From Mixtapes to unlimited playlists!: How We Used to Buy Music and Movies vs. Now
IIf you’re a Boomer or Gen X’er, you remember when “buying music” meant pulling together $8.99, heading to Tower Records, and walking out with an album where—let’s be honest—you probably liked two songs. The rest was filler. But you listened anyway, because you paid for it. Commitment was part of the deal.
Movies? Same story. You either went to Blockbuster and prayed the last copy of Top Gun wasn’t already rented, or you stood in line at the theater holding your popcorn like it was a sacred relic. Hardcore types even taped movies off TV, commercials and all, and proudly wrote titles on VHS labels with a Sharpie—your own private collection of “priceless artifacts.”
Fast-forward to today. Music and movies don’t take effort, they just appear. You want the new Taylor Swift track? Tap Apple Music—done. You want Jaws at 2 a.m.? Ask Siri, and suddenly there’s a shark in your living room. The hardest part now isn’t access, it’s choice—scrolling through thousands of titles on Netflix only to settle on Seinfeld… again.
But here’s the big shift: ownership. We used to own our media—rows of tapes, CDs, and DVDs lined up like trophies. Today, it’s rented from the cloud. If Spotify shuts down, so does your road trip playlist. If Disney+ yanks a movie, it’s like it never existed. Try explaining that to your younger self: of course here is where I say that is the best reason to use Apple services!
“You mean I don’t actually own the movie I just paid for?”
“Correct. But you can watch it anywhere.”
“Even on a plane or in the bathroom?”
“…okay, I’m listening.”
Sure, progress isn’t perfect. But I don’t miss blowing dust out of a VCR or hoping my Discman wouldn’t skip when I hit a pothole. I’ll take Apple Music and iCloud over a glovebox full of scratched CDs any day. And while part of me misses the ritual of browsing Tower Records, I like the fact that now, my entire music and movie library fits in my pocket—ready to play wherever life takes me.
