In light of Sony potentially exiting the 4K market, everyone is feeling down about physical media. Again.
But should they be?
Of course, Sony is a major brand and the impression that they seem to pulling the plug on their hardware ambitions is disappointing. But this is the same company that launched not one, but two turntables in 2026 for the first time in eight years. That doesn’t suggest a company that’s completely abandoned the idea of people enjoying physical media.
I’ve talked about the resurgence of vinyl, the cassette player and CDs; and while there are problems facing each and every one of them, maybe the future isn’t as gloomy as what’s being purported. Maybe, the future is actually yesterday.
Millennials are turning back to the Millennium
Things have changed. Back in the 2000s, it was about downloading music, whether it was Napster or Limewire, people found out they could get music for free, and the music industry took too long to remedy the situation.
It’s an issue that arguably they never managed to fix. It changed the consumption of music as well as the value of it, and even now, more than 25 years later, musicians are still battling a lack of royalties and payouts that come from music streaming services.
But there’s a new generation that’s slowly rediscovering physical media and the ways in which to enjoy it. There’s been much talk about how Millennials are buying vinyl – yes, they might not be listening to them and just hanging vinyl on their walls because they a) like the look of vinyl cases and b) want to support the artists they enjoy; but that’s an entry into the world of vinyl and we shouldn’t discount it in the age of streaming algorithms that don’t really do what they should do.
CDs have experienced a resurgence with a glut of new players hitting the market, whether they’re fixed, dedicated players or portable ones; again, we can’t ignore that there’s an interest in an area of the market that most people had thought was defunct.
That’s not to say that this resurgence can sustain itself. Having gone to the Naim HQ in Salisbury, I learned that Naim isn’t in the market for making new CD transports, as there are relatively few (or zero) companies making the transports any more. But this could be a decision that, in the long term, is short-sighted if demand continues to increase for CDs then supply has to come from somewhere.
And then we have people finding cassettes (even VHS), as well as returning to wired audio. I’ve seen plenty of people younger than myself wearing wired headphones, and while I do find the movement to be something of a fad (there’s a reason why we moved away from wired earphones in the first place), you can’t ignore the fact that people are finding reasons to buy wired earphones again; whether it’s a fashion look, a performance look or a somewhat dubious (at least for me) health and safety look.
If it were just vinyl, people might discount this physical media comeback. But it’s Blu-ray/DVD/4K Blu-ray, it’s old media, it’s CDs, and it’s wired headphones. All we need is for newspapers and magazines to make a return and then you can’t call it a comeback as none of these things really ever left.
Sometimes you need to work for it.
Part of the reason why physical has made a return might be down to the idea that streaming and digital media hasn’t made things easier, simpler, or more convenient. Having everything at the tip of your fingers has, in some ways, made things harder and slower.
I had a conversation where I mentioned that I’ve sat in front of a TV for a considerable amount of time, not knowing what to watch (or where to go to start watching). There’s so much choice, but not much of it is compelling enough that you feel as if you need to watch.
Now and then there’s a series of Traitors that not only do you need to watch it, but you have to follow it as it unfolds – but that experience feels as if it’s rare in an age of catch-up, on-demand and ‘Discovery’.
But when there were four (or five) channels, you knew what to watch because choice was limited. Having devices that can do everything is wonderful in a sense, but it can also lead to fatigue and indecision.
From a video streaming point of view, there’s a sense of having to catch up to join the conversation. When it comes to music streaming, the conversation can be over before you even realised it started. Who’s still talking about Phoebe Bridgers’ Lost Weekend a couple of months after it launched? It’s likely only to pop back into the conversation during the end-of-year discussions about the best music albums.
Returning to the old ways isn’t ‘retro’ but a reclamation of the experience around listening to music and watching films and TV. There are more turntable launches than I can remember. Bose has sold out of its wired headphones; such is the demand for them.
Long live physical media and old-school devices, not because they’re better than digital media, but because they bring a different perspective to the table. And in this day and age, where there’s so much slop about, what’s old has become new again.
