By Bridget Valls
In the era of Google, Spotify, and AI, there really is no need for physical media anymore unless you like to be old-school.
65.9% of people at Lovett said they access all or nearly all of their media online. Yikes! I hope these people don’t lose their phones anytime soon.
For people who do like to keep it old school, the majority turn to records and paper magazines.
Respondents to the recent survey (which included both students and faculty) offered many reasons why they preferred physical media to simply searching on Google.
One respondent is a bookworm and sounds like they have just as many books as our school library. (Maybe I am exaggerating a little) “I have a lot of books – like 150ish. I like reading because it feels more productive than doing something digitally, but it is just as entertaining,” they said.
Another respondent said they enjoy going “through my family’s old DVD collection to find old movies to watch.”
Some respondents are more focused on the sensory experience of having physical media: “There is nothing like the feel of opening an album, reading the liner notes, and smelling the vinyl,” one respondent said.
Another likes books and magazines because they can “hold them in my hand, flip through the pages.”
Yet another enjoys “the smell and feel of them.”
A few respondents think Spotify is a disgrace to all music and would rather carry around their albums and vinyls rather than have their AI DJ play a song for them.
“I collect vinyls! My current favorite record I own is actually a special release of “Mystery of Love” by Sufjan Stevens. This specific vinyl only had 10,000 printed, and I just so happen to be the owner of #9321,” they said.
Another respondent is so opposed to Apple Music that they have spent big bucks to stay old school. Instead of spending a sum that could nab them 2 fresh new pairs of Golden Goose Sneakers, they chose to use that money on something else. “It’s really fun to collect CDs, and I find it interesting to hang up the posters and look through the inclusions and things like that!! I have a huge CD and album collection (probably massing over 1,000 dollars.. oops),” they said.
One student had an interesting take that I think many other students would want to hear. If your parents take your phone before bed or put a time limit on your phone, it might be time to start collecting”because it works when the internet doesn’t and doesn’t use my screen time,” they said.
After hearing about people’s physical media collections, I had to find someone to interview to get a deeper look into why people chose to give up their room space for these collections.
Luckily, Ava Bakhtiary volunteered, and she was the perfect person to interview!
Her collection began with a shopping spree at Target. “The record player that I actually have now was on sale at Target, and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s a really good price. Might as well just buy it,’” she said.
When asked about her collection, she said, “It’s not that big, but I have a lot of country music. I have a lot of classical music. Yeah, mainly just those two, but I do have some miscellaneous pop finals.”
As a huge country fan, I had to hear about these country vinyls. And she was quick to say that her very first vinyl was actually one of my favorite albums: Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time.
As someone who has only listened to this album on Spotify, I was curious to see if she notices a difference between playing it on a record player and on Spotify, and when she decides to use each. ”I use Spotify when I’m studying,” she said. “I do use my record player when I clean my room, though.”
While she uses Spotify every day, she says, “It’s nice to use my record player and listen to it, not on a digital device.” It sounds different to her, “but in a good way.”
She told me that her rarest vinyl is a single from 2017. “I believe only 10,000 of them were ever made,” she said. “I got it for my birthday, and I’m pretty sure from what I’ve seen online, a brand new version of it is a couple thousand.” I applaud her for not selling it because if it were me, I would sell it for a new Tiffany necklace in a heartbeat.
But Ava would never sell it because this vinyl is the most important to her. “It’s from one of my favorite movies. It means a lot to me. It’s one of my favorite songs. And my mom actually surprised me with it,” she said.
As for an album, she’s hoping to get her hands on? “I want the Charlie XCX Brat one,” she told me. “Oh my God, I want it, and I want it so bad.”
My newspaper colleague Valeria Benitez also has an impressive vinyl collection. “I have around 15 vinyls in my collection as well as CDs,” she said. “As a Swiftie, Valeria owns pretty much only Taylor Swift vinyls with a few miscellaneous ones.
It all started when she tried to get a signed Taylor Swift vinyl. When she failed at doing this, “I just bought an unsigned vinyl from Taylor Swift’s website, and after that, I just started collecting them,” she told me. Her dream vinyl is the Taylor Swift Paris Heart vinyl.
After hearing about these collections and why people prefer physical media, I finally understood one respondent’s answer: “Why? Because old stuff kinda just does it better.”
