We’ve been in a digital age for at least two decades now, and society continues to push everything into a digital space. Every business has an app. Digital queues and kiosks are becoming more popular. Movies (outside of theater releases) go on to streaming. New albums from our favorite artists are available on Spotify at midnight on release day. The days of going to the store for the newest releases are behind us...Or are they?
Yes, we live in a digital age where nearly everything is online these days to the point that the owning of physical media is seen as a dying art. Yes, stores stopped stocking as wide of a collection of movies and CDs. Yes, people are being told no one buys movies and CDs anymore (no, really, I had a Target worker tell me that). But as the 2020s have continued on, that simply isn’t true anymore. People are buying CDs again. Vinyl has had a resurgence since the 2010s. Even cassettes are making a comeback since 2023! Why? One big reason is because the digital space, while convenient, is unpredictable.
Having everything available in the digital space is convenient, giving people the ability to access media from anywhere. But it’s also unreliable. Since consumers do not control the digital spaces (this is referring to streaming platforms, YouTube, etc. not a person’s own uploads of music to a digital space like an SD card), there is no guarantee that the media will always be there. We’ve seen this happen often on TV and movie streaming platforms. One day, you can watch Bohemian Rhapsody on Netflix. The next day, it’s gone, now hidden behind rentable paywalls. The same happens with music. A song can be added to one of your playlists on Spotify. The next day, you discover it’s grayed out, unplayable.
This unpredictability makes people nervous. If music can be taken off a platform without notice at any point, where’s the security that you have access to your favorite things? Even buying a digital copy of something doesn’t mean it’s always going to be through the platform you bought it through. There was controversy a couple years back when 1984 by George Orwell was taken off of Kindle. Anyone who bought an e-copy suddenly found the book was no longer on their devices. This showed that even if something is bought digitally, there is nothing stopping the provider from removing it from their catalogue without notice (Source). This is the same for Spotify. If a licensing agreement expires with the platform or the label asks for its removal, there’s nothing the consumer can do.
So, what can people do to ensure they have access to their favorite albums by their favorite artists? Buy a physical copy that they can put on a shelf and take out if they want to listen to it. In an age where book bans continue to spread, who’s to say that the restriction of music wouldn’t happen down the line? Let’s say, a conservative leader doesn’t want Taylor Swift’s catalogue to be available any longer digitally because they think it sets a bad example (not saying it’s true, but people are stupid, okay?). What happens if all those digital spaces full of Swift’s music disappears? Who has access? Well, the people who bought the music physically. Having a physical copy can give some peace of mind in an uncertain digital age.
But that’s not the only reason why people are buying physical media again. Sure, it’s a major factor, but there’s an even bigger one playing into why sales for “outdated” media have been going up. Yet it still plays a heavy hand in the digital age. More than ever before, having physical copies of music by artists serves as a touchstone to your favorite artists. It’s a way to directly support artists in an age where people make a tenth of a cent per listen (if that) on Spotify. For superfans, it’s also becoming a way to show off how big of a fan they are. Who has the most exclusive editions of an album? Who got the signed version limited to 100 with the bonus track?
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), “111 million CDs have been purchased over the last three years, and 2021 saw the first increase in new CD sales in 17 years,” (Source). With fans itching to collect physical copies of albums from their favorite artists, big performers such as Taylor Swift and Beyonce have begun releasing exclusive CDs to preorder. Taylor Swift partnered with Target to release an Eras tour book, and a new vinyl drop, exclusively from the retailer on Black Friday. Thousands flocked to Target locations to grab the exclusive items. These limited-edition releases only available on CD add a level of exclusivity that fans and especially collectors love. The RIAA also released the numbers for CDs sales in 2024 and it is wild. According to their 2024 mid-year report, “CDs sold almost three times as well as digital albums in the first half of the year. CD sales totaled $236.7 million, while downloads generated only $87.8 million.”
Beyond that tangible connection to artists, physical media represents a time that the younger generation hasn’t been a part of. Things like CDs, cassette tapes, and vinyl records show up in the stories of older people in their lives, and they’re curious about them. The vinyl resurgence has been ongoing since the late 2000s, but the CD and cassette craze only came back in the 2020s. It started with a vinyl comeback, but as the price of vinyl has gone up due to popularity, people have been turning to CDs and cassettes because they’re cheaper and take up less space.
So, there’s the desire to tangibly hold the album, a nostalgia for a bygone era, and there’s also a desire to experience the music with better fidelity. There are some albums that simply sound better when written to vinyl, CD or cassette that the digital compressed files can’t compare to. Or they like the imperfection of listening to it the older ways. The average listener may not be able to tell the difference, but there is a distinct quality change when you switch between all of these formats.
It’s important to note that just because some people like the sound of music on these older types of media, there’s a reason they fell out of popularity. From pop and static on vinyl to scratches on CDs causing skipping, and snags on cassette tapes, the older media has its flaws.
Sometimes, the purchasing of these nostalgic forms of media is also just for display, never to be played. According to the music sales data company Luminate’s 2023 industry trends report, “only 50% of people who buy vinyl records own a record player” (Source). That percentage could have changed in two years, and one could argue the sample size of 3,900 is too small to take seriously, but it still exemplifies a common trend among modern day collectors of older media formats. Sometimes, it’s just for a collection. People who collect cassette tapes have to hunt for a device to even play the tapes. CD players don’t come automatically in cars like they used to. All of this to say that folks who love to collect the older media may have to work to listen to them, but for some, that’s the charm of collecting them.
As the price of vinyl continues to grow because of special color pressings from big name artists, the desire for a cheaper physical option will continue to grow. CDs and cassettes will fill that void for the financially conscious for now. In an age where everything is online, sometimes we just want a tangible thing to hold in our hands that represents an artist or album we love. From superfans to collectors to nostalgia seekers, the rise of physical media again is wonderful to see, as a lover of physical media.
Written by Kristen Petronio
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