Do we need to own any entertainment any more?
Like many men of my generation, I have a collection of the music I love. Records going back to the halcyon days of singles. Tapes, laboriously made of all the best songs. CDs of later, more grown-up music.
I have a collection of films and TV programmes on DVDs. An earlier collection was on VCR tapes, but they fell victim to obsolescence.
I don’t need any of them.
If I want music, I can go to the Internet and ask one of several suppliers to play me anything I want whenever I want. I get it for nothing if I don’t mind adverts. Or a few pounds a year if I do.
If I want to watch, I can ask LoveFilm to send me more or less any film or TV show. It costs a tenner a month for this, but it won’t be long before some bright spark will start streaming these to TV sets for nothing but a few adverts.
Broadcasting reduces the need to own entertainment, but you have to take what is being broadcast.
On demand is the game now. You don’t need to buy, store, look after any of it. Just play it from wherever it is whenever you want it.
Like many men of my generation, I have a collection of the music I love. Records going back to the halcyon days of singles. Tapes, laboriously made of all the best songs. CDs of later, more grown-up music.
I have a collection of films and TV programmes on DVDs. An earlier collection was on VCR tapes, but they fell victim to obsolescence.
I don’t need any of them.
If I want music, I can go to the Internet and ask one of several suppliers to play me anything I want whenever I want. I get it for nothing if I don’t mind adverts. Or a few pounds a year if I do.
If I want to watch, I can ask LoveFilm to send me more or less any film or TV show. It costs a tenner a month for this, but it won’t be long before some bright spark will start streaming these to TV sets for nothing but a few adverts.
Broadcasting reduces the need to own entertainment, but you have to take what is being broadcast.
On demand is the game now. You don’t need to buy, store, look after any of it. Just play it from wherever it is whenever you want it.