About 10 months ago I signed up for HBO Max to watch the new season of DC’s “Peacemaker” series.

The streaming service has been in the US for many years but had just been released in Australia.

I was incredibly excited, not only for the series but because – as a massive DC comics fan – the platform had many DC animated series that I had been dying to watch.

However, a few months went by and as I was making my way through watching “Justice League” I was shocked to find all the DC animated projects were gone.

It turned out that they had all been officially removed from HBO Max.

Some say it was due to licensing issues, others say it was due to budget cuts. There is still hope they may one day return, but I felt as though I had been scammed.

In the next few months, I came to learn that I was not the only one who felt this way.

Many pop culture enthusiast had similarly become disillusioned with streaming platforms and had staged what can be best described as an ‘analogue rebellion.

A lot of people online have cancelled their streaming subscriptions and are instead returning to physical DVDs, CDs and Vinyl’s for their film, television and music needs.

Here in Geelong, the physical media scene is being kept alive by a burgeoning community propped up by physical stores.

Two of the most prominent are Nick’s DVDs and There and Back Again Records (TABA).

Coincidentally, the owners of these stores are actually brothers, Nick and James Harrison.

Nick runs his DVD store from the Geelong Mill Market – selling DVDs, Blurays and VHS tapes.

Meanwhile James runs a one-year-old, very orange shop in Rippleside with his business partner Jack Robinson.

Speaking to Nick in his shop, he shared my sentiment about streaming services

“People have sort of come to terms with the fact that streaming services are a bit of a scam,” he stated bluntly.

He said, when platforms such as Netflix first arrived, they offered a stable subscription with a reliable catalogue of films and television from all the major Hollywood studios.

However, as the industry has changed, most studios now have their own dedicated streaming services for their library of films, causing a fragmentation in access to consumers.

Due to rising costs of living (and of the subscriptions themselves) many people cannot afford to pay for more than one platform to watch the content they love.

This is where stores like Nick’s have become very popular.

On the music front, people’s problems with streaming services have come in the form of controversial business practices.

Last year it was reported by the ABC that a number of Melbourne-based artists (who are close friends of the TABA Geelong store) were boycotting Spotify after it was revealed that the platform’s CEO Daniel Eck led a billion-dollar investment into Helsing, a German military technology company specialising in AI.

As reported by the Palestinian-led Boycott Divestment and Sanctions group, the company has ties to international arms companies linked to the state of Israel, recently engaged in a war with Iran and Lebanon and the destruction of Gaza and its people.

Hesling has also been linked to the controversial militarised policing and surveillance policies at the US-Mexico border.

James fully supports his artist friends in their boycott stating:

“It is utterly horrific, it’s wartime money profiteering, the artists are against war,” he said.

Similar sentiment has been found amongst the film community, as the Warner Brother and Paramount merger is causing much anger and boycotts due to the CEO and co-owner of Paramount David Ellison’s close ties to US President Donald Trump and the Israeli government, as reported by the Institute for Middle East Understanding.

Nick spoke to the power that consumers have through boycotts such as these.

“Realistically when it comes down to it, you’re voting with your wallet. If you want to support something, you will provide money to support it,” he said.

But beyond political issues, Nick and James both stressed the value of the physical sensory experience.

Digital streaming services can often be used as background noise or used to just pass time – many streaming movies are now specifically designed with the knowledge that people will be doing other things such as scrolling on their phone whilst watching the film.

Physical media, on the other hand, demands intention.

“When you go through the ritual of getting a record out of the sleeve, putting it on the turn table, listening to a whole album without skipping … you’re going to connect more with (the music),” James said.

Nick highlighted a similar phenomenon.

He recently introduced VHS tapes into his shop and has seen many young parents in their 30s saying that they have ditched streaming services and it has had a positive impact on their kids.

Nick said customers say things such as “my kids don’t fight with each other when they’re watching anymore, they are focused, they’re not just sort of on an iPad, while something is playing”.

Geelong’s physical media scene is smaller than Melbourne’s, but its significance is not unfelt.

James says his records store bridges generational gaps and fosters community.

“We’ve had a 15-year-old digging through records next to a 70-year-old and they’ve started chatting,” he said.

To gain further insight into this topic, Dscribe conducted a survey of 43 people, mostly from the Geelong region.

The results found that 58% of the people surveyed currently owned or collected physical media. The most popular types of physical media people owned were Vinyl records, DVDs and CDs.

Despite this, only 16% of the respondents said they were regular collectors of physical media, showcasing how niche this hobby still is.

When asked for reasons why they collected physical media, the most common answer was due to nostalgia and that they really valued the physical ownership of their media.

Respondents also said supporting artists directly was another reason they bought physical media.

“I love the art behind how they create physical media, but I try to thrift instead … in a time where nearly everything is digital and can be compromised it’s more reassuring when you have [it physically],” one survey respondent said.

Nick echoed a similar viewpoint that perfectly summarises the importance of physical media in the modern day.

“[It’s] not just about enjoying your film and television. It’s a method of preserving culture, and the more we do it, the more we internalise the preservation of culture, the more we will have to pass on to your children and grandchildren … and in 100 years Ryan Gosling can be like the Charlie Chaplin (of the future)”.