In an age where everything is digitalized, it’s very important to have physical media. On streaming services, shows and movies get shifted around to different streamers, on music services, sometimes artists will just delete certain songs or albums in their entirety, making it impossible to stream. When media is reliant on fickle and not permanent means, like online services, it won’t always be preserved or be able to be accessed. The answer to this issue is to buy physical media. Physical media ensures that you will always own the product, and can access it whenever. While buying new media can be expensive, there’s also a solution to that; go to antique stores or thrift shops!
Inside antique or thrift stores, you can find a trove of used media and unique finds. You can find books, DVDs, CDs, and vinyls at discounted rates, you can also possibly find some cool stuff that you never heard of before! A store that has lots of physical media that is actually quite close to Littleton High School is actually an antique store. It’s called the Colorado Antique Gallery. You can find stacks of DVDs, CDs, and lots of other physical media there. There are other ways you find cheap media from thrift stores, like Goodwill and Arc Thrift Store. Mom and Pop thrift shops are also good options for media. The real score to find used media is scouring online websites, like Ebay, Depop, and Vinted. It’ll take some patience to find what you’re looking for if you go through these avenues, but it’ll definitely be worth it. You can also buy hard media brand new from places like your local record store, or bookstore, and Barnes and Noble has a wide selection of media. If buying physical media is not an option, libraries always offer a wide selection of CDs, DVDs, books on the occasion, newspapers, and so many other forms of physical media.
Another benefit of owning physical media is that you can find some real bonuses inside it. DVDs will oftentimes have additional features, such as commentary and additional information. CDs can come with bonus tracks. With books, you can find some very nice things inside. In a used Canterbury Tales book, there was a lecture worth of notes inside of it, and in a used Bible, there was a note written to someone inside it. Physical media, especially when it’s used, can come with added benefits.
Physical media is very pertinent in the era where books are being destroyed by AI companies, streaming services rotate what’s on it constantly, and music services can remove the content on it whenever it feels like. Physical media ensures that the content is always available and reachable. There are many ways to access hard media, antique stores, thrift stores, libraries, online websites, Barnes and Noble, whatever you choose, physical media is a worthwhile endeavor
