DVDizzy Forum

When you purchase a movie from Amazon Instant Video, you’re not buying it, exactly. It’s more like renting indefinitely.

This distinction matters if your notion of “buying” is that you pay for something once and then you get to keep that thing for as long as you want. Increasingly, in the world of digital goods, a purchasing transaction isn’t that simple.

There are two key differences between buying media in a physical format versus a digital one. First, there’s the technical aspect: Maintaining long-term access to a file requires a hard copy of it—that means, for example, downloading a film, not just streaming from a third party’s server. The second distinction is a bit more complicated, and it has to do with how the law has shaped digital rights in the past 15 years. It helps to think about the experience of a person giving up CDs and using iTunes for music purchases instead.

Jerry Beck wrote:"Wow – I blew up the internet! It looks like a little response I made to a cartoon fan wondering if Daffy or Tweety’s anniversary would be celebrated on DVD or blu-ray has blown up and gone viral.
First of all: anyone claiming that Warner Bros. is planning to phase out DVD and Blu-ray beginning in 2022 has taken my words and blown them way way out of context.
Secondly, I do not work for Warner Bros. - I occasionally work freelance as a writer or consultant to their home video group. I know nothing about the inner workings of that department. A few days ago I was asked a few questions by anxious fans worried about the future of physical media – and unfortunately, from my point of view, I didn’t have anything new to report.
Warner’s IS restoring their classic cartoons for HBO-Max (and to air on MeTV) and its obvious that the streaming service is where the Warner cartoon library will live on for the time being. But, I repeat, I do not know anything about what’s going on concerning their Home Video department.
I do know that DVDs and blu-rays will continue to be produced, and that department still exists. All we can do is hope that they will continue to release their cartoon shorts on physical media. That’s all I know – that’s all I can say about this matter."

music merchandisers say the complexion of physical sales has changed, with more titles coming out in the expensive vinyl format while budget-priced CDs’ role in driving holiday sales has faced diminished floor space in discount department stores. So while merchants are realizing more revenue-per-copy thanks to vinyl’s popularity, they’re also seeing a drop in CD unit sales because of a squeeze on budget floor space.

as more holiday albums come out on vinyl, “now that a lot of holiday music has a higher price point, it is no longer as much of an impulse item,”

Still, unless holiday season album sales rebound, the major labels might begin to pare back their offering...“This may be the year we look at our Christmas title range and see what’s worth keeping in physical print,”