Consumers Aren't Crawling Back to Physical Media, They're Running

Tech eggheads told us for years that physical media were obsolete. Streaming would replace shelves full of discs, they decreed. Digital libraries stored on corporate servers would render ownership unnecessary.

The sales pitch sounded irresistible: unlimited convenience and infinite access with no maintenance or storage concerns. After all, why clutter your house with books, Blu-rays, CDs, or cartridges when every piece of entertainment imaginable could live in the cloud?

But then the deletions started.

Movies disappeared from streaming platforms overnight. Beloved games became unplayable after server shutdowns. Songs people thought they owned vanished when licensing agreements expired. All because entire entertainment libraries became dependent on corporations’ permission.

And the unsettling truth gradually dawned on consumers. They did not own their media. They merely rented access to it.

Read the full post on Substack!

Acess it free for the first two weeks, then find it in the paid archive.

My book Debt Reckoning launches soon on Kickstarter. Follow the prelaunch page.Early momentum in the first 24-48 hours makes a huge difference. So even just clicking “Notify me on launch” helps me and ensures you don’t miss the special early Reward offered only through Memorial Day!