Physical or digital?

Did you prefer having a physical copy of something (album/movie/song/other media) or a digital copy of something?

In recent years, multimedia is becoming more available through a digital download or online streaming. With things such as cloud and digital download, it seems like more people are downloading songs/albums/movies/other media, and physically owning or buying something is becoming a thing of the past. Though there are still many who enjoy actually owning something as CD and DVD sales are still high. And it seems vinyl records are making a comeback too as well since more albums are also being released on vinyl than they were 5-10 years ago. So that brings me to ask this question. Which do you prefer, a physical copy or a digital copy?

I personally prefer buying and owning a physical copy of something, specifically for albums. If I could buy more CDs, I would cause to me it's really nice having something physical to own. The feeling of owning something in real life is far more greater than buying and owning it digitally. Although a good majority of my music library is from CDs I borrowed from the library and one I don't actually own, I'd still buy more of my media physically if I could. And even though digital copies will last longer than a physical CDs, movie or game, owning it for real, feel more special to me. Even when everything's digital, I'm still buying physical copies of things cause I like being able to say, "Yeah I have that album/game/whatever".

How about you guys?

I figured this would work better here in GE than anywhere else. Though since could apply to also games and other stuff, mods do feel free to move it if you feel otherwise.

I much prefer having digital copies of music to physical copies, as I can take my digital copies anywhere I wish, whereas physical copies would be restricted to the car (lol) or the home environment.

Physical copies of movies, however, are far better than digital copies -- I would rather watch my movie on a large, HD television screen than a crammed 4 inch display on, say, my phone (even the 10.1 inch display the Samsung Galaxy Tab offers would be negligible). I suppose you can download your movie and then use a USB to play it via the television, but...

I will not use digital books (e-books) until print becomes obsolete (which won't be happening for a long time). I despise the small displays of e-readers and would much rather read a book on paper than stare at a little, 7 inch screen.

Aurora. said:

I much prefer having digital copies of music to physical copies, as I can take my digital copies anywhere I wish, whereas physical copies would be restricted to the car (lol) or the home environment.

Physical copies of movies, however, are far better than digital copies -- I would rather watch my movie on a large, HD television screen than a crammed 4 inch display on, say, my phone (even the 10.1 inch display the Samsung Galaxy Tab offers would be negligible). I suppose you can download your movie and then use a USB to play it via the television, but...

I will not use digital books (e-books) until print becomes obsolete (which won't be happening for a long time). I despise the small displays of e-readers and would much rather read a book on paper than stare at a little, 7 inch screen.

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Well if your laptop has a hdmi out port you could always play it on your tv in HD. But still, owning physically copies just feels a lot more rewarding.

Honestly, I don't own much CDs, I pretty much just listen to the radio. Since all I listen too is country music and late 90's - early 2000's rock music. I can pretty much find all those songs I like on the radio.

As much as having something like that physically makes me feel awesome, I got used to having those things in digital version.

Kyrul said:

But still, owning physically copies just feels a lot more rewarding.

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See yup, that's the thing for me too. Going out to buy and then own a physical copy of something (even video games now since some systems allow to download a game from the system.) feels more rewarding to me. Sure you can't take a CD or DVD and know that taking my iPod full of MP3s is easier, but something is really gratifying about owning something physically.

Digital if I'm stealing, physical if I'm buying.

Although I haven't tried stealing physical copies, perhaps that would be best of all.

If everything were equal in price I'd rather have a physical copy for the things I like the most. I want to have a physical copy that I can watch, lsiten to, etc. whenever I want, but I also like the space-saving you get with digital media.

I do worry about 'the cloud' and all media eventually moving to subscription. I want to pay for something once and be able to use it as much as I want, however I want, and I don't want advertisements strewn through everything.

I prefer having physical copies of movies, since I like collecting movies myself. But as for music goes, it's pretty hard to find the albums of the artists I like since they're not well known compared to the mainstream artist. So I have to download them.

I voted for physical, that only really means in the form of games and the like, lol. I didn't even think that this was in GE. For movies, I prefer digital copies since they are free (for me, trololo) and it's a pain to store my current 400+ dvd/blu ray collection right now anyway! And CDs, I threw out all of my CDs like six or so years ago and I've been using mp3s since then.

Gotta go with physical, although with music I generally don't care whether it's physical or digital. Movies have to be physical, though. If I like a movie enough to buy it then I want a copy that I can actually own and hold in my hands because with digital copies I can get the same feeling from pirating or streaming it.

Mac said:

I didn't even think that this was in GE.

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Yeah I wasn't sure where to put it. Since it's about music and movie, and lot of other media of entertainment, it could belong in GE. Though could also fit in Internet & Technology since digital media in a way is a type of technology and so are CDs , video games and DVDs. So if a mod does think it fits here, they can move it where fit.

@Sweets Witch; I really don't care either way with music either, but I still love the feeling of physically owning an album.

I prefer a physical copy, that way I know I could have it on me at all times and can take it anywhere. A digital copy could be deleted in the blink of an eye with a computer fault/error or something and I just don't like not being able to control something like that, whereas it's pretty easy to keep a physical copy safe somewhere, y'know? I'm really crazy about this with games. It's a lot harder to have a digital copy of a game lost, such as on a 3DS, but if it's stored on a memory card, said card could be lost or damaged. D:

I fancy physical copies because I can reassure myself that I actually have the game/movie. I could run into an error when downloading a digital version. Call it paranoia, if you want. I don't know a thing about technology! I only download games if it's cheaper or I cannot be bothered with going to Walmart first.

I bought a CD once, but I forgot it in the music player in a rental car. Derp. I never bought a CD again for myself!

Physical. I own it. And can make it digital

Anything but music I prefer to have physical copies of. Whether it be movies, books, video games, etc., I'd much rather have the real thing, since digital files are at a higher risk of having issues (and if I paid for it, I'd really hate to have to download it all over again).

I'd say physical copies for some reasons:
1. I own something that I can show everywhere ("Hey, see, what I got here", kinda ^^)
2. I like making backups and backups of my backups and backups of my backups of my backups and making them from physical copies is kinda more legal than from digital ones (well it depends which digital store, streams, etc. you use for digital copies)
3. you can read a book even if there is no electricity
4. my internet is really bad; downloading sometimes takes forever...
5. I don't own a credit card and nothing similar, so it's hard for me to get digital copies without pirating

Unfortunatly digital copies are often more cheaper than physical ones...

About half and half for me, but I think I fancy digital just a little bit more. Having a physical copy is nice and all that (especially for games), but having a digital copy means I can't scratch it, or accidentally ruin it, or-- well, I guess I could still lose it somehow if I forget where I put the files or if my systems suddenly go...

But yeah. Either or works for me, though I like the convenience of digital copies quite a lot.

I definitely prefer having a physical copy. Although as Sylphiel says, they can get scratched (sadly happened to my Wombats CD, and with slightly less devastating effects to a few others due to a dodgy in-car CD player). But for albums it's much nicer having the case with the CD and book in. Sadly I have recently increasingly downloaded my music due to practicalities (other than the supermarkets, I have to travel 20 miles to get CDs. Which may not be far in America, Australia etc. but in England it's pretty appalling), and having my debit card linked to iTunes (so far haven't succumbed to buying any donuts on Simpsons' Tapped Out, may have to kill myself if I ever do :P ).
For singles though, I wouldn't want physical copies. I have a couple of McFly and Busted ones, and it just seems a waste of space for 2-3 tracks.
What I don't understand is this thing about old-fashioned records. I've heard some authentic 50s ones on a similar-aged record player, and it's awful quality if you don't position the needle perfectly. And they're a bit cumbersome as well - they take up a greater area than my laptop does (when closed, open it's about 50/50 if I could get my screen flat).

EDIT: I think physical / digital could be an age thing though - my brother's two years younger than me and hasn't bought a CD since 2005 as far as I'm aware. And although he's not as into music as me, I'm sure he's upated his library since then :)

Digital.

My parents do not like to buy anything.. and I lose things easily.

If it's on my computer, I don't have to worry about any of that stuff.

Although having a physical copy of anything is wonderful and it always makes me feel good when I have one, I simply do not believe in owning a physical copy of an album or a movie if I can get it digitally. Even better, why pay for it when I could just download it? I very rarely use the physical copies of anything outside of games nowadays, because I've more or less gone digital with everything. It's much neater for me and I like having a near-infinite collection of movies and music, lol.
I don't really game that much, because I'm either too busy or I don't care, but yeah, I've always preferred having a physical copy of the game over a downloaded one because it just complicates things, lmao. The controls are too much to work with, I get frustrated, I hate the game, goodbye.