Best Buy to reportedly discontinue all physical media in 2024 both in stores & online

[Storm Eagle]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

As far as I'm concerned, DVDs should have been discontinued a loooong time ago. Blu-ray has been out for almost 20 years -- if you haven't made the switch yet, that's on you. At this point I believe DVDs have even been "out" longer than the entire run of VHS, and by a good margin.

Well that's interesting.

DVDs still sell pretty well, and that's basically why they're still around. This account keeps track of physical media sales, and somehow, DVDs still sell better than Blu-rays and 4Ks.

https://twitter.com/UltraHDBluray/st...10474492690688

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by sdp

physical media enthusiasts have been coping with this for over a decade in denial that there market segment didn't keep shrinking despite statistics proving otherwise.

Oh. It's you.

Yeah man. No. I have literally never seen a disc collector in denial that physical media wasn't a diminishing market segment.

You're perspective seems to come from a sense of pleasure at something being taken from someone, which is odd. But most collectors perspective is that media formats have evolved and changed going as far back as Phonograph Cylinders replaced by Piano rolls and so on. They understand this as part of their hobby.

Originally Posted by Storm Eagle

Well that's interesting.

DVDs still sell pretty well, and that's basically why they're still around. This account keeps track of physical media sales, and somehow, DVDs still sell better than Blu-rays and 4Ks.

https://twitter.com/UltraHDBluray/st...10474492690688

I have some sense of surprise at the number of actual "DVDs" I see at random stores to be honest. But I think a big part of that is the backwards compatibility that is built into any disc player nowadays. You know? Your blu-ray player can still play DVD's, but it can't take a VHS tape. So when people who don't want to spend on Blu Ray or 4k they just denied the advancement and stuck to their DVD.

The weirdest thing is the strange array of movies at places like Dollar General... lmao! Talk about B-movie...

[Cowabung-Gal]

Originally Posted by Roseangelo

Well, books still exist.

You kidding? Getting the average person to switch from the Internet to books is like trying to convince a junkie to choose brussels sprouts over drugs. They wouldn’t last a day.

[ranger_scout]

It's better that this happens now rather than never since Best Buy will stop selling physical copies of movies for good, but Titanic is finally getting a 4K Ultra HD release.

https://comicbook.com/movies/news/ti...ra-hd-blu-ray/

[CyberCubed]

Honestly the writing is on the wall. I do think the top most popular movies will still get blu-rays/4k releases, but I think everything else is going to be phased out. Meaning also no DVD collections of TV shows anymore either. If the retailers/stores drop selling physical media, how much longer are all the companies going to bother producing them for the niche online market?

[ranger_scout]

Blu-rays and DVDs could be making a comeback like Vinyl records and CDs.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bu...yl-1235639108/

[Andrew NDB]

Doubtful, unless we're talking about 4K UHD blu-rays which are still a thing. Whether you're listening to vinyl or a CD, you're listening to something that is "lossless" in quality, it's just different. If you're watching something on DVD, you're watching something that's at about 10% of the quality of modern stuff.

[CyberCubed]

It's not going to make a comeback. All the 2000's kids are now 20 year olds and they don't care about physical media at all. You're going to see discs largely phased out for both movies/shows and videogames a lot over the next decade.

[DarkFell]

I still doubt that Best Buy will discontinue to carry a majority of their physical media products. That story sounds phony at best, and somebody trying to blow wind up a few butts at the worst.

Regardless of what the streaming purists say, DVD's, CD's video games, and whatever LP records that might be in stock, are still Best Buy's 'bread and butter.' If B.B. decides to ditch most of what they carry in-store, then they will definitely lose a lot their customers ..especially on my side of town. Most of the folks out here aren't exactly well-to-do financially to afford a streaming service.

A handful of DVD's are still cheaper than Paramount Plus, Disney Plus, etc.

[TheCanadiandrome]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

It's not going to make a comeback. All the 2000's kids are now 20 year olds and they don't care about physical media at all. You're going to see discs largely phased out for both movies/shows and videogames a lot over the next decade.

That’s your opinion bro, but I disagree. There’s still gonna be a few people who want to own physical media because they don’t wanna go fully digital

[IMJ]

Outside of a slight and somewhat shady "sound quality" argument, there is no reason for vinyl to have had the resurgence it's had over the last several years. And I'd gamble that CD's will see a similar revival at some point as well.

I don't think physical media is "dead" at all, but there are a lot of factors contributing to this - probably more than most people here want to hold in their mind's eye to understand the situation.

An easy example - stores that hold physical media always hand to hold a breadth of offerings to draw people in - which means gauging order sizes and holding onto what basically amounts to self-space demurrage for discs that don't sell. Combine that now with online ordering of movies on disc basically resulting in exact-distribution and you've cut a swath out of the profitability of ordering and holding DVD's in physical inventory.

So that simple example, combined with several others that I can think of, in addition to the whole "digital streaming" environment and you have the situation at hand. But physical media isn't dead at all - it's going to live through online retailers and orders.

[CyberCubed]

If you visit Best Buy, or Target, Wal-mart etc, they've all noticeably reduced their "DVD shelves" or aisles considerably. Even if they don't do away with them entirely, they barely get like 1/4th of the level they used to in the early 2000's. The writing is on the wall, too many people either stream or watch digitally or whatever.

I remember back in the early 2000's, Best Buy had like 10 aisles stacks of DVDs for movies, TV shows, anime and cartoons...and it would have hundreds of DVDs for everything, and you go in there now and you barely see half of that.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by IMJ

Outside of a slight and somewhat shady "sound quality" argument, there is no reason for vinyl to have had the resurgence it's had over the last several years.

This. This is the reason.

About DVDs, I think a big part of it is we were "fooled" over and over again. First, that DVDs would be the pinnacle of home media. That that would be it -- once you had something on DVD, that was the best possible version that could exist, forevermore. So you might as well collect everything and fill your walls with movies, right? That's what I did, for sure. But... then blu-ray came out. Going from 480p to 1080p was HUGE. But now all these collectors of DVDs are kicking themselves, having to re-buy everything they had on DVD now on Blu-ray. Then what happens, as they're in the middle of doing that? 4K UHD Blu-ray drops, which is ANOTHER significant resolution jump. I think around this point a lot of people just said, "You know what, screw it... rather than try to keep up with this anymore I'll just stream and be happy."

[Barkworm]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

This. This is the reason.

Hipsters are part of the reason for the vinyl renaissance but apart from that they are just great collector‘s items. I‘ve always been a CD collector but some albums I buy on Vinyl because the particular edition looks fantastic.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Barkworm

Hipsters are part of the reason for the vinyl renaissance but apart from that they are just great collector‘s items. I‘ve always been a CD collector but some albums I buy on Vinyl because the particular edition looks fantastic.

Me too. I'd play my vinyl more than I do but truth be told, it's a PITA. And at this point my CDs are basically my music server backup (ironic, isn't it?).

[Barkworm]

Originally Posted by IMJ

Me too. I'd play my vinyl more than I do but truth be told, it's a PITA. And at this point my CDs are basically my music server backup (ironic, isn't it?).

It used to be the same for me until we moved to the countryside a couple of years ago. Now I drive to work every day and my car's got a CD player. I just love those few minutes I look at my CD shelf to decide what I'm going to listen to. It's just very different from choosing music on your Tidals and Deezers etc.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Barkworm

It used to be the same for me until we moved to the countryside a couple of years ago. Now I drive to work every day and my car's got a CD player. I just love those few minutes I look at my CD shelf to decide what I'm going to listen to. It's just very different from choosing music on your Tidals and Deezers etc.

That's very cool.... I haven't had a CD player in a car since 2015 so it's all flash drives or phone for me.

On another note, I just, literally 10 minutes ago, got my copy of the Atlantic Records 75th Anniversary edition of Stone Temple Pilots 'No. 4" on vinyl - the first time it's been mastered specifically for the format and cut by a prominent sound engineer.

Can't wait to spin it here shortly... this was the album with the Grammy winning track "Down" (absolute monster of a rock track) and the album that every spent the Summer of 2000 with "Sour Girl".

[TheCanadiandrome]

Originally Posted by IMJ

So that simple example, combined with several others that I can think of, in addition to the whole "digital streaming" environment and you have the situation at hand. But physical media isn't dead at all - it's going to live through online retailers and orders.

Exactly. The so-called “writing on the wall” bs is just that. Physical media will never die so long as there’s still a demand for it from even the smallest of people who either can’t or refuses to make the change to digital. Or even the minority who, such as myself, or a few others, collect both.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by TheCanadiandrome

Exactly. The so-called “writing on the wall” bs is just that. Physical media will never die so long as there’s still a demand for it from even the smallest of people who either can’t or refuses to make the change to digital. Or even the minority who, such as myself, or a few others, collect both.

I mean the real funny thing is when some uninformed proponent of the "dream of no-physical-media" goes on about how you can "Just go to streaming" and find whatever you want.

RIiiiiiigghhhhtttttt.....

Go. Right now. To Netflix right now. And find what you want instead of what they feed you and really quickly it becomes apparent that very little of what anyone would try to dig up is actually "readily available". On any of the streamers.

[Barkworm]

Originally Posted by IMJ

I mean the real funny thing is when some uninformed proponent of the "dream of no-physical-media" goes on about how you can "Just go to streaming" and find whatever you want.

RIiiiiiigghhhhtttttt.....

Go. Right now. To Netflix right now. And find what you want instead of what they feed you and really quickly it becomes apparent that very little of what anyone would try to dig up is actually "readily available". On any of the streamers.

Well, if we‘re talking about music, you usually get anything you want but I guess lots of music fans have a streaming subscription and buy physical media as well. I agree with video streaming of course, there it‘s totally different and recent developments show that those things will be very different in 10 years, maybe more similar than regular TV.

Thanks for reminding me of No. 4, that‘ll be my CD for tomorrow‘s drive to school.