Throughout the years, I’ve been an avid movie watcher. I used to work at a movie theater, so I watched almost everything that came out, even if I didn’t have any interest. I was younger and had more free time. Likewise, I also briefly held a position at Blockbuster Video before they went out of business. So I have amassed a pretty decent DVD collection. They are categorized in alphabetical order and displayed on some bookshelves in my basement. There’s even more movies in storage that we cannot fit on these shelves, it’s an ongoing project, so I will be getting more storage to fit our collections, I’m talking DVDs, VHS’, Blu-rays, 4k discs, Tapes, Records, and CDs.

When Netflix began, their original business model was mailing DVD rentals, I used that service quite a bit at the time. Eventually they became the colossus of streaming apps and changed the way we consume our media forever. Initially, I was a huge Netflix fan. They had tons of content, and they had very good deals on their subscriptions. As we all know, the landscape changed and more and more streaming apps started popping up, and now we have far too many options to choose from.

Everything is extremely fragmented these days. Sometimes when browsing for TV shows or movies I want to watch, it’s only available on one platform that I do not have. So my options are to start a membership with the corresponding app, then cancel the subscription after I finish. Alternatively, I can rent/buy it on a different platform such as Fandango At Home (formerly Vudu), Amazon Video, Redbox, the list goes on.

These apps offer a neat service where you don’t have to get an unnecessary subscription for one show or one movie. However, their prices, for the most part, are ridiculous. New movies can cost $20 to rent, then maybe $35 to buy (only digitally). I will acknowledge that you can definitely find deals and get good prices if you wait and look hard enough.

The cool part about streaming is less clutter in your home, and you don’t have to get off your couch in order to put on a movie. In my opinion, however, there are far more cons to streaming than buying and owning. Don’t get confused, if you purchase a movie on Fandango At Home, you do not own it. Fandango is simply allowing you to watch movies that they host. Yes, you can download them, but you still are only able to watch through their app while offline. You do not get files that you can then do whatever you want with. You own NOTHING.

I have my own personal bone to pick with Fandango due to an ongoing issue that hasn’t been resolved. And I am rather confident that it won’t be. One day, I made the fateful decision to try to open the Fandango At Home app on my phone. I was unaware of their policies regarding VPN use, and apparently they are very strict about not allowing them to be used with their app. To be clear, I use a VPN for personal internet safety. I was not attempting to change my location and access media outside the country (I live in the United States and Fandango At Home is limited to the U.S., so there is no reason for me to try to disguise my location). After several support chats and my own troubleshooting, I’ve come to the conclusion that my IP address had been blocked. I was able to sign in to my account without issue if I was not connected to my home Wi-Fi.

I had just made a few purchases within the recent months, but previously I had the entire collection of “The Office” and seasons 3 and 13 of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” I also had “The Hunger Games” franchise, but that was because I had a free download with the 4K disc purchase. Most recently I had purchased the “Middle Earth Collection” which has all 3 “The Hobbit” films and all 3 “The Lord of the Rings” films. I purchased the “Leprechaun” Franchise because of a flash deal, and lastly I purchased the film “Barbarian” since apparently that movie will never see a physical release. On a positive note, I can still view some of my collection on the Movies Anywhere app. However, there is an issue between that app and Lionsgate. So I am not able to watch any of the “Hunger Games” films or the “Leprechaun” films, nor am I able to watch any television shows. So “The Office” and my 2 seasons of “Sunny” are sitting on a digital shelf, collecting dust.

In a way, I have been robbed, but not legally. I paid for those shows and films, but I cannot watch them unless I am running off data or connecting to someone else’s Wi-Fi. All because I value my internet safety and privacy.

That is the point I’m trying to make here. Streaming is extremely convenient, but it takes away your ability to own a product as a consumer, and supports business models that underpay their employees or contributing artists. You are paying endlessly for a subscription and when you stop paying, you lose access to everything on that app regardless of how much money you spent on the subscription. In addition to this, these companies can add or remove content whenever they want. Meaning, you may have a useless subscription you have to cancel now, or, in the event you purchased a film or a series, that content is simply gone. Your money spent on nothing, unless they ever decide to bring that content back, which they have no obligation to do so.

My message to you is, start buying things that you can own. Buy a record to spin, buy a cool 4k collector’s edition of one of your favorite films and display it. Or, go shopping in your own closets and storage spaces. You’ll be somewhat amazed at what you can find. Maybe you’ll find an old Disney VHS you used to watch as a kid that you can share with your own children. Or maybe you’ll find a mixtape you received when you were younger. The point being, we don’t have to accept the mediocrity that is given to us. If we all stop participating and refuse, these companies/apps will HAVE to change.

We need the producer to work for us (the consumer) again.