Is physical media actually dying?

[DQ]

I know many of us have talked openly about physical media dwindling as the push for subscriptions and license to access only are pushed.

But if you look around you will see that anything new of note that comes out is released on Blu-ray (standard 1080p I mean) and 4k. But in addition to that I see many older titles being remastered and sold either in special editions or in 4k. Now that 4k release for older things (in my experience) seem to be a 50/50 split on whether it's done well or might as well just have purchased the Blu-ray. However, this is not just for video. I am seeing the same in music.

This is just an observation I am pointing out. I am not saying it is one way or the other I am just speaking out loud.

https://mondoshop.com/collections/exclusive-colored-vinyl
https://www.blu-ray.com/

 

[rarenight]

The Digital Entertainment Group (https://www.degonline.org/industry-data/) regularly provides aggregate physical video media sell-through in the USA and the results are crystal clear: the home video market is dying and is increasingly getting supplanted by digital streaming.

U.S. Consumer Spending, Packaged Video Discs Sell-through, including physical discs bought at electronic retailers like Amazon (in millions of USD):
2010: $10,829.15
2011: $9,554.65
2012: $9,270.60
2013: $8,968.50
2014: $8,535.79
2015: $7,976.80
2016: $7,527.34
2017: $6,870.10
2018: $6,487.54
2019: $5,876.06
2020: $5,448.86
2021: $4,444.92
2022: $4,095.81
2023-Q3 year-to-date: $1,117.05 (-27.13% year-over-year)
^ Q4 2023 data isn't out yet

"For the first nine months of 2023, growth was more than 15 percent, with consumer spending topping $31 billion. The year-to-date 17.7 percent growth across all digitally delivered formats – electronic sell-through (EST), video on demand (VOD) and subscription streaming – was driven by 20 percent growth in subscription streaming and smaller gains in transactional formats. Physical formats continued to decline, with digital formats accounting for more than 96 percent of total consumer spending."

Note how each subsequent year the market for physical video discs slowly dwindles in the USA. It's reached the point where the market is no longer solvent and distributors like Disney are mulling over whether or not to discontinue their Blu-Ray lines entirely. Also, big box retailers like Best Buy and Target have recently stripped all video discs off of their shelves.

However, what's nice about Blu-Ray is that you can you can manufacture small <10K unit print runs in specialty labels like Kino Lorber and there is enough of a niche that you can eventually make your money back. Like vinyl before it, Blu-Ray will have a long time horizon and it will take a while to completely "die" in the sense that releases will stop outright, even if the general public is increasingly abandoning the format.

 

[whatever_gong82]

I also think with the current changes here with the RedFox Project, that in order to stay afloat, they had to change the cost of having their products.

I agree with that, because what happened in February 2016 with the collapse of the old Slysoft that what the former Slysoft programmers had to do to keep AnyDVD and the other apps in existence was the creation of the RedFox Project.

Now, with the changes in how people view tv shows and movies, the RedFox Project had to change in order to stay in existence.

I'm mostly a Blu-ray/DVD buyer for my first preference. But, with the availability and ease of digital, I'm slowly moving more towards digital.

The only exception is for high quality movies or TV series that I'm a fan of (like Christopher Nolan's latest movie Oppenheimer. I only bought the 4K UHD Blu-ray copy of it just so I can rip it with AnyDVD/CloneBD.) I'll still use Amazon for my Blu-ray purchases until I lose interest in the format, which won't be for a long time, while also using AnyStream for the digital stuff that I like but don't want a physical copy of.

 

[RedFox 1]

Physical media reminds me of phone booths and pay phones.

 

[wowszer]

Physical media reminds me of phone booths and pay phones.

It's a bird, it's a plane. Splat, it's a bird.

 

[tyner]

Though it's fairly obvious why most of Redfox management are pro-streaming, I certainly detest the idea of paying monthly fees for services to access tons of movies and music that I wouldn't let my cat watch or hear-the same vendors who would delete loads of my favorite movies, TV episodes and music if sales of them ever dropped, and would likely never run them again. Thank goodness for these boutique BD/DVD and audio labels selling physical media (and downloads https://www.hdtracks.com/#/album/5df1427d0bee25c09bc163fd), and which are often in higher res audio formats than what you get from streaming.