Im torn. On one hand yes everything is available digitally. On the other I like having hard copies and not thinking about backing up 3 hard drives and random hard drive failure and managing an even larger library on a computer…its nice just to have the media exist. And what happens when our ability to own media disappears (which looks to be a very real possibility).
They do take up space. I may keep the ones I really like and get rid of others.
I easily have over 300. Along with dvds, but im keeping those.
Allow me to share a personal experience with digital.
I’m well into my 50s and for many years I have been an avid books collector (much into rare editions). In the early 00s, I started reading… ebooks almost exclusively. Because I wanted to make my life much simpler and less focused on materialism. So, save very few books I truly wanted to keep with me I donated my personal library to a charity. And started reading (and purchasing) ebooks.
FF some twenty years later, approx in 2023. I have been reading ebooks almost exclusively.
I kinda like my various Kindles readers, and my iPads too. I’m not ‘happy’ to own a digital library (I have always loved the book object) but it’s so practical there is no discussing it. My entire library used to fill almost all rooms in our home, it can now fit in the palm of my hand. Great. But then, one day I suddenly realize I don’t really own the ebooks I purchase on Amazon (Amazon can and is legally allowed to delete them from our devices). WTF? Another day, I realize my ebooks can be remotely updated. So far, I had no issue with books being edited in order to remove typos and stuff like that but that day I realized a book could also be remotely edited to change its content, say to remove a word that would now be considered offensive… Without me having any legal ability to prevent that. So, in order to protect my property, I learn about removing drm. But then I realize all I’m reading habits are also being monitored and tracked by ‘my’ devices and send back to Amazon or Apple for marketing and data analysis. WTF?
I looked at my digital library and realized it never was mine. Most of those ebooks I had purchased for years on big retail platforms like Amazon and Apple they never were mine. I was merely renting a right to read them (that’s not always like that with ebooks purchased on some smaller/independent and DRM-free platforms but the bulk of my purchases were made on Amazon, and then on Apple). Looking at ‘my’ devices and knowing they were spying on me, I decided this was not the world I wanted to live in. It is something I discuss in more details on my blog, but simply put: upon realizing that I decided to quit reading ebooks almost entirely and move back to print (even for magazines and newspapers). Books I can fully own (no one can remotely delete or edit them from my bookshelves) and that don’t spy on me.
And, at last getting back to your point, I did the same with with movies, series and music. I cancelled all my streaming subscriptions, all of them, dusted my old DVDs and CDS, and started purchasing new (or used) discs again to complete it. I’m not a collector anymore, as I strictly limit the size of my personal library, but I have not looked back and do not miss streaming or digital access.
Physical medias are great as they give us full ownership (we can even resell or gave them away), they don’t track us, don’t spy on us, can’t be remotely edited or deleted. They don’t require Internet access, nor a monthly subscription.
If you have room to store your tapes somewhere, why not keep them? If you don’t, well then it’s a question of deciding what is more important to keep in that limited space and tapes can very easily not be that important ;)
edit: clarifications.
Went back to buying CDs to rip them.
But I’m usually only buying what I really like.
Collecting physical, listening digital.
You’re honestly a far more forgiving man than me. My bitterness towards the same realization you had is what drove me to piracy. To me, I was playing by the rules and losing to the corporations that kept getting away with cheating and of no one well enforce the rule then it isn’t one. I don’t pirate to make a grand stand, I do it because I’m petty and powerless and that’s all I can do to enjoy the media I love.
If you still have all those ebooks and readers, there are ways around all the muck that can give them to you for real. Though honestly I think you have the healthier view.
I dare say we shared the same bitterness (and anger) in realizing that absurd situation they created. But it also happens I’m getting old, well into my 50s, and have quite a few severe health issues making it an almost certain fact that I won’t last indefinitely . Knowing that, I’d rather not waste whatever time I have left dealing with such nonsense. So pirating is not the best option for me but it’s certainly not something I would frown upon or discourage anyone from doing if they wanted to.
I do. But I also realized I would never be able to read those ebooks as comfortably without using a device whose behavior (aka what it tracks and reports back to its maker) I can’t, or not easily, control. The only way I now read my ebooks is on my Linux computer using the Foliate epub reader (or Calibre, for all other file formats) because I know Linux and Free/libre software/apps are much more trustworthy than anything else. Alas, reading on a computer is often a lot less comfortable than reading a good old printed book that I can easily carry with me and that I can read whenever I’m not working at my desk.