Table of ContentsTable of ContentsThe impermanence of streamingBeing the custodianAs convenient as streaming has made the consumption of media, whats available to us today might not be available to us tomorrow or maybe not in the way we remember it. We have no ownership over the content that were consuming. Instead, were paying to get access to what streaming companies want to offer us, and they can change their mind whenever they feel like it.Add to that the fact that 2024 was a hard year for physical media. Best Buy stopped selling discs in its stores and online, and by the end of the year, a Blu-ray player manufacturer discontinued production of its products. There was also news swirling that vinyl sales had plummeted by 33% in 2024 (although it turns out that was due to a change in counting methodology for vinyl sales, which are, in fact, up 6.2%). If theres declining interest in owning physical media, as the Best Buy news would seem to indicate, what are we losing by switching over solely to streaming? Should we be concerned that we have no ownership anymore over the things we watch, read, and listen to?Recommended VideosNetflix regularly culls its offerings. This could be for a variety of reasons licensing deals might end, the content isnt as popular as hoped, or a shift in strategy but the result is the same. We lose access to something we might have enjoyed.RelatedNetflix isnt alone in this. Soon after cancelingWestworld, HBO removed it from its streaming platform. Its plan was to test the waters with FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) services, eventually making it available on other services, albeit with ad breaks. But if you were subscribed to HBO at the time and had the intention of watching HBO shows like Westworld, it was a rude awakening to no longer be able to access that show.But there are potential issues beyond a show being moved from one service to another unexpectedly. When content solely lives digitally in the cloud, edits can be made to it. At the Superbowl in 2024, Alicia Keys was brought on as a guest during Ushers halftime show to perform If I Aint Got You. Those watching it live heard her voice crack slightly as she sang the first word: Some. It was a completely understandable flub it was the first thing she was singing, it was cold, and, most importantly, shes human. She went on to have a slick and polished performance singing with Usher.If you go back and watch the official performance, though, the small voice crack was replaced by a take from one of the rehearsals. Theres no evidence that anything went wrong. Is it a major issue, where corporate money has pulled oen over on the public? Certainly not. But its an example that when we dont have ownership over our media, those that do can make a change for whatever reason they choose.Lets take the alternate timeline where the originalStar Wars trilogy was only ever recorded digitally and distributed over streaming. If George Lucas had the opportunity to go back under those circumstances and make his special editions, there would have been no evidence to show who originally shot first Han or Greedo. With no physical proof, such as laser disc or VHS recording off of a TV broadcast, the original moment would have been wiped from history.As Guillermo del Toro once tweeted, Physical media is almost a Fahrenheit 451 [where people memorized entire books and thus became the book they loved] level of responsibility. If you own a great 4K HD, Blu-ray, DVD, etc., etc. of a film or films you love you are the custodian of those films for generations to come.In history, weve been through purges of recorded ideas by parties that did not agree with them. That could be the reaction of John Lennons quote about the Beatles and Jesus resulting in the destruction of Beatles records, or the book-burning Suberung by the Nazi party in the 1930s to destroy texts and literature that were deemed un-German.Much like books before vinyl, magnetic tape, or compact discs entered our homes, the streaming content we consume documents our history and how our society processes and reacts to whats happening in the world. Sure, there are Bond movies or dance tracks whose primary purpose is to entertain or act as the soundtrack for a night of fun, but for every action spectacle, theres a Paris is Burning. For every song of teenage heartbreak theres aSunday Bloody Sunday.When the ideas are held within books that live within hundreds of thousands of homes, its difficult to collect every last one and eradicate them from the Earth. But if the copies live only in the cloud, it takes but the clicking of a mouse by one bad actor to never see or hear them again.Anecdotally from conversations Ive had, it seems like the younger generation that grew up surrounded by the digital world, online relationships, and their content only in the cloud is pulling away a bit from living online. It could be as a reaction to having to always be on with social media, or a distrust of the corporate culture that wants to control as many aspects of our lives as possible. Could they be the ones that move us back toward physical media, if not wholly, as a supplement to digital?Its important that there are custodians in the world to herald existing art into the future. And its important that there are tangible versions of that art in written form, recordings, or on disc and cellulose. Plus, the disc recordings look and sound better than the streaming versions anyway.Editors Recommendations