Physical Media Lives Again

Earlier today I took my 14 year old to sell some of my dad's old CDs. He had no use for them, I don't own a CD player and my son strictly listens to Spotify. I got rid of my CDs almost a decade ago. I do own and buy vinyl now, but that is simply because I want to be as cool as my brothers and my friends. My son is all about digital media. That is what he likes, that is what this generation likes and I have to assume my daughter will be the same when she gets her phone next year.

So, going to V Stock, a local store that buys and sells old media, I figured there wouldn't be much of an inventory. I was very, very wrong. First off, my dad had a bunch of CDs to sell. There was a Rubbermaid full of CDs. I didn't think we'd sell that many, but there was only 1/10 of that bin left after we were done. That should have been my first clue that physical media is having a moment. But it wasn't until I walked around the store did I truly realize how much people still buy and collect older things.

V Stock was full of CDs, DVDs, Blu Rays, old collectible toys, older gaming systems, vinyl and they even had VHS', among other random nonsense. I immediately went to check out the vinyl. They had a solid selection, but it was a little too pricey for my blood. They did have some older, used records for a solid price, but there was no gold to be found. But it was the CD and DVD/Blu Ray selection that really blew my mind. They had so much. They had shelves stocked with them. They had Criterion Collection Blu Rays. They had a whole DVD section that was strictly classic movies. They had Marvel and DC movies on their own end caps. They had a whole section of TV series on DVD. I remember buying those up when it was the only option.

The CD section was, possibly, the biggest section in the store. And they had old, new, used and special CDs in the store. They had rare stuff. They had a bunch of live CDs for sale. They had stuff in alphabetical order, but much like the DVDs, they also had certain CDs in their own special section of the store. I saw a bunch of Black Keys CDs, both new and old, and I have, at one time in my life, owned every single one of them. I even thought that maybe they had some of my old ones there for sale.

The VHS section had me floored too. First off, I remember when VHS went the way of the dodo. I remember getting rid of them and not even being all that sad. But V Stock had a bunch of them for sale today. They even had the old puffy Disney VHS boxes. I have not seen those in years. I know some people collect those, so if you're reading this, go check out V Stock now to get the puffy box VHS. I also really enjoyed the collectible toy section. They had them all sealed in bags, but you could still see what they were.

I saw a bunch of old He-Man toys that one of my brothers had. They had a bunch of "Thundercat" toys there. They were up to their ears in collectible Funko Pop toys. They had some from series or comic books that I have never even heard of before. Funko Pop toys are cool and all, but this place made them feel super special. It kind of blew me away to be honest with you all today.

I know that some people are really into physical media, but this really opened my eyes. I like that physical media is having a comeback. I hope it sticks around for a long time. I have really been happy to be collecting vinyl again. I love the artwork and all the added stuff records provide for the buyer. I've heard people talk about Blu Rays and Criterion discs, but it didn't really hit me how important this stuff is to collectors today. They had a Super Nintendo for sale today, and I kind of wanted to buy it just to play the games I used to play growing up.

While the trip to the mall and to V Stock today went on way longer than I expected, I was very happy with what I saw and witnessed this afternoon. Physical media has always had a place for a bunch of people, and right now it is having a moment. That makes me smile and I want to see it go on for a long, long time. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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My Vinyl Record Problem

I had been contemplating getting a record player for a while now, and on my birthday my buddy actually bought me one. This was very unexpected and very much appreciated. Believe me, I have thanked him many, many times to this point. Let’s discuss.

When I first got the record player my parents had given me three records that they didn't play anymore. They have given away most of their records because they no longer own a player. I played these three pretty immediately because I was psyched about my new gift. Then about a week later I went out with my dad and my buddy that bought me the player to go record shopping. This was great. I found three albums that I wanted to try out on the player, they weren't all that expensive, and when I got home all three got played. I also bought my wife a Fleetwood Mac album because that is probably her favorite band. Then I took a break from shopping for albums because the holidays were fast approaching. I got a few more albums for Xmas and ever since then my record buying has become a minor problem.

I was worried this was going to happen. Having a record player is wonderful because it means I have gotten back to listening to music daily. I was mainly listening to podcasts for a good long while. I still prefer podcasts when I run and when I do errands. But at home I have gotten back into strictly listening to albums when I do housework or any other chores that need to be done. This morning, after grocery shopping, I put on a record and did all my prep work for the week as far as food stuff goes. I chose to listen to "Good Kid M.A.A.D City", and having that playing in the background on my record player was amazing. When I play video games at home I have the record player going. My kids went with me to the record store over the weekend and each got to pick an album to have, and we have listened to them multiple times already, especially my daughter who was literally hugging her album, "Life of a Showgirl" after we brought it home. The record player was great simply because it has reopened my love for listening to music while hanging around the house.

But, the downside, as I mentioned a minute ago, the purchasing of records is going to become a problem. I can already tell. This was the main reason why I was so hesitant to get a record player. I was the last of my brothers to get one. All of my close friends have players in their homes. I would go to their houses and look and pour over each record they had and think to myself that it was time to get one. I just never went through with it. Now that I have one though, I'm fully back in on getting albums. As a teenager and early 20 year old I bought countless CD's. you can ask RD. He used to make fun of the size of my CD books, and those bad boys were totally filled up. I fear I may be doing that with records already. My wife got me a record holder for Xmas, and that is already half full. I mentioned my kids got records over the weekend, well, I bought three for myself on that same trip. I grabbed "Good Kid M.A.A.D City", "Midnight Marauders" and "Stop Making Sense". When we went to check out the total was much more than I had anticipated spending. I went to a local store about a week ago and easily blew about ninety dollars on three records.

I have been making lists of what I want to get next. My grand idea when I first started to collect was that I would only buy records I wanted for the album artwork. That was always a big selling point for me with CD's. I loved the artwork, especially the artwork in late 90's, early 2000's hip hop records. The more boisterous the better I thought. But now I'm simply buying albums because I just want to hear them on a record player. For example, "Stop Making Sense", the version I got, is just black and white with some writing on it. There's nothing too special about it. But I do like the simplicity of it. A few records I have, "Chromakopia" for example, have very cool artwork and cool inserts, but I truly love that album and wanted to hear it on a different player. "Igor" is very simplistic in its packaging. I try to tell myself that I'm going to buy the most basic record because I just want them for the music now, but even the most basic album costs anywhere from twenty two to fifty bucks. I got "Getting Killed" for twenty four dollars and I felt like I got an excellent deal. I need to pace myself because this will only get worse before it gets better.

Damn it I'm thrilled that I have a record player and I feel like a kid again when I go shopping for new albums. I'm not much of a looker when I go to stores. I want to be as efficient as possible. But if you put me in a record store, filled to the brim with music, I could shop for hours and be very, very happy. But I will also spend too much money and feel bad about it afterward. I hope this doesn't get too out of hand too fast, but at the rate I'm going right now that seems to be the case. Oh well, I guess the best thing to do now is buy more storage for the inevitable influx of new records coming my way. This is a good problem to have I suppose. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.