DVDs, vinyl, CDs, Polaroids, books, the list goes on. With streaming prices rising, is collecting physical media the way forward? It certainly seems so.
Paying a subscription fee of up to £18.99 a month to spend hours each evening indecisively scrolling through a seemingly endless catalogue of movies and TV shows seems absurd. It’s also exhausting. Yet we have all willingly strolled into Netflix’s enticing trap. If you look carefully enough, the endless rows of categories of “Things you might like…” or “Crowd pleasers” in reality just contain the same list of films in a rearranged order. What if you could look across at your shelf of DVD’s and pick a movie that you know you will actually like that isn’t at risk of being snatched from your grasp whenever its deal with Netflix ends. For Gen Z, this is the option that a lot of people are turning to.
Raised in an era of accelerating technological advance and change, Gen Z are the only generation who have grown up experiencing both the death of physical media and the unstoppable rise of a world reliant on the internet, social media and streaming services. For the subsequent generation, Gen Alpha, being placed in front of an I-Pad blasting YouTube shorts or Coco Melon is all they’ve ever known.This recent resurgence in Gen Z collecting physical media is not only an act of rebellion against these billionaire corporations and streaming services; it is a search for nostalgia and comfort in a tumultuous time of change.
In a feature published by Variety in 2023 James Cameron best known for his films Avatar and the Titanic stated, “The streamers are denying us any access whatsoever to certain films. And I think people are responding with their natural reaction, which is ‘I’m going to buy it, and I’m going to watch it any time I want.'” There is something incredibly alluring about having true ownership of something tangible, along with the added novelty of it being something that we’re not accustomed to having. Professor Nick Neave from the Department of Psychology at Northumbria University stated that, “Your DVD collection, your book collection, what you hang on your wall, the clothes you wear, all of these things are signalling to people about your tastes, your attitudes.”. Not only do these DVD’s, CD’s and records provide us with a sense of physical ownership; they can also serve as an extension and an expression of identity and allow you to become the curator of your own customisable library of interests.
Aside from film, analogue musical media is also seeing a renaissance, with vinyl, cassettes and even CD’s weaving their way back into the mainstream. According to the BBC, in 2023 alone vinyl sales reached their highest level since 1990, with 2025, marking 18 consecutive years of growth for the format. Even the niche market of cassette collectors is seeing a rise, with Mars Tapes, a cassette cafe located in Affleck’s Palace, recently undertaking its third expansion since its opening in 2019.
Whilst CD sales have been steadily decreasing over the past decade, with Gen Z’s seemingly insatiable appetite for physical media and a developing subculture of collectors on social media, their popularity is set to soar in the future. The thrill of collecting something rare or limited edition is addictive and with so many vendors of physical media right on our doorstep in Manchester such as Vinyl Revival, Empire Exchange and UNITOM, to name a few, why not go out and have an explore?
So whether you’re collecting physical media to nurture your interests, to get a dose of nostalgia, or even simply to hop on the trend, let’s break away from the doomscroll, take control of our own tastes and become active enthusiasts of our own interests.
