I know I am exactly the opposite of what who you are adressing since I am collecting files only, but Upgrade brought up good points and I wish to add some off-topic from a digital-only member. Because one of my workmate is also collecting records and I often ask him about the appeal. Not in this way of "Eww, why would you do that, I don't get it?!" manner but more out of fascination. I purchased a KPM CD for ChunYinZi's friend and shipped it to China recently, and it was a strange "feel" as I bought it from Discogs. The whole "physical media thing" about it. It's not some myth about some freaky dudes and dudettes sticking to the past (heck, I am often called weird for storing my music locally instead of just giving into the mediocrity of streaming services), but it was that feel of "being mine". I put it into the BluRay player and hearing the disk spinning up, the TOC being read and then displayed a long tracklist was like a waiter handing me the menu what audio treat I want today.. After testing a few tracks, I ejected the disc, it slew down and it was released from the device almost like handing over some special gift.
Now owning a whole library must feel absolutely fantastic, and if I would not be a digital native I'd consider to grow a library again - even if it's a hybrid of having digital files and only hunt my favourite albums as physical media. I'd actually like to see photos of people's shelves, boxed or even closets full of disks, tapes, record sleeves. Just like in a real library, you pull out a disc you have kind of forgotten and get reminded what treasure you have in your possession. And while that happens to me too - all my cover arts neatly displayed and even I discovered two tracks yesterday that I felt like I heard the first time when VLC selected it from the Shuffle mode - it must be a much more feeling of value. Strange enough, I despise reading PDFs or shudder at eBook readers. My local copyshop made over 200€ the last few years for me printing there because I want to have physical media - paper.
But Upgrade brought up all the reasons why I am glad I don't collect physical media. I grew up with CDs and CCs and while it is certainly a bad habit to not immediately take care of the disks until they are lost (how many "lost" discs did we find behind my furniture when I moved out) or scratched. The same with pulling out a jewel case from my CD stand (you know, these things everyone in the 90s had) just to find it's being empty. Is it in the car? Is it in the stereo? Or has my brother taken it to the gym? Ugh. The permament danger of damage - might it be by usage or by environment - would drive me nuts. And the way of easy editing makes files neat: How to remove the "...track one....", "...track two..." from a record? Is it Parry Music which had this thick Australian accent voice announcing the change of tracks?
So after all, I am glad that I have my perfectly categorized MP3 collection here. I can duplicate them when needed, no "lending" or "where is it?" because I just grab my backup hard disk and retrieve it or copy it if a friend wants it. Entering "Match" yields 20+ MATCH MUSIC records, entering "Jimmy Kaleth" gets me cross-label results. Only want to listen to a potpourri of tracks fromt the early 80s - no problem, my media player takes care of it. No need for long catalogues or going back and forth rows of shelves to find the record I want. No old, deformed rubber belts to change to prevent wow and flutter, no heads and lenses to clean, no humidity that damages magnetic tapes and sleeves, no glue that can dissolve and ruin compact discs and a mistake is not permanently damaging and thus ruining my rare music media.
