How Much Physical Media Do We Have and What Do We Plan to Do With It?

I have purged most of my CDs and DVDs. Some hold a special place in my heart due to circumstance when acquired or artwork, but even those are in storage. 

I have a collection of vinyl but my record player broke and now that I'm out of a fine art program I don't really feel the need to keep up with it (I'm half-joking). Those are also in storage. 

I doubt I'll ever be able to part with my books. I'll cart around those dead trees until I join them in Hell. However I did just move, and man were they heavy... I'd be lying if I said I never considered how much easier a single Kindle would be to carry. I just fetishize my bookshelf too much for that to ever happen. 

I've worked in IT long enough to become completely paranoid about digital storage.  Backups on backups, it's never enough.  The subscription model scares the hell out of me too, and it's where everything is going (clouds, accounts, etc). Seductive as anything, but we're all just trusting amazon, google, apple, et all, not to be bastards.

That said, best to make copies of your CD's and DVD's and whatnot.  They're decaying more rapidly then anyone predicted.

A pad or screen will never truly replace books for me.  I want to be surrounded by them and "marinate in the smell of old pages."

I'm struggling with this so much.  On the one hand, I'd like to rid myself of physical media because it just doesn't make sense.

On the other hand, I just got a PS3 and I'm lusting for a couple of blu rays...  I'm looking at you, Godfather trilogy and Alien.  I'm done with Star Wars, but in a moment of weakness I may break down and buy the classic trilogy.

I want to get rid of my two DVD shelves but I want to put all the movies onto some sort of drive that I can plug into my TV and play at any given time if I want. 

There's also net neutrality to worry about.  Having all your stuff on the cloud is no good if you can't get to it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackyShimSham 
I doubt I'll ever be able to part with my books. I'll cart around those dead trees until I join them in Hell. However I did just move, and man were they heavy... I'd be lying if I said I never considered how much easier a single Kindle would be to carry. I just fetishize my bookshelf too much for that to ever happen. 

My wife and I are the same way, we'll never get rid of our books. Yeah a Kindle is a great idea and I'm sure to get one, but I love showing off my books :-)  Look everyone! I read Vonnegut and Murakami, I'm a smart guy! really..  My father did a huge purge and gave me his vinyl collection. I'm so fucking happy to own original presses of the Beatles, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa and so many others.  Given that I'm a collector at heart I can't give up physical media, not yet anyways.

As for my art works, I keep those backed up on my PC, laptop an external hard drive and a thumb drive.

I'm still crossing my fingers that some hipster store like Urban Outfitters will start selling cheap VCRs alongside record players, so I can once again watch all my VHS tapes I refuse to part with. I buried my old VCR in the backyard about a year ago because it had conked out after 20 years of devoted friendship and loyalty.

I used to use the "I like having the actual Disk/Book/DVD" as one my arguments against piracy.  I'm still anti-piracy, but I am finding the need to actually own these things something that annoys me about myself, if that makes sense.  Why exactly do I have to build this DVD library?  Especially when most of these movies I wind up only watching once.  Sure there is a convenience when I get the  urge to watch one of my movies, but for the most part they go untouched.  Sometimes it works out having them.  I probably have half of Elvis' movies, and my girlfriend and I decided to watch at least one a week in chronological order, which means buying around 15 more movies to complete the collection.  But I rarely watch special features anymore, I am less and less caring about how crisp the audio and video is.  Hell, I still haven't even bothered to switch to Blu Ray.  I really have no desire to.  If I can live with the quality of a Rudy Ray Moore DVD, I can live without seeing Nicholas Cage's nose hair in high definition.

As far as books go, I have become for the most part a library guy.  It helps that my girlfriend works at one, and can get a new release for me pretty quick.  But once I'm done with the book, be it something I loved (11/22/64) or hated (1Q84), I don't feel the need to actually own it.  By the time I want to read it again (which I rarely do), it has been out long enough for me easily check out or find for a buck at a seconhand store.

Music is a little more tricky, mainly because there is so much stuff I listened to in the last 20 years that is hard to find, I feel for that reason I should have that physical copy as a back-up.  But as far as buying music, I rarely do anymore.  I've gotten old, I think, where I just do not like any new music I hear.  I just listen to what I have on my ipod, or just try to find new stuff on Spotify.  I still keep all my vynil, even though I don't have a working turntable.

As far as how much of it I have, I have way too much.  So much that it annoys me.  But for some stupid reason I can't find myself to get rid of any of it.  And there are obvious exceptions to the rule. Hell, I got a couple of DVDs for Christmas (Abar: The Black Superman and Madman) and love them both.  I also have a book coming from Amazon right now.  It's the hardcover Skyrim game guide, but that is one that I can't find in a library, and I will get a lot of use from.

But (with the exception of videogames) the older I get, the less and less I care about owning stuff.

I live in a tiny ass studio apartment in NYC (are there any other kinds, amirite?) and I've been lugging along a trunk full of DVDs, a bunch of CDs and countless books (and graphic novels) that I have read, but have no real place to put because, well, space is tight, yo. I'm slowly beginning the (slow) process of ripping all my DVDs to a terabyte drive (or two) to cut down on space. I think I've already ripped all my CDs and am just holding onto them out of sentimentality. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 'Into the Great Wide Open'? But that was my first CD EVER! I know digital isn't as secure as we'd like and if a hard drive dies, oops, there goes my collection, but I've gotten to the point where I don't want to show off with big collections anymore. Oh yay, he has a bunch of arty Danish porn films that he reviewed once or, man, a grown man should not have all of that god damn anime. Why did I even buy the remake of The Alamo? Seemed like a good idea at the time and it was cheap, too.

I do have a small but fierce collection of Blu Rays, but the collector bug skipped that. I didn't want to replace the stuff I had, lest I get more stuff.

As for books, I love them. I do. But I only really read them once, better to go to a library or borrow. I also go on a lot of hikes or trips and the last god damn thing I want to bring is the new 1000 page A Song of Ice and Fire book that is only available in hardcover and lug it around. I break it down as...1/2 pound Kindle with a thousand books on it + the weight of a solar charger, maybe 2ish pounds, vs. 1 4 pound hardcover book I'll devour and then what? I'm out in the woods, need something to do. Could burn it, I suppose...

I know it's not sexy to point to a hard drive or Kindle and say 'Look at my dvd, book and music collection, ladies. How you like me now?' But I just want the stuff to be gone. I move a lot and I have a box of books that keeps getting dragged around that I haven't touched in any meaningful way for a while. Digital isn't perfect, but to me, it makes it simpler. A more spartan living, I suppose. I still have my stuff, but I don't have to show it off anymore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrBananaGrabber 

I've worked in IT long enough to become completely paranoid about digital storage.  Backups on backups, it's never enough.  The subscription model scares the hell out of me too, and it's where everything is going (clouds, accounts, etc). Seductive as anything, but we're all just trusting amazon, google, apple, et all, not to be bastards.

 

That said, best to make copies of your CD's and DVD's and whatnot.  They're decaying more rapidly then anyone predicted.

 

A pad or screen will never truly replace books for me.  I want to be surrounded by them and "marinate in the smell of old pages."

This is my worry. Digital media sounds great on paper(hah!), but so much can go wrong. I want boxes, etc, and nothing lasts anymore. Between this and noticing all the downsides of the awesome new TVs and game systems, etc, I think this is the start of me becoming a grumpy old man as far as new tech, and I'm only 34.

*edit- reworded some stuffs.
 

I've always been an incurable hoarder. Since moving to Melbourne I've seen my collection start to grow bigger than I know it should be, but I just love having shelves packed with books/CDs/movies etc. I swear, I must have a frustrated librarian in me because my dream home would be packed with full-to-bursting shelves. Of course, the proliferation of cheap blu-rays isn't helping; since getting our player I've been grabbing stuff once every couple of weeks. I know I'm just repeating the same chaos all over again, but so help me I love it.

Funnily enough, going back to Perth to visit a few months ago I realized how ridiculous my collection I'd left behind was and bequeathed it all to a friend. The look on his face as he hauled countless bags of stuff into his house was priceless. 

Got rid of a stack of books and CD's recently, the rest along with my DVD's went into storage.

All i have left is Blu Rays.

As for storage, i have a Backup HDD with two alternating saves (from different months) - that will do me.

I'm going to start ripping all my CDs to a HDD, which will then be backed up to Carbonite, then put my CDs in storage.  Trying to do that to get the CDs out of these two giant pieces of furniture so we can get rid of said furniture.

Also in the midst of cleaning, I got rid of a crap load of old discs for programs that were at least 6-8 years old.  And floppy disks.  No 5 1/4, just 3 1/2.

My wife refuses to convert to reading/buying books on a Kindle/iPad/Nook, so we have books.  Lots and lots of books.

I have books. Lots and lots of books. I have a paperback written by some guy named George Lucas titled Star Wars with cover art by a dude named Ralph Mcquarrie. It says on the back of the book that it's soon to be a Major Motion Picture. Got it freshman year and thought to myself there's no way they can make this movie. Can't get goosebumps with digital. Just me I guess. Have my old books in storage with my vinyl. CD's in two footlockers. Digital is convenient but I've lost too many memories due to viruses and power surges.

E-books fucking suck, and I'm sure there are plenty of people with that opinion that will keep physical books around for the foreseeable future. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by EdBighead 

I have books. Lots and lots of books. I have a paperback written by some guy named George Lucas titled Star Wars with cover art by a dude named Ralph Mcquarrie. It says on the back of the book that it's soon to be a Major Motion Picture. Got it freshman year and thought to myself there's no way they can make this movie. Can't get goosebumps with digital. Just me I guess. Have my old books in storage with my vinyl. CD's in two footlockers. Digital is convenient but I've lost too many memories due to viruses and power surges.

<Courtroom Cough>Alan Dean Foster</Courtroom Cough>

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nardo 

<Courtroom Cough>Alan Dean Foster</Courtroom Cough>

I stand corrected. I just read the interview where Foster admitted that Lucas insist they use his name on the books though Foster actually wrote it. He also wrote Splinter of the Minds Eye right after. Thanks Nardo.