Doom & Gloom: Taeng00ey's Rant On The Future Of ...Stuff

A classic? Not really. But would you miss being able to watch it? YES.

Have you ever thought about what's coming in future as far as movie-watching? Serously. Because I have...and I grieve.

With movies, music and news readily available on your PC or wireless devices, the future of entertainment and how you consume it begins heading for a turning point. Streaming movies and buying digital (mp3) music online has become a normal event in our lives but this will eventually lead to more restrictions on what you and cannot consume.

Cue Doomsday music of your choice.

Think about it: The more people start streaming movies, sales of DVDs & Blurays will drop to the point that its possible that:
1. Only new movies will come out on physical media and will only be available at that time, or
2. All PHYSICAL media will cease to exist and you will end up only being able to stream or pay to download your movies.

That scares me. It really does.

From the early HBO days. I am happy to own this

 one.

To not be able to watch a movie at your own leisure, and repeatedly watch it without having to pay a rental fee each time is a huge luxury...one that is available to everyone RIGHT NOW. But given that this generation is more into digital content, they don't see that the more they stream video, the more they (and we, in turn) dictate to the movie studios ideas like "DVD is dead" or "People would rather stream than buy a bluray", etc. Whether you know it or not, we are inching towards an all-digital entertainment future.

There will be NO physical media. CDs, DVDs, Blurays, will all cease to exist. You wanna watch a movie? Stream it. Want music? iTunes. News? Online subscriptions.
By this time, we could see the big movie studios setting up their own streaming services. And depending on the studio, the prices could vary.
Want to watch "Star Wars"?  Sign up at Disney's site and pay...how much? Studios could monopolize on their franchises. Paramount could charge a premium for their "Indiana Jones" material, 20th Century Fox could do the same for their "Die Hard" movies.

Low-budget awesome!

Heck this could breed a whole new idea that the most sought-after movies automatically bump up to premium-tier pricing. Imagine "Sharknado: 3peat" costing more than "Jaws"??? Just because the public made it popular? I just got the chills.

And what if your favorite movie or t.v. series of all-time suddenly becomes unavailable to stream because it wasn't being viewed enough and the studio would rather devote the server space to newer content? Or if its a cable series, it could get tied up in corporate red tape much like the Dish Network vs CBS fiasco going on right now and the episodes are held, essentially, for ransom. And who loses? Certainly not the corporate bigwigs.

Like I said: more restrictions.

..and you go in pieces!

Now I'm not saying that you should go out an buy every movie you've ever wanted RIGHT NOW (but its a start...) but me being a guy that loves to have a physical copy of my fave movies (and there are MANY) to watch at any time on a whim, I realize that this way of life is going to change. And most people are oblivious to this, or just don't care enough about movies and music to be concerned. I'd like to say that I want to be there when the "I told you so!" moment happens, but f-ed up thing about it is I'd be in the same damned situation...just with the ability to watch old movies in my collection.

It's a small consolation but at least I have one...