If It Sucks...Hit Da Bricks!!
How the slippy mindset answers our subscription fatigue.
Whaddup y’all. I’m Quinten, writer at The So What and senior director of content at Artemis Ward. Welcome to my column, where I write about the weird corners of the internet that predict everything. Read on for the “so what” of the resurgence of physical media.
I rarely, if ever, feel completely assured of my ideas. Be it due to tight timelines, secret stakeholders, or (most likely) my own neuroses, I’m not sure I’ve ever felt to 100% confident in any creative decision I’ve ever made.
That was until last Monday, the beginning of round four of the Artemis Ward Music League (If you’ve never participated in a Music League, think Cards Against Humanity meets Turntable.FM: players anonymously submit songs based on a weekly theme then vote on their favorites; the person with the most points at the end of the season wins). As soon as I saw the prompt, I was hit with a bolt of divine clarity, a transcendent confidence as my mind, body, and spirit aligned toward absolute truth. A song that references a famous person? There was but one answer: “B---- I’m Bill Clinton” by Lil B “The Based God” (a track that, if not made clear by its title, is not safe for sensitive ears).
My submission quickly hit a snag — all but three releases from Lil B’s discography of 70 mixtapes, 10 albums, and 3 EPs have been removed from streaming services. And with Music League powered exclusively by Spotify, my hopes of a round four victory were dashed.
Experiences like mine have become increasingly common. While MP3s and MP4s purchased on iTunes 20 years ago will work on any phone, computer, or television, there’s no guarantee that the files currently available through digital service providers (DSPs) will be there next month, let alone next year. How many times have you logged onto Spotify, Netflix, or HBO Max only to discover the thing you’re looking for is no longer available?
The original promise of the streaming era was one of convenience: we’d trade the costs of ownership for the ability to stream any song, show, or movie we’d like anytime, anywhere, all for the price of a cup of coffee. But as of late, it doesn’t feel like DSPs have held up their end of the bargain, and the market has responded accordingly. Over the last year, physical album sales increased while digital albums sales decreased, print book sales have risen for the first time in three years, and 4K UHD Blu-Ray sales rose for the first time since 2018. We’re experiencing a collective subscription fatigue, and as a result physical media more popular than it’s been in years.
I like to think of physical media’s resurgence as a manifestation of the “Slippy Mindset,” a term originally coined within the IndieWeb community that I think just as well applies to how many people are redefining their relationship with technology writ large. According to technologist Lu Wilson, who coined the phrase, slippyness is the opposite of stickiness. It’s a way of using technology that keeps you from being locked into a particular platform. If you’re slippy, when a technology breaks, or changes, or gets enshittified, you aren’t locked in. You can take your stuff and go elsewhere. If it sucks, you can hit the bricks.
Being slippy means you’re not stuck.
When you’re slippy, it’s easy to change plan, or rebuild something from scratch. It means you’re not locked in to using a certain tool.
If something breaks, you can choose to fix it, or let it die. It’s ok, because it won’t take long to rebuild it from scratch. - Lu Wilson
To be slippy is to use technology in a way that minimizes switching costs. Physical media is inherently slippy. If you don’t like your Blu-Ray player, you can buy a new one without having to worry about whether or not your DVDs are going to work. Digital platforms, however, are not. You can’t leave HBO Max without losing The Sopranos. You cant leave ESPN Unlimited without losing the ability to watch the NBA Finals.
And once you start to look for it, slippyness starts to show up everywhere. Want a new pair of headphones? Bluetooth is how you know that whatever you pick will work with your phone. Eying a new wallet? Thanks to ISO 7810, you can rest assured knowing that any credit card, photo ID, or hotel room key will fit. Thinking about a new car? SAE J285 is what ensures your ability to refill at any gas station.
Slippyness is the interoperability that makes the world work. Imagine choosing your television based on what kind of cables it used, or your email provider based on what kind of emails it was compatible with. It’s no surprise then that people are beginning to recoil at the idea of being locked into their DSPs.
The So What
It can be tempting to think of technology as as a story of linear, irreversible improvement, to believe that what comes next is inevitably better than what came before. The wheel as the first in a chain of advancements that led to the EV, the abacus the first in a chain that led to the internet. Movie theaters gave way to VHSs, VHSs to DVDs, and DVDs to streaming. What comes next will be even better, and then we’re never going back. Right?
Of course not. Progress is a myth. Computers are getting larger, not smaller. Life expectancy has plateaued, the current generation has fewer rights than their parents. Culture is stuck.
Depressing? Yes. But also, somewhat liberating? When technology stops feeling inevitable, it also stops feeling mandatory. What physical media’s resurgence teaches us is that people don’t want technology; they want control. And, when given the choice, they’ll choose interoperability over exclusivity every time.
Which brings me back to last Monday’s Music League submission. With Lil B’s Red Flame missing from streaming services, not only was “B---- I’m Bill Clinton” unavailable, but that moment (and my inevitable round four victory) was unrecoverable.
My solution? “Im Paris Hilton.” Also Lil B, but from the Blue Flame mixtape, which is on Spotify (for now). Also, however, not the right answer. I came in third.
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But what song came in first?!