This is such an important piece. And you wrote yet another excellent article, Jeff.
This ownership vs. subscription problem is why I've nearly sworn off streaming services. 95% of my home viewing money now goes to physical media. One or two months a year, I'll subscribe to a couple of streaming platforms to catch up on what interests me most, and so that I'm not totally out of the loop. But that's it.
I read someone say that in 2026, every purchase of physical media is an act of rebellion. I agree. Corporations want to take away ownership, choice, and quality from us. Screw that.
Owning art in physical form is crucial. Keep fighting the good fight.
This has been a trend across corporations. Apple provided digital albums then Apple Music in the changing music consumption market post Napster. Physical albums have recovered but are now niche and the pricing reflects the popularity of vinyl but most people still stream.
My local Walmarts both scaled back their physical media sections to almost nothing, for movies, games and vinyl records. Goodwill removed their media section from the store closest to me. Now PlayStation has declared no more discs.
I am always a gen behind on gaming so I’m rolling with a PS4 still but how long before they make it so it’s unusable? I’ve got all of the systems from PS1-4 and can easily fall back on the classics if they actually go through with it.
I’ve been buying 4Ks for about a year but not from my local stores. Sellers on WhatNot, Amazon and Criterion (when there are sales) are where 90% of them have come from. 4Ks are rarely stocked at my local Walmarts.
There are the boutique labels that have really great versions but like vinyl records the pricing reflects the more collectible side of things. I buy movies to watch them. I’ve gone back to VHS because I have a player and it’s affordable.
You are 100% correct. In a capitalist society, the consumers have the power to make change. Everyone needs to buy more physical media and cut the cable.
Subscriptions (plural noun) are in a different category than ownership.
Oh, well that can be remedied.
Services and goods.
Oh.
No, wait.
What?
Services are subscribed to.
Goods are purchased as individual products.
Well, yeah, but who’s gonna get all worked up over declaring the corporate elite is in conflict with itself over whether consumers pay for corporate-manufactured products or services?
Okay, but putting it that way is oversimplifying the way things really are.
As for the Corporations owning, for example, recorded music media, (since nobody had access to “video,” who didn’t own and have space for a 16mm or 35mm Film Projector, and access to Film Reels, until around 1978, while availability of recorded music dates back to an early form of Digital Media called Player Piano Rolls, and then to the early Analog Media of Wax Cylinders and Victrola & Phonograph Records, before magnetic recordable tape was developed after WWII, though not in a form available to consumers until Mad Man Muntz created the Muntz Stereo-Pak, (which was basically a cartridge type precursor to the 8 Track tape cartridge) in the early 60s, for installation in automobiles. The same year, 1963, Philips patented to magnetic cassette cartridge we know as cassette tapes, but didn’t license the patent out until 1966. So it was a while before prerecorded or blank recordable cassettes were readily available to a large “consumer” market, but records sold big. Of course they were easily subject to wear, not unlike the CD, DVD, and most volatile (prone to disc rot) Blu Ray Discs. Unlike VHS tapes, DVDs were too easily damaged, but with the popularity of improved quality, and reduced cost of production, purchasing them became affordable consideration towards the end of the 90s, which spelled out the beginning of the end for stores like BLOCK BUSTER VIDEO, and corporate franchises built around RENTALS, although a company called Redbox devised a schema that worked pretty well for a while, for DVD Rental by mail.
Of course the big blow to Compact Discs came from … Napster.
Wait a minute … Napster was anti corporate greed taking in mass bucks for optical CD sales out of Corporate Megastores like Tower Records and Virgin, by music sharing.
Um, something seems to not be adding up with the argument for owning physical media here …
From that perspective, the CORPORATIONS ownership argument starts to break down.
But let’s go a step further.
Back in 1996 I opened a media production studio predicated on the concept of “Shared Economy,” which is popularly recognized by an iteration which declares, “You will own nothing, and you will be happy.”
The fatal flaw in the design was, ultimately, not having a position dedicated to operations management and booking/scheduling, (as the space was being occupied by a non-interested party … long story). It folded in late 2000.
We got a nice tribute at the Grammy Museum in 2017.
So a month back I got an e-mail from the cofounder.
“Yo Dave,
Just checking in. How’s it going? Dude look what I just saw on eBay!! Isn’t that your handwriting?”
It was a cassette of our first album being sold on ebay for $200.
I wrote back:
“Hey there.
I hate having no good or more hopeful news to report.
I'm constantly occupied with shoring up against declining conditions,
(both health/medical conditions and environmental/"living" conditions).
The cassette is a very curious find.
It definitely did not originate from me.
I had maintained the recordings and final compilation on DAT,
and then the CD pre-MASTER & Glass Master,
and copies on CD, with back-ups on HDD in uncompressed .AIFF file Forman, and minimally lossy .aac file format, primarily in .m4a containers.
I hadn't used magnetic audio cassette much, if at all, beyond 1996.
From working at/for Guitar Center I was able to get hooked up with a Philips CDD2000 at "cost" + "ad-pac" (basically for about one penny under $700).
It was a ... "temperamental" (to put it politely) little bitch of a CD burner.
Only did 1X write (for audio).
It would crap out if you tried to insert track information to a continuous file,
(even though it was supposed to be capable of doing so).
The 1995 Saturn SC2 was the first car I had that came with a built-in CD Player,
so I had near completely abandoned audio cassettes by the time of the studio move,
(1997).
We (or I) never made a demo-promo cassettes of it.
The first assembly was done on CD-R, from DAT.
Don't remember an outfit called Sidewinder Music.
It could be a bootleg, but it's not a demo or promo that we made.
Definitely not my handwriting.
"Poor penmanship" has always been a problem,
one derived from a neuro-developmental block,
where hand writing clear & legibly required writing very slowly,
so a handwriting "style" is something that never really developed.
Basically, to hand write clearly,
I had to actually be doing something...
that is more akin to carefully trying to draw precisely.”
A couple weeks ago I got another message.
yo yo! I bought that 011 cassette off eBay for $30 lol.
“I’m currently remastering our old tracks and wanted to make sure it’s cool with you if we decided to do a limited vinyl release… Love to have you on board somehow too!“
There is a "fix" for the pile of health conditions I'm buried under.
But it's a "concept," that has become alien to "healthcare."
It actually requires doing some "work."
It's called "recovery," (or used to be, at least).
It's something that just does not fall within the scope of comprehension held by any available or accessible doctor or medical professional.
Curious question though.
There may be a way yet.
How is your "workflow?"
(I really hate that term, I preferred Set-Up, Workspace, and Pipeline.)
Right now, where I am, and have been, is not fit for living or working.
BUT, I have nearly everything necessary to change that.
Present state is basically uninhabitable for even just one person.
With what's here, it can be configured into a dual use space,
for single habitation, and two person work,
With everything necessary to facilitate
high quality digital audio mastering,
remastering, recording, mixing,
and a ton of other stuff.
The space has to be configured.
Which just means it needs some work/labor,
put into doing some moving things around,
putting a few things together, and into place.
I don't have the physical capacity/stamina for that,
but it's not hard work at all,
(Compared with just about anything we've ever,
and always, done before,
going all the way back to high school days.)
My physical status is extremely limited in activity.
Lemme try to explain why,
(but I'll leave it to you to look thing up,
to whatever extent you want,
it's all easy to google.)
Here's "the pile,"
(list of conditions that have me reduced to this state).
Long-term Antibiotic Induced
Arthritis (full body, joints, hips,
knees, ankles, neck, back,
wrists, etc.)
and
Peripheral Neuropathy
(largely localized to shoulders, arms & hands,
"pins & needles" that turns to numbness & pain very quickly)
Two epididymal cysts presenting as acquired seminal vesicle cysts
(Possibly a Cystic dilatation of the seminal vesicles
resulting from the formation of epididymal cysts,
- dilatation to one or both seminal vesicles
often occurring as a result of a downstream obstruction
(of the ejaculatory ducts or ectopic ureteral insertion into the seminal vesicles).
On imaging it is seen as continuous dilatation
to one or both seminal vesicles
as opposed to a single
seminal vesicle cyst)
due to insufficient drainage as a result of
Periodic blockage of the ejaculatory ducts,
(resulting from
chronic neuroleptic-induced ANHEDONIA)
causing distension of seminal vesicles
and further leading to the formation of a cyst,
(and another),
with the typical "symptoms" of
perineal pain,
abdominal pain,
ejaculatory pain,
dysuria,
increased frequency of micturition
+
Pain in the nuts
Heaviness in the balls
Fullness behind and above the balls in the nutsack
resulting in an additional stretching of the inner thighs,
creating stress & pain to that region.
This also gives rise to
the formation of kidney stones.
And
to cap it off,
an
inguinal hernia,
causing additional
Aching, burning & heavy, dragging sensation
IN MY NUTS.
and more gut trouble.
ALTOGETHER
and/or
ALL TOGETHER
inducing a near constant state of
RECTAL TENESMUS
Tenesmus is a frequent urge to go to the bathroom without being able to go. It usually affects your bowels, but sometimes your bladder. Severe inflammation that irritates the nerves involved in pooping or peeing is often the cause. Your nerves overreact, telling your muscles that you constantly have to go.
It often involves straining, cramping, and the sensation that stool is stuck. This occurs because irritated or inflamed nerve endings in the rectum send false signals to the brain.
The studio workflow is simply accomplished by a networked (literal) Mini computing Cluster of three Mac Mini computers that have all been configured for studio work, crossing three critical generations, and iterations of the Mac OS, supporting optimal hardware and AD/DA converters, with a preserved pair of Genelec 8020s.
From 2009 Mac Mini
to
2015 Mac Mini
to
M1 Mac Mini
To
M4 Mini
there's also an ad-on in the works, (it's workable, I just have no room to work
which I guess is pretty obvious from the dust),
that enables Blackmagic Design DaVinci Studio & Fairlight,
along with providing control for any DAW Software
that uses or requires HUI or MCU control protocols.
(Can’t afford much. My income is $89 per month, from General Relief benefits.)
M4 Mac Mini, PS5, iPhone 15 Pro, M1 iPad Pro.
Google Drive $1.99
Amazon Prime
(a necessary evil,
they accept EBT Grocery
with free delivery over $25
and Prime discounted to
$6.99/month for EBT holders)
PlayStation Plus $8.33
Apple One $19.95
About $39.00 Per Month
Long time ago I consented to experiment with a game console,
after refusing to have anything to do with games for the first 40 years of my life.
I mean, look, all people do is sink their time and efforts into them,
and gain nothing.
You don’t “win” anything.
Don’t produce or create anything.
And don’t even own anything.
All that those optical game discs are,
is the same thing that software installer discs for computers:
Game Software Installers with a license on the disc, (if it was only one disc, otherwise,
it’s a bunch of Game Software Installer Discs with a license on one of them, which can be revoked for any violation of the TOS in the EULA, via Internet, ensuring the hardware rejects the license disc).
Apple just got out of the business of selling software on installer discs, and putting optical disc reader hardware into their machines back in 2011. Stopped the practice of selling new OS versions, and left something useful in their computers, (afterwards); a TF Card slot.
When I finally had a good idea for a way to make creative and supplementary use of a game console, wasn’t until 2012.
I maintained a strict segregation, since I also did not watch Television or Subscribe to Cable TV.
Game and “entertainment” type media go on the console, only. Keep that crap off my computers.
It’s basically still how things are divided.
Plex media server handles any crossover.
Since I work with a lot of Commercial Media, what I own (my library, books, photos, pdfs & papers, video, audio, movies, shows, radio, podcasts, etc. etc.) is effectively maintained on a 16 TB NAS.
As far as what I own, what I use (that is licensed), what I make, what services I pay for, what I get, what I give a damn about, (PS+ always “gives” out a couple/few games at the start of every month, but only 8 are persistently useful, while 196 sit up in their cloud storage, having even bothered with trying or playing with less than half of those at all, still, it’s nice knowing they’re there, just in case I get an idea for something I want to try, with another 64 that have accrued since 2012, on whatever heavily discounted terms, but have been relegated to cloud storage out of long-term disuse/disinterest, so at least they don’t crowd the already-limited local NAS, HDD, SSD, or TF storage space, or even more limited 64 sq ft. of “living” space.
Probably it’s just a result of the restrictions imposed by medical conditions, poverty, necessary optimization of resources, and the range of interests & activities which I maintain, that prevent me from seeing what all the whining about owning “physical media” is about.
Oh, ONE of those games is on an optical disc.
There was no other way to obtain it.
It’s not available on the PlayStation store.
So, it should be deducted from the numbers I mentioned earlier.
well said; I can still buy media on discs, I use subscriptions where necessary. And next week I fight with my cable provider to move my business someplace else, with cancel anytime options. And those two TV antennas I've been playing with in my attic, may just have increased in value.
Subscriptions have significantly reduced my production costs. During pre-production, I subscribe to tools that assist in pre-production. I turn off these subscriptions during principal photography. After principal photography, I switch to subscriptions for post-production. This approach is incredibly beneficial. It allows me to avoid significant capital investment and only pay for software I typically use at various production stages. It’s not just about upfront capital; in the long run, it has saved me thousands of dollars annually. Subscriptions are a great solution. The only requirement is a small amount of discipline in managing them. I sincerely hope developers don’t learn from this uninformed criticism. This model has enabled me to accomplish more as a solo creator than any other major industry shift ever has. Long live the subscription model!
If you paid $50 for a whole year of software and now you’re paying $20 a month, you’re right, that’s a rip-off. However, that’s not a flaw in the subscription model itself. The subscription model is effective. You need to upgrade to a better software solution. If you truly analyze the economics of it, there’s likely more nuance than you’ve just pointed out. But maybe not. There are companies that blatantly exploit a successful business model and take advantage of customers. I have found that for the most part with my vendors, I save enormously by subscribing instead of buying not having to lay out huge amounts of capital and wisely managing those subscriptions during different phases of production. There is no question about it. It has saved me thousands of dollars every year.
Great but OMINOUS column! This decision by Sony is an absolute door-slam for me, all my preceding PS consoles have been hubs for both disc playback AND infrequent gaming. If I lose the disc playback option, any new console isn't worth buying. Having the disc playback option was the "killer ap" that made a gaming console worth buying for me.
I admit that a customer of my age (68) inherently doesn't have a long horizon as a "cash flow revenue generator" in the reckoning of corporate spreadsheets. Having Sony deliberately flush physical media customers this way may very well trigger an avalanche of abandonment of physical media by other providers. I can only wonder whether our niche physical media labels and retailers can fill the void created by this deliberate amputation of the market.
I wouldn't expect Sony to continue selling 8-track players, but DVD/ blu-ray/ 4K discs are nowhere close to obsolescence. Capitalism is theoretically supposed to encourage competition, where new sellers emerge to fill a market need. That doesn't work for the jenga tower of interlinked & sophisticated tech manufacturing, international commerce, finance, licensing & marketing behind console production. I can't carve a new blu-ray release of "Avengers-Doomsday" out of a tree stump.
This is a pretty blatant forced extinction move on Sony's part, it very well might prove fatal. It feels like the 3D flatscreen meltdown of 2016 all over again, except this time forcing EVERY physical media user onto the digital only plantation, where we're "free" to stay behind the corporate barbed wire & suckle only the Soylent Green they choose to feed us.
This is such an important piece. And you wrote yet another excellent article, Jeff.
This ownership vs. subscription problem is why I've nearly sworn off streaming services. 95% of my home viewing money now goes to physical media. One or two months a year, I'll subscribe to a couple of streaming platforms to catch up on what interests me most, and so that I'm not totally out of the loop. But that's it.
I read someone say that in 2026, every purchase of physical media is an act of rebellion. I agree. Corporations want to take away ownership, choice, and quality from us. Screw that.
Owning art in physical form is crucial. Keep fighting the good fight.
This has been a trend across corporations. Apple provided digital albums then Apple Music in the changing music consumption market post Napster. Physical albums have recovered but are now niche and the pricing reflects the popularity of vinyl but most people still stream.
My local Walmarts both scaled back their physical media sections to almost nothing, for movies, games and vinyl records. Goodwill removed their media section from the store closest to me. Now PlayStation has declared no more discs.
I am always a gen behind on gaming so I’m rolling with a PS4 still but how long before they make it so it’s unusable? I’ve got all of the systems from PS1-4 and can easily fall back on the classics if they actually go through with it.
I’ve been buying 4Ks for about a year but not from my local stores. Sellers on WhatNot, Amazon and Criterion (when there are sales) are where 90% of them have come from. 4Ks are rarely stocked at my local Walmarts.
There are the boutique labels that have really great versions but like vinyl records the pricing reflects the more collectible side of things. I buy movies to watch them. I’ve gone back to VHS because I have a player and it’s affordable.
You are 100% correct. In a capitalist society, the consumers have the power to make change. Everyone needs to buy more physical media and cut the cable.
Now there is a category error in the “analysis.”
Subscriptions (plural noun) are in a different category than ownership.
Oh, well that can be remedied.
Services and goods.
Oh.
No, wait.
What?
Services are subscribed to.
Goods are purchased as individual products.
Well, yeah, but who’s gonna get all worked up over declaring the corporate elite is in conflict with itself over whether consumers pay for corporate-manufactured products or services?
Okay, but putting it that way is oversimplifying the way things really are.
Oh, and the “analysis,” is not?
As for the Corporations owning, for example, recorded music media, (since nobody had access to “video,” who didn’t own and have space for a 16mm or 35mm Film Projector, and access to Film Reels, until around 1978, while availability of recorded music dates back to an early form of Digital Media called Player Piano Rolls, and then to the early Analog Media of Wax Cylinders and Victrola & Phonograph Records, before magnetic recordable tape was developed after WWII, though not in a form available to consumers until Mad Man Muntz created the Muntz Stereo-Pak, (which was basically a cartridge type precursor to the 8 Track tape cartridge) in the early 60s, for installation in automobiles. The same year, 1963, Philips patented to magnetic cassette cartridge we know as cassette tapes, but didn’t license the patent out until 1966. So it was a while before prerecorded or blank recordable cassettes were readily available to a large “consumer” market, but records sold big. Of course they were easily subject to wear, not unlike the CD, DVD, and most volatile (prone to disc rot) Blu Ray Discs. Unlike VHS tapes, DVDs were too easily damaged, but with the popularity of improved quality, and reduced cost of production, purchasing them became affordable consideration towards the end of the 90s, which spelled out the beginning of the end for stores like BLOCK BUSTER VIDEO, and corporate franchises built around RENTALS, although a company called Redbox devised a schema that worked pretty well for a while, for DVD Rental by mail.
Of course the big blow to Compact Discs came from … Napster.
Wait a minute … Napster was anti corporate greed taking in mass bucks for optical CD sales out of Corporate Megastores like Tower Records and Virgin, by music sharing.
Um, something seems to not be adding up with the argument for owning physical media here …
Is there some OVERSIMPLIFICATION involved?
Let’s go back and ask Nutty.
https://youtu.be/lrgQjIo3oBk?si=WucT2NN6pqO3HK4f
From that perspective, the CORPORATIONS ownership argument starts to break down.
But let’s go a step further.
Back in 1996 I opened a media production studio predicated on the concept of “Shared Economy,” which is popularly recognized by an iteration which declares, “You will own nothing, and you will be happy.”
The fatal flaw in the design was, ultimately, not having a position dedicated to operations management and booking/scheduling, (as the space was being occupied by a non-interested party … long story). It folded in late 2000.
We got a nice tribute at the Grammy Museum in 2017.
So a month back I got an e-mail from the cofounder.
“Yo Dave,
Just checking in. How’s it going? Dude look what I just saw on eBay!! Isn’t that your handwriting?”
It was a cassette of our first album being sold on ebay for $200.
I wrote back:
“Hey there.
I hate having no good or more hopeful news to report.
I'm constantly occupied with shoring up against declining conditions,
(both health/medical conditions and environmental/"living" conditions).
The cassette is a very curious find.
It definitely did not originate from me.
I had maintained the recordings and final compilation on DAT,
and then the CD pre-MASTER & Glass Master,
and copies on CD, with back-ups on HDD in uncompressed .AIFF file Forman, and minimally lossy .aac file format, primarily in .m4a containers.
I hadn't used magnetic audio cassette much, if at all, beyond 1996.
From working at/for Guitar Center I was able to get hooked up with a Philips CDD2000 at "cost" + "ad-pac" (basically for about one penny under $700).
It was a ... "temperamental" (to put it politely) little bitch of a CD burner.
Only did 1X write (for audio).
It would crap out if you tried to insert track information to a continuous file,
(even though it was supposed to be capable of doing so).
The 1995 Saturn SC2 was the first car I had that came with a built-in CD Player,
so I had near completely abandoned audio cassettes by the time of the studio move,
(1997).
We (or I) never made a demo-promo cassettes of it.
The first assembly was done on CD-R, from DAT.
Don't remember an outfit called Sidewinder Music.
It could be a bootleg, but it's not a demo or promo that we made.
Definitely not my handwriting.
"Poor penmanship" has always been a problem,
one derived from a neuro-developmental block,
where hand writing clear & legibly required writing very slowly,
so a handwriting "style" is something that never really developed.
Basically, to hand write clearly,
I had to actually be doing something...
that is more akin to carefully trying to draw precisely.”
A couple weeks ago I got another message.
yo yo! I bought that 011 cassette off eBay for $30 lol.
“I’m currently remastering our old tracks and wanted to make sure it’s cool with you if we decided to do a limited vinyl release… Love to have you on board somehow too!“
I wrote back:
“Jul 20, 2026, 3:49 AM
https://soundcloud.com/heartoeleven
-------------------
https://youtu.be/BWhl-rKsO5s?si=IDUn1vKPnR658I0_
------------------
https://youtu.be/9czS4epFvfc?si=3E5Jdh1uyCo87Ygv
-------------------
I'm not moving very well
There is a "fix" for the pile of health conditions I'm buried under.
But it's a "concept," that has become alien to "healthcare."
It actually requires doing some "work."
It's called "recovery," (or used to be, at least).
It's something that just does not fall within the scope of comprehension held by any available or accessible doctor or medical professional.
Curious question though.
There may be a way yet.
How is your "workflow?"
(I really hate that term, I preferred Set-Up, Workspace, and Pipeline.)
Right now, where I am, and have been, is not fit for living or working.
BUT, I have nearly everything necessary to change that.
Present state is basically uninhabitable for even just one person.
With what's here, it can be configured into a dual use space,
for single habitation, and two person work,
With everything necessary to facilitate
high quality digital audio mastering,
remastering, recording, mixing,
and a ton of other stuff.
The space has to be configured.
Which just means it needs some work/labor,
put into doing some moving things around,
putting a few things together, and into place.
I don't have the physical capacity/stamina for that,
but it's not hard work at all,
(Compared with just about anything we've ever,
and always, done before,
going all the way back to high school days.)
My physical status is extremely limited in activity.
Lemme try to explain why,
(but I'll leave it to you to look thing up,
to whatever extent you want,
it's all easy to google.)
Here's "the pile,"
(list of conditions that have me reduced to this state).
Long-term Antibiotic Induced
Arthritis (full body, joints, hips,
knees, ankles, neck, back,
wrists, etc.)
and
Peripheral Neuropathy
(largely localized to shoulders, arms & hands,
"pins & needles" that turns to numbness & pain very quickly)
Two epididymal cysts presenting as acquired seminal vesicle cysts
(Possibly a Cystic dilatation of the seminal vesicles
resulting from the formation of epididymal cysts,
- dilatation to one or both seminal vesicles
often occurring as a result of a downstream obstruction
(of the ejaculatory ducts or ectopic ureteral insertion into the seminal vesicles).
On imaging it is seen as continuous dilatation
to one or both seminal vesicles
as opposed to a single
seminal vesicle cyst)
due to insufficient drainage as a result of
Periodic blockage of the ejaculatory ducts,
(resulting from
chronic neuroleptic-induced ANHEDONIA)
causing distension of seminal vesicles
and further leading to the formation of a cyst,
(and another),
with the typical "symptoms" of
perineal pain,
abdominal pain,
ejaculatory pain,
dysuria,
increased frequency of micturition
+
Pain in the nuts
Heaviness in the balls
Fullness behind and above the balls in the nutsack
resulting in an additional stretching of the inner thighs,
creating stress & pain to that region.
This also gives rise to
the formation of kidney stones.
And
to cap it off,
an
inguinal hernia,
causing additional
Aching, burning & heavy, dragging sensation
IN MY NUTS.
and more gut trouble.
ALTOGETHER
and/or
ALL TOGETHER
inducing a near constant state of
RECTAL TENESMUS
Tenesmus is a frequent urge to go to the bathroom without being able to go. It usually affects your bowels, but sometimes your bladder. Severe inflammation that irritates the nerves involved in pooping or peeing is often the cause. Your nerves overreact, telling your muscles that you constantly have to go.
It often involves straining, cramping, and the sensation that stool is stuck. This occurs because irritated or inflamed nerve endings in the rectum send false signals to the brain.
The studio workflow is simply accomplished by a networked (literal) Mini computing Cluster of three Mac Mini computers that have all been configured for studio work, crossing three critical generations, and iterations of the Mac OS, supporting optimal hardware and AD/DA converters, with a preserved pair of Genelec 8020s.
From 2009 Mac Mini
to
2015 Mac Mini
to
M1 Mac Mini
To
M4 Mini
there's also an ad-on in the works, (it's workable, I just have no room to work
which I guess is pretty obvious from the dust),
that enables Blackmagic Design DaVinci Studio & Fairlight,
along with providing control for any DAW Software
that uses or requires HUI or MCU control protocols.
There is a particular reason I have brought this up.
Physical/Digital “Media” and the idea of ownership pertains to copies of records.
Who owns what is recorded?
Do you believe that you own the recorded “content?”
That the artists who created it do not?
How about your own health and medical records?
Who do you believe owns those?
Do you own “physical media” of it?
What about “digital media?”
It’s 10:00
Do you know where your electronic health record is?
https://youtu.be/wW2MkSjhY3k?si=wDbmZ2V_drdkekNa
Hm.
Reviewing my subscriptions.
(Can’t afford much. My income is $89 per month, from General Relief benefits.)
M4 Mac Mini, PS5, iPhone 15 Pro, M1 iPad Pro.
Google Drive $1.99
Amazon Prime
(a necessary evil,
they accept EBT Grocery
with free delivery over $25
and Prime discounted to
$6.99/month for EBT holders)
PlayStation Plus $8.33
Apple One $19.95
About $39.00 Per Month
Long time ago I consented to experiment with a game console,
after refusing to have anything to do with games for the first 40 years of my life.
I mean, look, all people do is sink their time and efforts into them,
and gain nothing.
You don’t “win” anything.
Don’t produce or create anything.
And don’t even own anything.
All that those optical game discs are,
is the same thing that software installer discs for computers:
Game Software Installers with a license on the disc, (if it was only one disc, otherwise,
it’s a bunch of Game Software Installer Discs with a license on one of them, which can be revoked for any violation of the TOS in the EULA, via Internet, ensuring the hardware rejects the license disc).
Apple just got out of the business of selling software on installer discs, and putting optical disc reader hardware into their machines back in 2011. Stopped the practice of selling new OS versions, and left something useful in their computers, (afterwards); a TF Card slot.
When I finally had a good idea for a way to make creative and supplementary use of a game console, wasn’t until 2012.
I maintained a strict segregation, since I also did not watch Television or Subscribe to Cable TV.
Game and “entertainment” type media go on the console, only. Keep that crap off my computers.
It’s basically still how things are divided.
Plex media server handles any crossover.
Since I work with a lot of Commercial Media, what I own (my library, books, photos, pdfs & papers, video, audio, movies, shows, radio, podcasts, etc. etc.) is effectively maintained on a 16 TB NAS.
As far as what I own, what I use (that is licensed), what I make, what services I pay for, what I get, what I give a damn about, (PS+ always “gives” out a couple/few games at the start of every month, but only 8 are persistently useful, while 196 sit up in their cloud storage, having even bothered with trying or playing with less than half of those at all, still, it’s nice knowing they’re there, just in case I get an idea for something I want to try, with another 64 that have accrued since 2012, on whatever heavily discounted terms, but have been relegated to cloud storage out of long-term disuse/disinterest, so at least they don’t crowd the already-limited local NAS, HDD, SSD, or TF storage space, or even more limited 64 sq ft. of “living” space.
Probably it’s just a result of the restrictions imposed by medical conditions, poverty, necessary optimization of resources, and the range of interests & activities which I maintain, that prevent me from seeing what all the whining about owning “physical media” is about.
Oh, ONE of those games is on an optical disc.
There was no other way to obtain it.
It’s not available on the PlayStation store.
So, it should be deducted from the numbers I mentioned earlier.
I just totally forgot.
My bad.
Time to check my credit card app for recurring purchases I’ve forgotten about and to go DVD shopping.
Great article and something I’ve been telling people forever. All so well said!
well said; I can still buy media on discs, I use subscriptions where necessary. And next week I fight with my cable provider to move my business someplace else, with cancel anytime options. And those two TV antennas I've been playing with in my attic, may just have increased in value.
100% Jeff. I did not agree to lose my property rights to corporations.
Subscriptions have significantly reduced my production costs. During pre-production, I subscribe to tools that assist in pre-production. I turn off these subscriptions during principal photography. After principal photography, I switch to subscriptions for post-production. This approach is incredibly beneficial. It allows me to avoid significant capital investment and only pay for software I typically use at various production stages. It’s not just about upfront capital; in the long run, it has saved me thousands of dollars annually. Subscriptions are a great solution. The only requirement is a small amount of discipline in managing them. I sincerely hope developers don’t learn from this uninformed criticism. This model has enabled me to accomplish more as a solo creator than any other major industry shift ever has. Long live the subscription model!
I can see benefits. But you used to pay $50 for a software, load it on a PC, and use it with all the features. Now it’s $20/month.
Subscriptions have a place. But not as a total replacement. And they should be optional, not required.
If you paid $50 for a whole year of software and now you’re paying $20 a month, you’re right, that’s a rip-off. However, that’s not a flaw in the subscription model itself. The subscription model is effective. You need to upgrade to a better software solution. If you truly analyze the economics of it, there’s likely more nuance than you’ve just pointed out. But maybe not. There are companies that blatantly exploit a successful business model and take advantage of customers. I have found that for the most part with my vendors, I save enormously by subscribing instead of buying not having to lay out huge amounts of capital and wisely managing those subscriptions during different phases of production. There is no question about it. It has saved me thousands of dollars every year.
Great but OMINOUS column! This decision by Sony is an absolute door-slam for me, all my preceding PS consoles have been hubs for both disc playback AND infrequent gaming. If I lose the disc playback option, any new console isn't worth buying. Having the disc playback option was the "killer ap" that made a gaming console worth buying for me.
I admit that a customer of my age (68) inherently doesn't have a long horizon as a "cash flow revenue generator" in the reckoning of corporate spreadsheets. Having Sony deliberately flush physical media customers this way may very well trigger an avalanche of abandonment of physical media by other providers. I can only wonder whether our niche physical media labels and retailers can fill the void created by this deliberate amputation of the market.
I wouldn't expect Sony to continue selling 8-track players, but DVD/ blu-ray/ 4K discs are nowhere close to obsolescence. Capitalism is theoretically supposed to encourage competition, where new sellers emerge to fill a market need. That doesn't work for the jenga tower of interlinked & sophisticated tech manufacturing, international commerce, finance, licensing & marketing behind console production. I can't carve a new blu-ray release of "Avengers-Doomsday" out of a tree stump.
This is a pretty blatant forced extinction move on Sony's part, it very well might prove fatal. It feels like the 3D flatscreen meltdown of 2016 all over again, except this time forcing EVERY physical media user onto the digital only plantation, where we're "free" to stay behind the corporate barbed wire & suckle only the Soylent Green they choose to feed us.
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