Death of Physical Media?

With the technological advancements in media consumption, increasing storage space of computers, and the availability of greater bandwidth to the average consumer, we have slowly seen the phasing out of the physical media.

The music industry took the first hit. As mp3s became available (both legally and illegally) to generally every consumer, CDs sales have drastically declined. It is now at the point wherein we can safely predict the latter’s death within the next 10 years.

Movies are also starting to take such route. In the US, Netflix have pushed the digital distribution of movies by allowing its subscribers to rent any movie from their catalogue of over 17,000 movies and recorded television shows. Another company, VUDU, became the first to offer high-definition movies on a download-to-own basis. Though the formats they offer are inferior to that of a Blu-ray disc, consumers may likely lean to these digital download because of their accessibility and convenience.

Digital distribution has also become prevalent in the videogame industry. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have already been releasing games through the Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare respectively. Though these relatively ’small’ games fail in comparison to disc –based games in terms of quality, its sheer amount of downloads suggest that consumers are open to the digital distribution of games. The only restrictions present in fully digitalizing this industry are the storage space of consoles/computers and the time it takes to download a full disc-based game (25-50gb in a Blu-ray disc). These restrictions, as we know, will eventually be lifted as technology develops.

The book industry, on the other hand, is the hardest one to crack. Most people have an affinity to the ’smell of books’, something that they likely developed during their formative years. With Amazon’s Kindle (which closest gadget that feels like a book) and the new generation of children (who may be developing disdain for books), the book industry is slowly leaning towards being fully digitalized.

These developments, however, have brought about problems and issues in the business sector and the field of law.

As to the business sector, traditional retail outlets have started to close down. Adapting to the on-going shift to digital distribution should now be their focus. These businesses may eventually need adopt some new business model which incorporates digital downloads, just so they can keep up with the industry.

In the field of law, the first problem that comes to mind is the protection of intellectual property. With digital media being easily transferable, the threat of piracy always exists. We therefore have to look at our laws in terms of its capability of being enforced, making proper amendments if possible. Another way to combat such problem (albeit very restrictive on the consumer side) is by using digital rights management (DRM) technologies, which is imposes restrictions in copying and transferring digital media.

The slow and painful death that physical media has been experiencing has at least bought us time to adjust to the shift to digital distribution. The problems caused by this shift may or may never be solved, but one thing is sure: the increased accessibility to media it provides makes the consumer the winner in any case.

Monch Bacani

02-01003

3rd entry