Digital Distribution vs. Retail

[Cho]

So... I was talking with a friend lately about an album that I had just realized had come out for a favorite band. (Oh... for you younguns, album is the word we used to use when music was released on these big black plastic dinner plates.) He asked me if they didn't have it available via MP3. It was then that I realized, that I have totally conflicting views on digitial distribution.

For games - Steam all the way baby. Love the fact that Steam titles will often have less DRM, but the big thing being I can install/uninstall whenever I choose, over different PCs with no tribble at all. For instance, a few months back I switched over to Win 7 from XP. Did I have to hunt down cd keys and cds for my games? Nope. Reinstall Steam and just install whatever I want. Grief free.

But for music - I hate digital distribution. I want the physical CD. That way if my hard drive goes kaput, my music doesn't go with it (and I didn't have to back it up when I upgraded my OS.) Now maybe if amazon's mp3s were always able to be downloaded... actually not even then. I have a decent stereo which produces much better sound than my 2.1 pc sound 'system'.

So... what is everyone else's preferences... Digital Distribution? Retail?? Both???

[SneakyPie]

Ooh! Ooh! That was me!

As for the question, I now do everything via digital distribution. Games, music, and movies / television.

I hate having physical media. It works out well as my computer is my entertainment hub. I have a great 5.1 sound system along with a 24" monitor which works great for movies and other HD content.

Because of this, I don't own a TV as there simply is no need.

[Lord_Mountbatten]

Depends on the product. Up until recently I just wanted physical copies of everything, because I'm a massive materialist who needs to put stuff into playing/reading order.

This still applies to most things I buy, excepting my Steam games, since the Steam sales leading up to Christmas made be buy loads. I do still have a piece of paper with the names of each game written down, jammed between my physical copies of games, for my precious playing order.

[Hahsime]

I hated physical media...until my External HDD (that I kept all 400+ GB of stuff) on died. It is being replaced be WD, but still.

[SneakyPie]

I hated physical media...until my External HDD (that I kept all 400+ GB of stuff) on died. It is being replaced be WD, but still.

See there's your problem. You only had one back up.

You need at least two. AT LEAST TWO.

I once lost a backup and have been paranoid ever since. I now back things up to three locations and am currently thinking about beginning to back things up to the web on the cloud.

[Cho]

And this is how I determine if I want digital media vs. retail. Steams servers are my backups; so for games, I'm happy with digital media. For my music, I want the physical cds as my backup; since, as far as I know, I can't dl my purchased music from Amazon a year after I've purchased it.

[wokka1]

http://www.backblaze.com/

It's cheap, and will securely backup your stuff. I have a raid array at home for my media and storage, but this is handy for offsite stuff

I've gone completely digital, I just make sure my mp3's are backed up well, and I don't like physical, because no matter how careful you are, the media tend to get scratched.

[DuplicateValue]

I like physical copies of everything... I dunno, it just seems nice to have something material to show for your money.

Plus in the case of CDs, you get the sleeve with artwork and lyrics on it, which is cool.

[Cho]

Plus in the case of CDs, you get the sleeve with artwork and lyrics on it, which is cool.

Ah yes! My other reason for having physical copies of my music. Lyrics!!! Sometimes it's hard to figure out what that Dane is saying!

[SneakyPie]

Not a big deal when you can do this.

[mydrox]

I hated physical media...until my External HDD (that I kept all 400+ GB of stuff) on died. It is being replaced be WD, but still.

Data you don't have at least 3 copies of, is data you don't care about.

[welwyn]

I'm a digital guy, with physical backups. CD's get ripped once then stored in my basement. games get nocd cracked and again down in the basement they go. Important information gets burnt to CD and again down into the basement.

[Hahsime]

I hated physical media...until my External HDD (that I kept all 400+ GB of stuff) on died. It is being replaced be WD, but still.

Data you don't have at least 3 copies of, is data you don't care about.

That is true. The HDD was filled with "free" movies and television shows.

[Hahsime]

http://www.backblaze.com/

It's cheap, and will securely backup your stuff. I have a raid array at home for my media and storage, but this is handy for offsite stuff

I've gone completely digital, I just make sure my mp3's are backed up well, and I don't like physical, because no matter how careful you are, the media tend to get scratched.

That is actually a cool service. I back-up all my important stuff using a web based notebook through microsoft, but someone like my mother could benefit greatly from a service like that.