophiles and movie buffs. That’s what’s going to keep DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray going in the future. However you are going to have to go to specialty stores and Amazon to buy movies and TV shows on physical media. Plus right now I don’t see Walmart getting out of physical media when it comes to movies and TV shows for a while because of who there demographics are. These include lower income households who either cannot afford good quality broadband in which streaming is practical, live in areas that only have dialup or they cannot afford to have internet access or live in areas where internet access is non existent. So contrary to popular belief not everyone has access to good quality internet access. Plus there are still many individuals who prefer physical media like myself for many reasons including the fact that you don’t know how long a particular title will be available on a particular streaming service. Plus digital downloads are very problematic also because if the rights holders withdraws the rights for a particular title to be offered from the platform in which you downloaded that particular title from then your purchase is now completely useless and unwatchable. There have been lawsuits filed about this particular issue. For all of the reasons stated above physical media isn’t dead yet and it won’t be for a while. Contrary to what the tech and mainstream press wants you to believe.
Honestly those records tell you where movies are going too: those are almost entirely these expensive deluxe heavyweight pressings of older hit albums that get bought by people without serious collections mostly as display pieces that might get played twice on a $60 turntable that makes everything you play on it sound tinny. When Best Buy stopped selling physical movies they also stopped putting out these exclusive limited 4K steelbook releases and all that pretty much immediately shifted over to Wal-Mart. Give it long enough and you'll basically just see big studio new releases+ a rotating selection of 20-30 old favorites and that's it unless you go to one of the few remaining actual record stores or order online.
I don't think physical media is dead. It will just become dead for big box stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc. that can't compete with the convenience of Amazon or other purely online retailers. Plus, there are lots of specialized boutique labels when it comes to movies including Kino Lorber, Code Red, Synapse, Arrow Video, Vestron, Full Moon Features, etc. that are releasing lots of great titles every month on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K.
Seeing CDs sold in sets of 4 or 5 albums bundled together in thin sleeves. Branded as “original album series” you get phys media of the best old albums for a band, like Ministry, for ~$17. It’s like a last effort to monetize the IP, at probably 25 cents a track.
Call me a millennial but I will always keep physical games and movies on hand, and as long as they sell them I’ll buy them. It was nice to see Walmart stocked on physical media. Another great video thanks for sharing!
Thank you for making a video like this, especially showing what the stores actually look like and not just sitting in front of a camera and talking like what a lot of other videos of this nature seem to be doing. What I would LOVE is if you did a follow-up to this video and toured Zia Records, Bookmans Entertainment, or any other record/videogame/music stores in your area. I know you did videos on the first two stores before. I think a lot of people don't realize that while the average "pick up the latest blockbuster on DVD at Target" mindset has died, the shift has changed to shopping at "secondhand" physical media stores. These stores are invaluable and far more important than I think any of us realize, as what they offer for a community is multi-pronged. People can sell physical media to these stores and get a little cash or credit to find something new in the store, the store can oftentimes make good money on product that is considered worthless almost anywhere else, and people of all ages that still prefer physical media still have an in-person experience. I know there's parts of the US where stores like this really benefit the community because of poor internet access (mountainous areas of Tennessee or most of Maine for example). I think based on what you showed, Target is going to stop carrying Playstation and Xbox games, but I think Switch and the Switch successor's games will continue to sell at most retail stores for some time.
Dead is all relative to your exposure. It’s going to look dead in most brick and mortar stores nowadays. Fact is tons of physical media has shifted online…still being made and bought. Just at smaller amounts and much outside of the big box stores.
I do have to comment that he missed the kpop album section. There is a small variety of kpop albums at these stores but Target has more of a variety then Walmart from what I have noticed. I believe that as far as physical music albums, I do believe that when it comes to American music it is pretty much dying. I can’t remember the last time I bought a physical American music album. But as for kpop physical albums, it’s still a very strong industry. The perks are the collectible photo cards and the posters and photo books that come in the album. I have quite a collection of albums from my favorite idol groups and soloists.
Physical game media is not the entire game anymore. You still end up downloading half of the game. I suspect the next Gen PS6(?) and Xbox whatchamacallit will be digital only. Maybe they can make the download cards collectible.
@@ExplodingPrinny I would agree until PS5 used 100GB Blu Ray discs. As long as a game falls under that size then the game can be played without a patch unless you Activision with their awful compression files.
Target said 6 years ago they would stop selling CDs yet The Who and Megadeth released CDs after that that had bonus content only available at Target. Getting the Megadeth CD was impossible there because Target is just Walmart-lite now.
Walmart owns vudu digital movie streaming so according to an article I read, they still sell so many physical movies because they bundle it with a vudu code which people like. So they win
There is one place where physical media isn’t really dying… yet. Dollar General. With my local store, they still have plenty of DVD and BluRay movies, and sometimes when new releases drop, they will put mini cardboard displays up near the registers… that is, if the store isn’t too disorganized and messy. Being DG, the selection of DVD/BluRay is a big grab bag, with new and old releases. Some don’t even have proper cases and are just previously viewed rental discs inside a cheap cardboard sleeve. I don't have Family Dollar in my area, but I remember back in the day, they also sold previously used video games along with movie discs.
Movies and games were good profit centers for stores for many years; however, the media companies wanting to prop up their streaming services have probably made it unprofitable for the stores to continue to carry them, plus more people downloading directly or streaming.
I make a point of buying music I love on vinyl because it will last even if Apple Music or whatever goes away. I have and play my Dad’s LPs from over fifty years ago and I feel confident that I’ll have the Daði Freyr album I just bought for a long time. I’m much more inclined to buy vinyl than CDs because I know how comparatively fragile they are. My movie buff husband buys DVDs or BluRays for the same reason. We have a server containing digital copies of everything we own but we have the physical copies as backup in case of catastrophic technological failure.
I'm glad that vinyl made a resurgence about a decade ago! I love to hunt for records and while I do normally go hunt at my local record stores and the bigger stores in places like Amoeba Records in Hollywood, but I do also love seeing what retailers carry on their shelves. Barnes & Noble has an okay selection, Best Buy and Wal-Mart also tend to have the occasional "wtf is this doing here?" find. I think that part of the reason that the general public has shied away from blu-rays & dvd's is that studios has stopped caring about making blu-rays/dvd's special. When the formats first came out, studios were giving crazy and fun selection screens/menus, advertise and include tons and tons of special features like director's commentary, outtakes, etc. and it would make it feel almost like the movie you were interested in had some fun mini-games included! These days, they're all just splash images and basic menu options with none of the flare. I also think that it might be better for the environment. But I still believe in physically owning the media that you consume because when you buy or access digitally, it can be taken away from you and there's nothing you could do about it. Except, you know, have a nice day at the beach :)
Oh look I see your Walmart has brown floors like mine. They got ride of the white floors. With everything going digital or streaming, physical media is fading. As you said, the problem with streaming is that remove things. Unless you have a physical copy, you'd have no way to watch it
It should be noted that is a pre-remodel Walmart. They got rid of the full wall during remodel and only carry box sets, steel-books and new releases in post-remodel stores. What you found is NOT the standard for the company nor the direction they are headed. Sony/MS have basically made it impossible for their consoles to work without internet. MS having Gamepass has pretty much ended physical games for Xbox. It's to the point that we all need to band together if we want physical to survive. Now that library's are at risk of not being allowed to loan e-books after the archive org lawsuit they will start to fall quickly once physical media starts to disappear. If there's something you don't want to lose in the future, GET IT NOW!!!
@@anthonynelson6671 not that I am aware of. Most of those get taken down pretty fast anymore. Rights holders are at the point of going after libraries due to websites getting automatically taken down. Archive is probably the best bet but most stuff doesn’t stay up long
Most targets never put physical media on sale...They have games sitiing that are from 3-5 years ago when they came out and they are at full retail that many years later. When it comes to Xbox section and playstation section its always empty at my target location
You're lucky that you live in area with a robust local record store chain. If I had something like Zia Records nearby, I'd never bother trying Target or Walmart. I just returned from a vacation to Japan, and the difference is stark. Multiple record store chains and every electronics store I went into had a large movie/music section. It was like time travelling to the earlier 2000s, except with modern formats.
![เปิด อาณาจักร หมื่นล้าน "สาระตั้ม" l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3XE0nPF4YkQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Makes you wonder if physical media isn't actually in decline, but companies want it gone, so people will have to perpetually rent them forever through streaming.
Bring back Blockbuster!
Your computer is your property, but the OS licence is really what you are paying for, not so much the general hardware, and that goes for all software - no more CD copies now, just a download.
The consumers always moan when Microsoft or Apple introduce some new fandangled OS, or decide to remove access to older platforms because................
THEY decide, not us!!
It's chicken or egg at the moment. Many younger people who only know streaming see it as the status quo, and the lower demand justifies phasing out physical media which perpetuates the decline in demand for the physical media. The end result will be the same regardless of the protagonist -- force everyone onto streaming services so you can charge them whatever you want.
what a boomer thing to think
the simpler answer is that its easier to buy games on steam than it is to drive to wal mart
not to mention, big retailers just suck in general, even if steam didnt exist, going to them sucks
@@Gravitatis Physical PC games died nearly 20 years ago, I was referring to console games.
We need physical media to stay alive. Streaming services can take anything down at any time for any reason, so physical media is the only way to make sure we can always have access to our favorite movies, music, video games, etc.
Or download it like a normal person with access to a twenty dollar 1tb ssd lol
Streaming services are not the only places to find what you want , if you put a little effort you will find it and find it for free
@@tommylucatiel7911 And when the planned obsolescence comes for your ssd, and/or the software used to access the files, what then?
@@Larissa-eo3pt Or if you have actual moral issues with acquiring warez.
Which, I suspect, is a lot more likely among this channel's main demo, myself included, than Gen Z/Alphas.
@@Larissa-eo3pt and when planet earth explodes what then. Look, everything breaks, both digital and physical are subject to something happening to them.
I am glad I have a DVD collection and a small VHS collection. Some movies just aren’t on streaming at all.
I got so many VHS Tapes I have no where to put them.
I still watch DVDs and VHS tapes too.
And they never well
I buy DVDs and blue rays for this reason and everyone tell me... why?
I can't think of any movie that I would like to watch often enough to have a copy on DVD/blu ray/vhs
As a 17 year old , I’m not giving up on physical media yet. I’m still collecting dvds, blue-rays, and hopefully soon some CDs or cassette tapes. I also go to my local library to get dvds as they still have large selection. Using physical media is just better than streaming services or online.
I have to totally disagree, and I say this as an almost 40 something who still owned a black and white television in the 90s. Technology progresses and not everything is bad because it is modern. You wouldn't have liked having to carry around an entire backpack's worth of cds to play music on a road trip, or have a CD player that would scratch the disk if it got knocked out of your hands. Or have to have a bunch of double A batteries. DVDs were nice, but now, we have a lot more access to a lot more things, and I don't have to dedicate an entire section of my house to store all the things I want to watch and enjoy.
It's dead to the mainstream crowd but thriving with the collector's market. I feel like this this is the golden age. Tons of 4K releases and boutique labels putting out great stuff. There just isn't much of a purpose in putting out anything other than new releases in stores. If you want an older title, it's best and more efficient to them to be sitting in a warehouse to be shipped when sold.
I've bought so many this week at all the summer sales. Vinegar Syndrome, Arrow, Criterion, Severin. And I just saw Kino Lorber🥴
As a physical media collector. With over 7,000 titles in my collection. I wouldn't call it a golden age for collecting. Not when virtually all Brick and mortar stores are eliminating their media sections. Yes there's plenty of online retailer's. But i prefer to go to a store and look and hold the item I'm about to purchase. So for me it's becoming a barren wasteland.
@@thisshouldbeentertaining3386Completely agree with this as well!
I am so disappointed in seeing most of all the Blue Ray DVD’s disappear from stores. Now all that is left is the junky standard def square format stuff that they charge inflated prices for. Really sucks! I really have to search to find any Blue Ray’s anywhere and when I find them, I snap them up.
@@thisshouldbeentertaining3386 It’s went back to the collectors just like it always was intended. DVD was an anomaly. When stuff like UHF is getting a 4K release, it’s the golden age. As long as you have access to buy the stuff, that’s all that matters to me. A store would be nice but I understand the challenges of that.
Maybe I'm an outlier, but the big box stores are rapidly offering no reason whatsoever to ever set foot in the store. I can remember the early 2000's when I could walk into Best Buy and find every new anime release, just about every recent PS2 release, and even a number of big box PC games sitting on the shelf. Even Target had a robust DVD/game selection.
I'll stick with physical media until the end. When you buy content digitally, you never truly own it - you're at the mercy of the content provider. One of my policies is that I will not pay full price for digital games - if you want me to use my storage and my network bandwidth to buy a $50 game that I may lose access to at some time in the future, then sell me the game for $25.
I miss those Best Buy days too. Now BB has very little physical media (at least the ones around here), they mainly stock dishwashers and refrigerators.
I used to be a Target employee. My guess as to why the big-boxes are behaving this way is because they're all wanting to be Amazon. They still have their in-store option for shopping. But, it's clear in their heavy investment into shipping in-store products to fulfill online orders and parking lot pickup orders they want their customers to choose the not-in-store shopping option as much as they can convince them to do so.
Same , But we live in the era where the current generation is just too lazy. They don't want to hop in a vehicle and have to visit a GameStop or Walmart. And definitely not visit a video rental store. Grew up in the 80's and going to the video store was a treat. And was a social hangout. Same for the Malls. But as this channel shows they are disappearing also. 😞
@@thisshouldbeentertaining3386Completely agree, I remember getting off work on a Friday night, and my son and I stopping buy BlockBuster and getting some movies and then going next door to Papa Murphy’s and getting a pizza. Those were such fun times. We enjoyed them so much. Same as going to the mall on a Friday or Saturday night, having something to eat, people watching and walking around to see what the stores had for new stuff, meeting people you knew (my hometown was small, so you would run into almost everyone at the mall). It was a very different time.
Same. Best Buy used to be my favorite store. Now I wonder why I even go there anymore.
I was at a Walmart in Idaho of all places, and was shocked to see a decent selection of Physical PC games.
Right next to the pornos 😂😂😂
@KW-ew7ll yummy
@KW-ew7lla totally valid response! Granted, I didn’t do a deep dive into the section but just seeing the box art on some of these games had me feeling nostalgic for something I didn’t know was still on shelves.
probably have a code to redeem on steam inside tho
Sad thing about physical PC games now is that most that aren't older casual ones are just codes-in-a-box, so no better than a download. Most computers haven't come with optical drives for a few years now, and I've only seen special collectors edition games that come on USB drives.
I’ll never stop buying physical, I like to actually own my games and movies
Same here
same here, it's physical media or nothing.
Then the physical media requires internet to download the rest of the game 🙃
I use to be until the Physical Copy of things got way to high on prices.
lol u won’t be able to but it when they stop making it
I've commented on this before, and always feel a bit awkward doing so because it probably sounds like I'm being smug or something, but I actually just find it fascinating more than anything. I'm an American in my 40s, and grew up in suburbia with BlockBuster, Walmart, Target, Redbox, numerous go-to shopping malls and big-box stores, etc., but for the last 5 years of my life, I've been living in Japan. And the contrast is... stark.
When I've commented before, it's been about malls, because... yeah, dead malls aren't much of a thing here, as shopping malls are very much alive and well across the country, and especially in the cities (any cities, not just Tokyo and such!), are absolutely thriving and always packed. This time, the contrast you've made me acutely aware of, though, is in regards to physical media... because yeah, again, physical media is still very much thriving here. Not so much in the Japanese equivalents to Walmart and Target (though you will find a serviceably sized physical media section in Don Quijote here, at least, which is one of the major department store chains), but... rather, in their own dedicated shops, or in the Japanese equivalents to Best Buy (most notably Yodobashi and Bic Camera, both of which still always have HUGE physical media sections on offer!).
Those aforementioned dedicated shops, though, consist of a lot of familiar names, such as Tower Records and HMV for music and some movies (both of which are still found all over the country here), as well as a record shop called Disk Union that's been popping up a lot here lately. But then there are also the used shops like Book-Off and Hard-Off (yes, it's actually called that!), which tend to have massive multi-aisle well-stocked selections of music, movies, and games available, as well as... video rental stores! Those are still a thing here. Tsutaya would be the Japanese equivalent to BlockBuster, and they're still all over the place... but remarkably, there's even a competitor to them (I guess you can think of it like the Japanese equivalent to Hollywood Video?) called Geo that's still super common as well. And both Tsutaya and Geo feel very well-stocked with not just movies for rent on DVD or blu-ray (or even VHS, sometimes!), but also music CDs for rent -- illegal in the U.S., but 100% legal here (whereas on the flipside, game rentals are illegal in Japan; it's very strange!).
Tsutaya and Geo also often have "rental-ochi" sections, which roughly translates to something like "rental fall-off." Essentially, when a DVD or blu-ray (or VHS tape, or CD) becomes unpopular and stops getting rented for long enough, the store will just straight-up sell it at a huge discount, rental case and all.
Retail culture in Japan is seriously booming, to an extent that I don't think I've ever seen it boom in the U.S. in my entire lifetime. Even when I was a kid mallratting with my friends in suburban Pennsylvania, I don't think I've ever seen malls as crowded as I often do now, on weekdays, in 2024.
I'd love to see you visit Japan sometime and document some of this retail culture for yourself, as it's genuinely heartening and honestly quite nostalgic. I think you'd be floored by what you'd encounter here. Like me, you may never want to leave. ;)
Japanese CDs are really expensive, especially if you need them shipped to the US. I was lucky to find some used CDs by The Lethal Weapons. They sound so good on my big KEF speakers.
@@pilotgrrl1 Japanese CDs are getting a lot cheaper. They used to be 3000 yen apiece, standard (which is like $20 at the moment), but newer releases are only charging that sort of premium if they're in box sets with some kind of bonus content (Babymetal's new album coming with a jigsaw puzzle, for example). If you buy just a CD on its own, in a standard edition, it'll typically be 1500-2000 yen now, which is much more reasonable. And that's only if you buy new -- if you buy used from Book-Off, that price absolutely plummets. And even just a few years after a new release, you can expect to find the album at Book-Off for like 500 yen or less most of the time.
(Shipping to the U.S., though, certainly doesn't help matters!)
Sounds like a really interesting place.
Definitely more expensive. But I thought I got a good deal for Shin Godzilla dvd!! It was amazing!!
@@Wyrdwad Glad to hear that, I know prices on Japanese CDs were high for a long time because the licensing costs there for music in particular was really high. For the small but growing CD collecting community, Japanese releases from 80's and 90's artists (think Metallica and even Sting) can be very expensive! Soundtracks of anime and video game music being imported to the US has gotten so common in the last 10 years I think that's also helped bring prices down a little. Stores in the US that import Japanese CDs like Kinokuniya Books do really well.
I feel like the "death" of physical media is somewhat accelerated by companies. I mean, I see plenty of people online, and meet plenty in the real world, who still buy physical copies of games, movies and albums, all while companies insist that physical media is dead. I guess what I'm trying to say is that companies are trying to push digital media onto the public by removing it from shelves, when I imagine people would still be buying it if they had the option. Or maybe I'm wrong, I don't know, this is just me hypothesizing.
But it's definitely strange to walk into stores that used to have full selections of physical media like Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and even the occasional surviving FYE, and see it replaced with a single shelf of poorly organized LPs. It always kinda bums me out.
It's definitely a thing. They've been downsizing physical media for years even before streaming took off. Even the movies sections of like say 2010 were way smaller compared to ones from 2006. Then from like 2015 onward companies have slowly been removing our options to buy physical media while saying "See? People aren't buying them anymore! Sales have dropped!"
It is for sure a self-fulfilling prophecy on the end of these companies that are pushing that narrative.
100%. The "death" of physical media is a way for companies to force you to get nickel and dimed on their streaming services. I don't think a lot of consumers actually want physical media to die.
Out of all the ones u mention Barnes and noble and Walmart are the only stores 🏬 that are gonna keep supporting physical medial and they have a larger selection compare to target 🎯 Best Buy already gave up so there out of business in a couple of years 😅😅😅😅
@@Finfection This is conspiratorial nonsense. Blockbuster didn't go out of business due to people still buying and renting VHS tapes and DVDs. Hell, Netflix was struggling in the beginning and Blockbuster had a chance to buy them and refused. Blockbuster died before streaming became a thing. Hell, streaming wasn't a major contender for years until it finally was. The truth is, for the last 20 years, the sales decline has been measured and real. People do not buy physical media anymore. RedBox died for the same reason.
@@RobertQuant Best Buy won't go out of business because they stop selling a product no one is buying in the first place. How stupid are you?
I am a huge fan of physical media. My friends make fun of me for it, but I prefer ownership to convenience. So I'll continue to purchase it until it is no longer available.
I still use a later era Sony cassette walkman, really slimline and sounds great.
You should see the looks I get when I grab a cassette out of my pocket, when changing my 'playlist'.
It makes me chuckle!!!
@@museonfilm8919 I can’t even imagine that. I know what my friends say when I but a CD or blu ray” why don’t you just download it bro?”
Is your friend 12? Lmao.
@@Finfection no. Much older , that’s what makes it so bad. Lol
@@museonfilm8919 Imagine thinking that a cassette tape is desirable over a hi-fi uncompressed FLAC that you can play from the cloud.
Walmart was in talks with SDS (Studio distribution services) about taking them over and helping manage their physical media business., the largest distributor of DVD, Bluray and 4k UHD discs nationally. I started collecting movies on physical media again a year ago out of nostalgia and frustration over subscription services. I'm currently close to 2000 titles now which I now own forever. As a huge movie fan and growing up around a video rental store, I find that this is in a way protecting the integrity and vision of directors. Along with the artform of filmmaking.
Walmart caters to a lot more rural areas, where internet is not as good currently, requiring physical media. In fact, until the demise of Redbox last week, Redbox was pretty busy at our local Walmart.
I live in a metro area and never even heard of redbox until like 5 years ago.
Walmart is everywhere and not just in rural area. What a dum comment.
@@PyroShields just any fyi, it is dumb, not dum. If you are going to insult people, at least get the spelling right.
@@jackphillips3512 I misspelled it on purpose so my comment would not be shadow banned. How do you not see this dumdum? lol.
@@PyroShields that’s some serous next level trolling!
Unless you own physical media, you own nothing.
You will own nothing and be happy.
"Their society progressed to a certain point and then it just completely vanished," A Future Archeologist on our society.
Nope! Not the first generation to think we're going down the drain. We just cover the problems more openly thanks to tech
@coreym162 this is correct though. If we all disappear and our computers stop working there won't be any record of our civilization and culture beyond a certain point.
Most empires last around 250 years. Coming right up to that. We're at the point where companies are stagnant and can't really post more profit for shareholders without simply raising their prices, slowly pricing out everyone quarter-to-quarter. McDonald's struggling being the most recent example. Welcome to late-stage capitalism. The fall is soon.
They will know me by my media
@@charlottemcbrearty1849 That is complete nonsense. Books still exist, and people still buy hard copies of books. I know I do.
Streaming music, games, TV shows and movies can be a ripoff. Your access to whatever you buy can be revoked at any time (e.g. Sony's removal of anime content on Crunchyroll that was supposed to be forever). Long live physical media!
Yeah convience over quality is not better 😮😮😮 ur paying a free for all access ince ur subscription expires ur fuckec gotta pay again Not with physical medial pay once urs forever 🤟🤟🤟💿💿💿
I don't Stream any movies for last few years
@@JoeLouis-hc7mm that’s good u saving ur money
I own my digital copies. What yare you talking about?
@@Not_Always digital copies deleted easily
I really enjoyed this video! Thanks.
It’s sad RedBox didn’t do well and failed. It was great renting a cheap movie.
I still buy blu rays especially if they have good extras like commentaries. They’re also a good backup if my internet is down. There’s also something more intentional about putting the physical disk in as opposed to scrolling a streaming service for 10 minutes and not making a choice.
My target completely removed dvds. What a shame, cause buying certain blu-rays are usually a better deal, cause they give you a digital code.
I used to work for a guy who worked at a video store. One day he notices that the digital copies are just going unused so he essentially stockpiled hundreds of movies that way.
@@andysorensen1737 That's pretry smart. Last summer I wanted to make a spreadsheet of all of my family's movies (which ended up being around 900), and I noticed that a lot of our digital codes were unused, so I redeemed them. The good thing about them is they either don't expire, or take 10+ years to do so.
Last time I was at Target, it was pared down to one shelf crammed with a whole mishmash of DVDs and Blu-rays. That was around Christmastime last year.
I’m in the Northeast, and my retail experiences have been different. I wanted to let you know that Walmart is also moving away from physical media. Some of the Walmart locations in my area have completely removed Blu-ray and DVD sections altogether. In both Target and Walmart locations in my area, it’s the Xbox section that is empty while Nintendo and PlayStation are typically plentiful. My closest Target has more movies and CDs than yours does as well. For CDs, we have new releases and big sellers, though it’s on a shelf the size of the DVD selection in your area. In my area’s Target, movies still have a full aisle too.
Nintendo has one more new console coming so maybe by next year we'll see full shelves of new Nintendo console games?
@@MacUser2-il2cx I’d love that! I really hope Nintendo doesn’t go full digital on us just yet. I think they’re the ones dragging their feat toward an all digital experience the best! 😊
I'm just old enough to remember when vinyl was still the king of audio formats, then tapes came, then CD's and vinyl dried up. Now we're back to a time when tapes and CD's are nowhere to be found in stores but there's big displays of vinyl. It's sad to see physical media in general dying out, I do plenty of streaming but still prefer to have a physical copy of the music and movies I really enjoy because who knows when they'll pull the plug on these services or remove certain portions of the selection.
Well if ur not buying it U not supporting it especially if u only steaming music 😅
Physical Media is not dying
If Vinyl can have resurgence, so can CDs, DVDs and Blu Ray.
Vinyl is only popular because of stupid assed hipsters. More than %60 of record owners do NOT own a record player. Just dipshits who want to say "I collect records".
Doubt it. The reason vinyl goes through phases of resurgence is because it literally sounds different. Vinyl has a rich fuller sound that you can't get from any other medium. People aren't going to buy CDs because of how they sound.
@@pixelbat A lot of it has nothing to do with the sound, because many people buying vinyl don't even own a record player. It's more about having a physical representation of your favorite albums with the largest possible artwork, or as a status symbol, or simply showing support for the artist.
@@roberto8442most CDs I get have been brickwalled which is why I quit buying them. These engineers seem to think everyone listens to music on crappy apple ear buds and the music is mastered at extreme volume levels. Very harsh to the ears.
@@pixelbatif cassettes have made a resurgence, CD definitely will. I've been picking up tons for pennies. Anything the last 10 years will be especially rare.
It's worth mentioning that not only does Walmart have physical media still, but many stores have their own steelbook section and Walmart has reprinted a lot of previous Best Buy exclusive steelbooks back into their store. Walmart picking up where Best Buy left off, I hope it stays that way.
me too.
Walmart contracted to be the main distributor of steelbooks until 2030.
Walmart is the best there going to make all the money know on physical media 😂😂😂Best buy going for bankruptcy I’m calling it know 😅
Wow, Redbox is shutting down too? Wild
I am big on physical media just because of how many things have been pulled from streaming and digital stores, a physical copy is like a permanent record of a movie, game, or album existing.
Man I miss the days of being a kid (about 12-15 years ago at this point) and going down the video game aisle of Walmart/Target and getting to pick out a DS game from those large glass cases. Back when the entire aisle on both sides was all lined with just video game cases. I always dreamed of getting older and being able to go down those aisles with my own money, but now that I have my own money those days are long gone.
I've been an avid DVD/Blu-ray collector for the last 20 years, and seeing every place that stocks physical media drastically downsize or get rid of it completely depresses me greatly. I've been advocating for physical media, I try to buy it whenever I can and encourage other people to show that's there's still a demand for it, but it feels like all us like-minded folks are losing the battle. I really don't want to see physical media disappear completely.
With a DVD/Blu Ray/4k collection of over 7,000 titles it's depressing for sure. Especially since I'm the type who prefers to look and hold the item I'm about to purchase. I still buy a lot of my physical media from yard sales and flea markets. But the past few years I've noticed a decline in finding them that way also.
@@thisshouldbeentertaining3386 Streaming services also, understandably, compress their streams to hell to save bandwidth. This makes fast moving scenes look terrible. A Blu Ray/4K it the best way to view a movie outside of a movie theater.
@@thisshouldbeentertaining3386
While my collection is nowhere close to 7,000 items, much of it has been obtained from thrift shops, yard sales, clearance sales/discounters, and the like. I like physical media, but I do not care to pay retail if I can avoid doing so.
My media dollars are almost completely spent at second hand stores like my local GameXChange and the far away McKays. I value my CDs, Blu-rays, and NES games. They are mine.
People still seem to prefer physical books over ebooks.
I just recently paired down my physical media. 90% of it I never touched it literally sat on a shelf. So I kept what I wanted and got rid of the rest.
Tubi has saved me from buying a lot of movies I've never seen before. I have too much already.
Give them too me if u don’t want them 😅😅😅 physical media better than streaming to me 🤟🤟😊
Great job Bestbuy I didn’t want to buy any physical media. But I definitely wanted no name e lawnmowers and low quality BBQ grills 😊
Also OLED panels that will have burn-in if your not careful.
@@vagamer522It’s a risk but I love OLED. Bought an OLED monitor for my PC and I love it!
The fact that Best Buy cut off their Bluray, 4K and DVD sales altogether is WILD. When I worked there they made decent and steady money off of 4k and Bluray special editions, and this was just a few years ago. I expect it wasn't completely their decision but also the film studios (scary). The product categories they are filling that space with instead of is also just the sign of a dying company. Why would anyone go into Best Buy and buy a 4k TV and a 4K disc player if the store doesn't sell 4k movies? What a flop of a format (reminds me of 3D movies).
@@super256colors2that’s what I said there gonna go out of business know Walmart is taking over 😅😅😅
@@super256colors2Even before Best Buy officially stopped selling all physical media like DVDs(supposedly for now this announcement excludes physical video games, but I bet one day Best Buy will stop video games too), I feared that decision would eventually occur. Due to the fact they had slowly cut back the size of their DVDs/Blu-Ray selection, in recent years before that announcement. It's sad Best Buy decided to stop selling DVDs/Blu-Rays altogether, but I saw the warning signs that Best Buy was heading that way.
Don't forget that sometime in the early or mid 2010s, Best Buy decided to stop selling CDs altogether. That was the first hint they were moving away from physical media, along with cuts to the size of their physical media selection. Remember how big their CD selection was, like 10-15 years ago or more years ago? I do.
You are lucky to have a Walmart that well stocked. All the ones in my area have severely shrunk their media sections. Down to like 10% of what they were 10 years ago. And they have since January been getting rid of the video game sections by clearancing out that department game by game.
Yeah all Walmarts are different same with target 🎯
If you are a home theater enthusiast, physical media without question is the best.
One exception is stereoscopic 4K HDR content (as found in the Apple Vision Pro), on physical media stereoscopic content is limited to 1080p SDR (as found in Blu-Ray 3D), since 4K Blu-Ray doesn't do stereoscopic at all.
Which is why I have a Plex server.
@@theonlyone992 Same. Having a "physical" digital copy is second best
I couldn't imagine not having a disc player or my surround sound setup but instead using streaming only and a 2ch soundbar like most people nowadays....It's just gone backwards in quality and all about convenience which sucks!!
@@DavidMander-rs4uk Most people didn't care about quality even then. They never had a 5.1 system despite DVD-Video supporting 5.1 audio as a first-class feature (no secondary audio stream needed) and DVD-Video remains the most popular optical disc format even today, surpassing Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray combined.
I find it pretty wild that vinyl is the most popular form of physical media right now. A format that was basically considered obsolete 20 years ago.
Nothing against records But I’m always going to prefer cds 💿 there smaller and take up less space better sound quality
Vinyl wasn't considered obsolete 20 years ago.
I'm a physical media person 100%. Mainly for CDs which I have many. I do have DVD's and some blu-ray's but I don't hold the same value for those. I am actually surprised Red Box is still a thing, thought that would have been doomed years ago.
I'm one of those people who would rather have a physical copy of a CD, DVD, or Video game. I'm not too fond of subscribing to a streaming service, e.g., Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, or the like. It gets too expensive.
You don't have to pay for streaming to own a digital copy
So at 4:24, the albums are the right actually are CDs as well. The Kpop market puts so many inclusions on these albums, so it's not like you are just getting the CD, you are also getting the items inside the album as well (think like movie DVDs where the extras, documentaries, commentaries). Kpop fans go crazy when they see these, so the CD industry in Korea is actually doing pretty well solely because of that (and a group named Aespa released their CD player, but I believe it's only available in South Korea so good luck). The albums are normally $25-30 at Target.
Edit: 5:27 the Kpop section in Walmart too btw. Pretty impressive
I just started buying DVDs again on the resell market of my favorite TV and films. It's annoying to hunt for a film/show to find it’s not streaming or on a paid site.
Honestly I mostly thrift what I can with physical media minus video games (that are newer gen). The local thrift store near me has crazy prices for DVDs that I could prolly do a movie night off of 1-5 $ DVDs with friends alone. Also I kept a LOT of my DVDs as a kid, the only ones I let go were either out of my age range when I got rid of them or got bored.
Of the three big box giants Best Buy, Target, and Walmart, Walmart seems to be the store that carries the most physical media lately. I do think the way the medium is going is pretty sad. I do contribute to its demise by buying digital games on my Switch and PC and I have an Apple Music subscription. They're convenient to use plus my PC is devoid of a disc drive lol. Despite that I still cherish the times I consumed physical media. The sweat equity of washing my dad's car so I can get money to buy a CD at the Wherehouse (who remembers those stores lol) is something not many younger generations will go through anymore. Collecting music was fun. More fun than creating playlists on a subscription service.
because walmart has sufficient market share to demand physical media or cut them off.
It is much more exciting to have a CD, Vinyl, and DVD collection than having a list on a playlist on a streaming platform.
Physical medial forever 🤟🤟💿💿📀💽💽🏬 they have better picture and sound quality u own the music and it’s urs forever 📀🤟🤟🤟🤟
I totally miss physical media, specifically CDs. I regret selling my 600ish CD collection about 10 years ago. I hate that "renting" music aka Spotify is the norm now. There is just something different about owning a tangible copy of your media. I think it adds emotional value to it. Something you don't get with streaming services. Streaming feels so sterile
I was listening to Eminem's new album for free on his official youtube channel when it came out this past Friday and it honestly felt like less of a big event just for the fact that I wasn't having to rush to the store in excitement like I would have for one of his CDs 20+ years ago. It's crazy how that instant access just makes it feel not as special.
U guys act like cds 💿 don’t exist 😅😅😅 I be buying cds and sellling them for a long time Kerp buying them and support ur favorite artist
@@Finfectionwell laziness is what makes people stream and by the way Eminem new album is on cd 💿 comes out September 13 there u go
@RobertQuant Yep, but you're missing the point. Albums and movies come out on digital months before they are out on physical now. I've already heard Eminem's new album for free on his TH-cam channel. Years ago I would have had to wait until I was able to run to the store, buy a copy, then get back home and listen to it if I wasn't listening in the car. The point is that the excitement and anticipation of listening to a "new" album is gone. Buying the CD in September now won't have that same anticipation since he decided to release it for free digitally first.
@@Finfection how u think Artist makes money before by buying their cds 💿 Streaming killed that stealing all the artist royalties and The reason why Eminem is the number 1 rapper cause his fans never streamed his music All of his first albums sold a lot of copy’s cause people were buying his cds in the 1990s streaming and the internet never existed back them people actually bought the albums
I think the days of physical media being mainstream are coming to a close, but with the nostalgia younger millennials and zoomers have for them, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a small but dedicated subculture keeping DVDs and Blu rays alive the way there is for LPs and cassettes.
I dont know a single Zoomer who is nostalgic for something they didn't even grow up with
The problem with physical media now is it's either a box with a code in it or people just don't have space for it all, I can feel the pain on that sadly. Though I will always champion physical media.
I feel physical media still has demand, because of movies and games that can easily be bought without a subscription service. But I find retailers like Target and Walmart reducing their physical media because it’s not a big part of their overall business anymore. Target only sells physical media based on limited edition with music and movies, while the Nintendo Switch is still popular physically because it’s the only console this generation that has standard support of physical media, because it’s a portable console! Walmart at least has a decent selection of physical media because they work with those distribution companies.
As someone who's been lucky enough to work with many of the boutique labels (Criterion, Arrow Video, Shout Factory, etc), all I can say is "nope". From a brick and mortar standpoint? It can certainly look that way (thanks Best Buy). But titles still sell quite well online. So basically digital sales of physical titles... a foot in each door, basically.
Physical media will never disappear. It will just become bespoke releases sold at a premium like vinyl was before it took off as the latest in retro.
Before I watch this video: I would say absolutely not. People said personal printers would take down the print shops, yet print shops are still around and plentiful, at least in my area. Perhaps on a bit of irony, the records and record players are becoming increasingly common, something I'd bet many didn't expect.. I thought I'd never see a normal store carry that stuff, yet even Walmart and Barnes and Noble are likely to have records nowadays, something I certainly don't remember either store having much/if any a decade or two ago.
And after watching: Honestly, I think this video reflects what I said. I will say, I refuse to buy anymore non-physical games. I think American Truck Simulator is the last one I bought digitally, and that was years and years ago! I don't want anymore digital games, and I can't say I want digital paid applications period anymore. Refraining from it because I don't want my access to something which I paid for revoked at the click of a button.
I love physical media, but for the casual consumer, i totally understand streaming etc. My vinyl and DVD collections are massive, but im pretty self-depracating about it lol
Sucks how Redbox is shutting down, I used to go with my dad to the kiosks all the time to go watch more movies after seeing one at a movie theater lol
I have been very impressed with Walmart's selection of DVDs/blu-rays this past year or two. They really have a great selection. I've been buying from them regularly. Neither the selection at Target nor Best Buy have ever impressed me.
I predict physical media will be treated as a niche thing for a few more years, and then slowly rise in mass popularity as streaming services become closer to cable services (with ever increasing prices). I don't think it will ever go away in our lifetime.
I don't think physical media will ever go away completely but it's clear that the pivot to digital is very apparent with how small the physical media sections have been in-stores as of late. Walmart is probably our best option for the moment, there's now little reason to go to Target and Best Buy with how non-existent their selection has gotten and honestly I've pivoted to just go thrift shopping and getting media for a dollar a pop. If there's one thing to take advantage of right now it's the bargain bin prices you see of DVDs and Blurays at thrift stores.
Dude, no one goes to shop at Target or Best Buy for DVDs and CDs. Where have you been?
@@Not_Always Nobody is a pretty bold claim to make when there are people in this world who do still buy physical media. I do agree that there is very little incentive for most people to buy physical music and movies at stores like Best Buy or Target but there is a very high chance that the people who do consider buying physical these days would rather go thrifting unless they are after a new release.
@@Bro3256 Well when 90% of DVD/CD/BlueRay sales have dried up, I think it is a fair assessment to generalize and say 'nobody'
I love having digital games and DVDs and blue rays discs. Never liked digital, you can always sell or trade your games when you don't want them. Can't do that with digital.
I always tell people that too even with cds 💿 and blue rays or DVDs 📀
SO buy something at a premium that I would have to sell at a discount because people don't buy them anymore anyway.
Great video! It is sad that a lot of stores are no longer going to be selling movies and games. I am a big movie fan and collector and one of my favorite things to do when I was younger was to go to Walmart, best Buy, FYE, or my local video store and look through the movie section. So, I hate that a lot of stores will no longer stock movies. I don't think Physical Media is completely dying. I do think it is in stores, but not online. Their are so many companies that are releasing films on blu-ray or 4k in really nice editions. So, for collector's like me, physical media is not dying, we just have to go online to get almost everything now.
In recent years, I’ve come to appreciate physical media much more. As the PSN-Discovery incident and the Sony-Funimation acquisition show, digital copies are illusory and can vanish in a blink.
Nice to capture the Redbox, I never used one but they’ve been a constant feature of every supermarket I can think of the last (almost?) two decades. Kinda like how you just don’t see landline phones outside of work settings now
That Funimation scuffle with all their old digital copies just vanishing is WILD. The average Funimation fan is not young enough to have grown up solely with streaming, so it just reminded all those collectors to keep buying physical anime, especially when it's a favorite series.
The problem with big box stores, if you want to purchase a vinyl album, 90% of them are Greatest Hits compilations of legacy artists.
I still like to have some physical media. With most digital platforms, you still have to watch it through the app or website, you can't actually download it to your computer. So when the platform goes down, or if you lose your account, you lose access to it forever. And I like to be able to watch stuff if the internet is out. Also, physical media will still have behind-the-scenes features and commentary. These are pretty rare in streaming.
Digitizing your media (DVD, CD, even VHS) to Plex is easy and it is on your local network, not requiring an internet connection to access and watch. Think your own Netflix on your local network at home. It works great.
I remember a couple years ago a really bad storm came through my area and it knocked everyone's internet out for like 3 days. Everyone was losing their minds because they couldn't stream their movies or shows without internet. And many of them had long since gotten rid of their physical media. Not me though! 😁
@@Finfection When I was in college, it was pretty common for a storm to knock the internet out for a day or so at a time. Roommates and I each had a decent little DVD collection so we'd still have stuff to watch. My Indian roommate got really into The Simpsons cause she got into my collection during one of the outages, ha ha.
@@StarlightPrism Yea, ignore all the people that has lost their entire collection due to house fires. Just recently, a friend of mine lost everything because bad wiring caused his house to go up in flames, destroying one side of his home. Guess what he lost. All of his physical media. Guess what he didn't lose. His accounts to his digital media.
So when physical media collectors like to claim physical media is forever, remember that they'll never talk about the countless people who lost everything they own because it WAS PHYSICAL MEDIA.
@@AllStarHealer ... No one is claiming that physical media is indestructible and will survive forever. People are just saying that digital media is vulnerable in different ways and that it's not a good idea to totally phase out physical. A big concern is that all digital creates a system where there may only be one platform to access a piece of media, and when that platform goes down or removes the media, the media becomes inaccessible to the masses, maybe even lost entirely. Your friend lost their physical media collection, but those weren't the only physical copies of those things.
Depressing AF I miss the old days when physical games where thriving not only on console but PC too. I remember going to Best Buy in the early to mid 00's and just seeing a whole aisle of PC games. I miss those old stores like Media Play, CompUSA,Circuit City, ect.. Not only was it great to have physical media back then but the games where a hell alot of better then modern gaming which is mostly trash these days.
I think if you like this sort of thing you should stock up on physical media and keep your older tech in good running order because I think all this streaming stuff is going to be subscription based to get money out of you monthly instead of just single purchase. also with streaming they can just pull something off of the service at any time for any reason but if you have physical media, they can't cancel it
Or just stock up on players.
16 years ago when I was 15, I got my first ever job working for a brand new Best Buy store that was just opening. I helped open the store and it was quite a popular location. My section on the floor was CDs and DVDs/BluRay, and it was like 8 shelves. MP3 players had already taken over and some early adopters were even listening to music on smartphones at that point. I am honestly amazed sections have even remained this size.
They had a ton of full tv shows on DVD box sets too. Entire seasons. Anime too.
Best Buy was the place I bought most of my CDs 25 years ago when I was 15. It was the only place that you really could buy music in hometown after all the indie stores and chains closed down when the big boxes showed up. I remember watching the music section go from a whole side of the store to a perfunctory 3 or 4 racks in a corner somewhere.
I really miss how Bestbuy was in the 2000s. Their movie section spanned multiple isles each with tall shelves and they had every single release you could think of. Their movie section put everywhere else to shame that wasn't FYE at the time.
Yeah Best Buy was the biggest store known for cds 💿 and physicsl medial I would buy all my cds 💿 from them and even become a Best Buy rewards member Man I miss the 1990s 💿💿📀📀💽🤟🤟🤟 cds 💿 forever Streaming can go to hell 🤮🤮🤮🤢🤢
Digital Media Is Not Property
Support Physical Media.
neither is physical media most disks have a DRM that the company can use to nullify or brick the disk.
Only thing I keep Digital Media on is on my PC.
You sound like an old loser.
You sound like an old 🤡 who is scared of the future.
@@mistermood4164that’s Capps 😅😅😅 ur only talking about video games cds DVDs and blue rays is ownership what h talking about 😅😅😅
My 2 local Walmarts had movie sections like you showed but they remodeled in the last month or so and cut down to basically what your Target had.
They clearanced all the movies in the big bins as well
Nice video! Thanks for this, it was an interesting discussion!
Before Best Buy stopped carrying movies, I was visiting my local store at least once a month and purchasing new ones. Unfortunately I was an outlier. The place just doesn’t seem the same without movies for sale. They still carry games but their selection is tiny. I’ll still support physical for as long as possible but I think the writing is on the wall. My local Walmart still has a pretty decent selection for movies at least.
The blank spots for games usually means they’re in the back. You ask an employee & they go get it, similar to the old Toys R Us model.
Walmarts are hit or miss for physical media. I’ve noticed the more lower socioeconomic bracket stores tend to have _more_ physical media & the more affluent area stores tend to have _less._
I take that to indicate the assumption that people with more disposable income tend towards streaming, even though we all know streaming services guarantee you nothing on access to a particular movie or show. If it’s around while the rights contract is active, you’re golden. If not, SOL. Physical is the only way to own it.
Physical media’s time is up _at retail._ It’s all shifted online where it’s booming in 4K. Between the usual outlets, there’s other companies like Shout Factory, Vinegar Syndrome, et al selling 4K releases or Blu-ray for a lot of films. It’s actually quite the renaissance.
Most people prioritize convenience over longevity, so that’s why retail stores are backing off on it as, to most, streaming has won. Plenty of collectors however holding the torch. Just look at the Blu-ray forums for avid fans.
I never stopped buying physical media and now have a collection of hundreds of movies and games that I still have full access to at all times. Big companies removing movies, games or shows from streaming or download services (especially when you lose access after you paid for the media) is why piracy continues to be so popular. No one that streams or uses online stores actually owns anything at all, they own a pass that allows them limited access to the piece of media.
Exactly. It’s a long-term rental basically.
I could go on all day about how bad losing physical media is to stores and to console makers, however that would require a long eassy post. In short when Best Buy did away with their movie section they closed down more stores and when Target limited their selection while not addresing their stock has also fucked them up. Meanwhile Walmart doubled down and has made them bank and even went into the Steelbook business. Xbox is also fucking themself over ditching their physical media and their shitty DRM (looks at Starfield and the Hellblade sequel). In conclusion if you shorten your reach the less people will buy your product.
Yeah if they get their asss on those feet and suppoort physical Média more People will buy them more
I don’t even have a way to play any physical media in my house. Haven’t for a few years. No dvd player, no disc drive in my pc or ps5. Hell my last 2 cars haven’t even have a cd player
that is a very well stocked walmart! nearly all of the ones in my area in TX have next to nothing in movies and CDs.
It might depend on local demographics/demand for it. Where I live in Louisiana, my Walmarts are still well stocked like the one in this video.
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment also made Chicken Soup for the Soul pet food. Good call on not doing business with a failing company. I prefer physical over cloud based. At least they can't pull something I own off my shelf. Or can they? I don't know anymore!
I'm 60 and will always be a physical media person. I'm in the middle of purchasing a PS5 and am opting for the"with dsc drive" version even if it's another $50.
@@roberto8442 Thanks for the tip!
It's worth it for the backward compatibility with PS4 games. And also, a lot of PS4 games that have PS5 versions will let you download and play the PS5 version for free, as long as you have the PS4 disc in the drive.
The future of DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray is like Laserdisc was back in the day. Laserdisc never was a big seller in the United States only peaking at 2% of American households but it lasted for almost 20 years until DVD overtook it in the late 1990s. Laserdiscs were generally not sold at Walmart or Target but at specialty electronic stores and video stores. That’s future of DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-rays in the sense that it’s going to be aimed at videophiles and movie buffs like Laserdisc was in the 1990s. That maybe 20 years from now but that’s probably the future. Laserdisc was able to survive that way. Plus DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray will survive for a while because up to a third of American households either don’t have access to good quality internet access or don’t have internet access at all for a variety of reasons. Plus over 5 or 10 percent of American Households that have access to the internet only have dialup as their only form of internet access so there is still going to be people using physical media for movies, and TV shows for a long while yet. So the tech press and mainstream media saying that physical media is dead don’t know anything about Laserdisc and how it was popular with videophiles and movie buffs. That’s what’s going to keep DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray going in the future. However you are going to have to go to specialty stores and Amazon to buy movies and TV shows on physical media.
Plus right now I don’t see Walmart getting out of physical media when it comes to movies and TV shows for a while because of who there demographics are. These include lower income households who either cannot afford good quality broadband in which streaming is practical, live in areas that only have dialup or they cannot afford to have internet access or live in areas where internet access is non existent. So contrary to popular belief not everyone has access to good quality internet access. Plus there are still many individuals who prefer physical media like myself for many reasons including the fact that you don’t know how long a particular title will be available on a particular streaming service. Plus digital downloads are very problematic also because if the rights holders withdraws the rights for a particular title to be offered from the platform in which you downloaded that particular title from then your purchase is now completely useless and unwatchable. There have been lawsuits filed about this particular issue. For all of the reasons stated above physical media isn’t dead yet and it won’t be for a while. Contrary to what the tech and mainstream press wants you to believe.
Honestly those records tell you where movies are going too: those are almost entirely these expensive deluxe heavyweight pressings of older hit albums that get bought by people without serious collections mostly as display pieces that might get played twice on a $60 turntable that makes everything you play on it sound tinny.
When Best Buy stopped selling physical movies they also stopped putting out these exclusive limited 4K steelbook releases and all that pretty much immediately shifted over to Wal-Mart. Give it long enough and you'll basically just see big studio new releases+ a rotating selection of 20-30 old favorites and that's it unless you go to one of the few remaining actual record stores or order online.
I don't think physical media is dead. It will just become dead for big box stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc. that can't compete with the convenience of Amazon or other purely online retailers.
Plus, there are lots of specialized boutique labels when it comes to movies including Kino Lorber, Code Red, Synapse, Arrow Video, Vestron, Full Moon Features, etc. that are releasing lots of great titles every month on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K.
As always great video 👍
Seeing CDs sold in sets of 4 or 5 albums bundled together in thin sleeves. Branded as “original album series” you get phys media of the best old albums for a band, like Ministry, for ~$17. It’s like a last effort to monetize the IP, at probably 25 cents a track.
Call me a millennial but I will always keep physical games and movies on hand, and as long as they sell them I’ll buy them. It was nice to see Walmart stocked on physical media. Another great video thanks for sharing!
Thank you for making a video like this, especially showing what the stores actually look like and not just sitting in front of a camera and talking like what a lot of other videos of this nature seem to be doing. What I would LOVE is if you did a follow-up to this video and toured Zia Records, Bookmans Entertainment, or any other record/videogame/music stores in your area. I know you did videos on the first two stores before. I think a lot of people don't realize that while the average "pick up the latest blockbuster on DVD at Target" mindset has died, the shift has changed to shopping at "secondhand" physical media stores. These stores are invaluable and far more important than I think any of us realize, as what they offer for a community is multi-pronged. People can sell physical media to these stores and get a little cash or credit to find something new in the store, the store can oftentimes make good money on product that is considered worthless almost anywhere else, and people of all ages that still prefer physical media still have an in-person experience. I know there's parts of the US where stores like this really benefit the community because of poor internet access (mountainous areas of Tennessee or most of Maine for example). I think based on what you showed, Target is going to stop carrying Playstation and Xbox games, but I think Switch and the Switch successor's games will continue to sell at most retail stores for some time.
I own physical copies of all my favorites and that's good enough for me.
Dead is all relative to your exposure. It’s going to look dead in most brick and mortar stores nowadays. Fact is tons of physical media has shifted online…still being made and bought. Just at smaller amounts and much outside of the big box stores.
Love your channel
I do have to comment that he missed the kpop album section. There is a small variety of kpop albums at these stores but Target has more of a variety then Walmart from what I have noticed. I believe that as far as physical music albums, I do believe that when it comes to American music it is pretty much dying. I can’t remember the last time I bought a physical American music album. But as for kpop physical albums, it’s still a very strong industry. The perks are the collectible photo cards and the posters and photo books that come in the album. I have quite a collection of albums from my favorite idol groups and soloists.
Blank CDs and DVDs are still being made but VHS tapes are discontinued and no longer manufactured since 2006-2008
Physical game media is not the entire game anymore. You still end up downloading half of the game.
I suspect the next Gen PS6(?) and Xbox whatchamacallit will be digital only.
Maybe they can make the download cards collectible.
@@ExplodingPrinny I would agree until PS5 used 100GB Blu Ray discs. As long as a game falls under that size then the game can be played without a patch unless you Activision with their awful compression files.
@@vagamer522 True, but I think Sony wants that digital only.
Download trading cards - wave of the future.
@@ExplodingPrinny Digital isn't even real, a physical copy is.
This is a common conception. Unless you're only using an Xbox. The vast majority of games on current consoles are complete on disc and cartridge.
Oh yeah the flintstones is definitely my favourite anime ;) now I’m just picturing Fred dubbed in Japanese….😂
Yayayaya Rooo !!
Fred be like.....WILMA! Omae wa mou Shinderu.
Target said 6 years ago they would stop selling CDs yet The Who and Megadeth released CDs after that that had bonus content only available at Target. Getting the Megadeth CD was impossible there because Target is just Walmart-lite now.
Walmart owns vudu digital movie streaming so according to an article I read, they still sell so many physical movies because they bundle it with a vudu code which people like. So they win
There is one place where physical media isn’t really dying… yet. Dollar General. With my local store, they still have plenty of DVD and BluRay movies, and sometimes when new releases drop, they will put mini cardboard displays up near the registers… that is, if the store isn’t too disorganized and messy. Being DG, the selection of DVD/BluRay is a big grab bag, with new and old releases. Some don’t even have proper cases and are just previously viewed rental discs inside a cheap cardboard sleeve. I don't have Family Dollar in my area, but I remember back in the day, they also sold previously used video games along with movie discs.
Movies and games were good profit centers for stores for many years; however, the media companies wanting to prop up their streaming services have probably made it unprofitable for the stores to continue to carry them, plus more people downloading directly or streaming.
I make a point of buying music I love on vinyl because it will last even if Apple Music or whatever goes away. I have and play my Dad’s LPs from over fifty years ago and I feel confident that I’ll have the Daði Freyr album I just bought for a long time. I’m much more inclined to buy vinyl than CDs because I know how comparatively fragile they are. My movie buff husband buys DVDs or BluRays for the same reason. We have a server containing digital copies of everything we own but we have the physical copies as backup in case of catastrophic technological failure.
I'm glad that vinyl made a resurgence about a decade ago! I love to hunt for records and while I do normally go hunt at my local record stores and the bigger stores in places like Amoeba Records in Hollywood, but I do also love seeing what retailers carry on their shelves. Barnes & Noble has an okay selection, Best Buy and Wal-Mart also tend to have the occasional "wtf is this doing here?" find. I think that part of the reason that the general public has shied away from blu-rays & dvd's is that studios has stopped caring about making blu-rays/dvd's special. When the formats first came out, studios were giving crazy and fun selection screens/menus, advertise and include tons and tons of special features like director's commentary, outtakes, etc. and it would make it feel almost like the movie you were interested in had some fun mini-games included! These days, they're all just splash images and basic menu options with none of the flare. I also think that it might be better for the environment. But I still believe in physically owning the media that you consume because when you buy or access digitally, it can be taken away from you and there's nothing you could do about it. Except, you know, have a nice day at the beach :)
I’ve been spending the past 3 months collecting my “desert island” 4K’s.
Oh look I see your Walmart has brown floors like mine. They got ride of the white floors. With everything going digital or streaming, physical media is fading. As you said, the problem with streaming is that remove things. Unless you have a physical copy, you'd have no way to watch it
4:40
RUBY GILLMAN SPOTTED
(Directly above the Spider-Verse DVD)
Sharp eyes! 😊
It should be noted that is a pre-remodel Walmart. They got rid of the full wall during remodel and only carry box sets, steel-books and new releases in post-remodel stores. What you found is NOT the standard for the company nor the direction they are headed. Sony/MS have basically made it impossible for their consoles to work without internet. MS having Gamepass has pretty much ended physical games for Xbox. It's to the point that we all need to band together if we want physical to survive. Now that library's are at risk of not being allowed to loan e-books after the archive org lawsuit they will start to fall quickly once physical media starts to disappear. If there's something you don't want to lose in the future, GET IT NOW!!!
Is there perhaps a resource such as sci-hub but for full pdfs of books?
@@anthonynelson6671 not that I am aware of. Most of those get taken down pretty fast anymore. Rights holders are at the point of going after libraries due to websites getting automatically taken down. Archive is probably the best bet but most stuff doesn’t stay up long
I still buy albums from record shops and will never stop.
Most targets never put physical media on sale...They have games sitiing that are from 3-5 years ago when they came out and they are at full retail that many years later. When it comes to Xbox section and playstation section its always empty at my target location
RIP Redbox
Chicken Soup For the Soul also owned the streaming services Crackle and PopcornflixTV
Huh thats odd I thought Sony owned Crackle
@@vagamer522 they use to they sold it to Chicken Soup For The Soul Entertainment in 2019
The sad irony is that my only option is to order my DVDs, CDs, and vinyl records from Amazon.
Yes, and online sellers are wise to it, pushing up the prices to insane levels.
Why can't they just leave us alone!!!!
Amazon is the best place to buy cds 💿 they have so many that u will never find in stores 😅
No record stores near you? I have like 20 in my city.
@@goldenhourkodak I live in a small town. Not many stores left here.
@@goldenhourkodak I’m here in Los Angeles we have Aomeba records in Hollywood but it’s far from my house I need to take the bus 🚌
I hate how many of my "physical games" has been just a plastic case with a code inside. I just want a physical cartridge
You're lucky that you live in area with a robust local record store chain. If I had something like Zia Records nearby, I'd never bother trying Target or Walmart. I just returned from a vacation to Japan, and the difference is stark. Multiple record store chains and every electronics store I went into had a large movie/music section. It was like time travelling to the earlier 2000s, except with modern formats.