Right now, there is a big battle between the physical and digital markets. We know that stores like HMV have gone bust and are slowly closing across the world. Do you still go to a shop and buy your CD's, games and DVD's or do you buy them online? I personally do a bit of both. I don't purchase any movies or music, but I do purchase console games for obvious reasons.
I've definitely converted to buying more online, when I have a mission at hand. For example, I try to do all my seasonal shopping (for kids clothes) at once. I typically make one stop to the physical store at Carter's and Osh Kosh, but very often will end up finding more and better deals by shopping online. It is also quicker, and usually has free shipping. When I'm just shopping to kill time or have fun, obviously going in the stores still happens. And you ask about CD's… I haven't bought music or a book in about a decade. I make pretty good use of the public library for most of our entertainment.
I mostly just get digital products nowadays. I've never been much of a collector and I don't like having to pay much attention to the things I buy after I've bought and used them just so I can use them again in the future without fear that I've damaged them somehow with moisture or dust, etc. The only things I buy physical copies of nowadays are books, just because I still prefer reading off of paper as much as I can, and I almost never do a second reading anyway so I'm not too afraid of them wasting away after I'm done with them.
Call me old fashioned but I prefer to get physical copies. I also like to go to a store to buy movies, games, etc. The novelty of holding a new thing and opening up the packaging is hard to describe. Besides, I don't feel like I'm really owning the product if I buy digitals, feels more like I'm on a loan.
I honestly prefer the physical product. I do recognize that society is moving towards digital media. I am fairly comfortable buying digital music. I don't like digital movies. I still prefer the DVD. I also prefer physical books over ebooks. I recently found an book of LPs. It took me awhile to find a needle to play them on a phonograph. The sound is wonderful. No CD or digital file can match that sound.
The old going to a store to get a movie is dieing off rapidly. The whole "get it cheaper online" is nothing but a lie. You can find great deals but a majority of the time is that those "deals" were actually marked up and then given a discount. You will often find that most of these products you find online are a couple of dollars marked up but say they are a certain percent cheaper.
If I have money to spare and I really like the artist or movie, then I will buy cd's or dvd's, but when it comes to books, I prefer the ebook version, because it's cheaper and saves you space and money. Nowadays, I only buy books when I can't find an ebook version of it online.
I still wouldn't regard it as old-fashioned just yet. Yes, everything is changing and becoming a lot more digital but physical media is still a big market, it's just dropping every year.
I also do a bit of both. I buy my music online and then burn it onto discs, but when it comes to DVDs I will buy them in shops, I love going to pawn shops and buying cheap DVDs and CDs for $1 a go, I have picked up entire series and collections on DVD for just a Buck. The problem with store is that they are not changing with the times, HMV refused to lower their prices and are now paying the price.
I like having physical CD's better than digital, and I don't know why. I guess I've just always preferred it that way.
I am about 2/3 of the way to getting all of my DVD's converted into housed digital formats. Much better with kids, because in the past all of the DVDs were destroyed in a matter of days or weeks. Now, instead of buying DVDs and burning the images to a hard drive, I just buy them on Amazon on Demand, or rely on Netflix. I guess that ownership of the entertainment I enjoy just isn't that important to me - rather than owning it, I would just like to have access to it.
I'm not much of a music fan so I rarely buy music. Movie though are entirely different. I'm not a collector but I prefer buying used DVD's because they are cheaper and after watching them I always exchange the DVDs I've watched for others [with other friends who like movies as much as I do]. Saves me a lot of cash.
I like to go into the physical store to purchase clothes. I get my books online in audio form mustly to play on my tablet or laptop as I work. Movies I watch online, so I guess you can say a little of both for me.
I like to buy all my media online and I like to buy physical copies of everything. If I'm going to spend money on something, I want an object to put on my video game shelf, not a digital file that can be corrupted or deleted. When you own a digital copy of something, you don't own an item that you can trade or resell, just a file on a computer. Some people might prefer that. I like to have actual things.
I love being able to download things online, but the problem is it's so easy to lose them if your computer dies. That's why it's important to have some kind of backup system in place. I haven't always been good about that and have lost things as a result. Whenever I buy music recordings, it is nearly always a digital download because it's so easy to get free iTunes downloads on Viggle and StationDigital. Whenever I hear a song that I want to buy, I just write it down and buy it next time I have the points to get it for free. If I couldn't get them for free, I wouldn't be able to get them at all, since there's very little wiggle room in our budget!
I prefer to buy the physical copy of a movie. With music, I buy it all in the digital format. I really don't like to have all those CD cases all over the place. As for books, I buy some e-books and some physical books. It just depends on which format is less expensive.
As much as I love hard copies of games, it can be a bit risky, the discs could get scratched and become irreparable, which seems to happen a lot if you have other people besides yourself using them as I do, so digital copies have kind of become a fail-safe against that sort of thing, for me personally. Plus if you lose it you can always re-download it at a moments notice without having to buy a new one, so it's kind of become my preferred option. It's a great insurance in my opinion.
I don't remember the last time i went to a store to buy CD/DvDs and that's saying something because i sort of have a good memory. I basically just buy things online. It's more convenient this way and truthfully who wants to get out of their pajamas and go to a store when you can absolutely just buy things you want in the comfort of your own home through the internet? No one. lol Really, i think physical stores are slowly dying (Well, maybe this applies mostly to record stores) and it would be best if they should just set up a virtual store which is what most people prefer nowadays.
I already mentioned about CDs but I think DVDs are better because of the special features. As for video games, I'm not sure why I prefer discs. If I'm going to actually buy a video game instead of finding it for free the disc is more trustworthy. I guess I just feel like it's going to get corrupted or it's too easy to lose because of something happening to your computer. I suppose you can re-download it for free if you asked the company but I guess I feel better not having to ask them for another copy.
Digital distribution is the future. Or, scratch that, it's the current technology! Haven't bought a CD or DVD in 5+ years and I'm not planning to in any near future.
