Streaming is the king of all media—sorry Howard Stern—but that doesn’t mean that everyone is happy with streaming music and video. Physical media is making a comeback and it’s more than just the revival of vinyl.
The Los Angeles Times recently published a story called, “DVDs are the new vinyl records: Why Gen Z is embracing physical media.” The story highlights the shifting attitudes of young Gen Z (generally, the demographic is defined as the generation born between 1997 to 2012) consumers that are tired with the growing mountain of streaming media subscription fees, and the happiness they are finding in reconnecting with their childhood physical media experiences.
In the story the author Cerys Davies visits a handful of video rental stores in the Los Angeles area such as Vidiots and CineFile Video Movie Rental and she asked patrons why they were renting videos.
Her findings come down to a few key points: Gen Z is tired of subscribing to multiple services; physical media allows for complete ownership of content, and in many cases DVDs and Blu-ray disc bring back childhood memories.
Davies points out in the story that before the explosion of streaming media, consumers could access physical media rentals from stores such as Blockbuster (the last store remains open in Oregon) and RedBox vending machines.
Coinciding with the rise of streaming media the story continues, sales of physical media began to fall. The story says that DVD sales fell more than 20% in 2023 and 2024. In 2025 however, Davies emphasizes the sales decline of DVDs, Blu-ray discs and 4K UHD discs slowed to just 9% based on data from the Digital Entertainment Group.
Validating the increase in sales Davies asked the Blu-ray disc company the Criterion Collection, and Criterion confirmed that year-over-year sales are increasing. More anecdotally, the story notes that this past January (2026) Vidiots had a record-breaking month renting an average of 170 movies per day with a high of 500 videos in a single day. Each disc carries a rental fee of $3.00 each, and since 2023 the amount of disc the store has rented has more than doubled jumping from 22,000 discs to about 50,000 discs.
Gen Z Lays Out the Benefits of Physical Media
A closer look at the reasons why Gen Z is turning to DVDs and Blu-ray discs beyond the outright ownership of the content, the story lays out other factors that are sparking a renewed interest in physical media. Those elements include the ability to access special features that may include director’s commentary and video shorts.
Davies also cites the ever-changing content libraries of the various streaming services and the constant churn of titles appearing and disappearing making some movies unavailable.
Maybe the most undervalued attraction of DVDs and Blu-ray discs is the emotional connection that is like the relationship music fans have with vinyl. Davies in the story does underscore the emotional attachment to physical media by underscoring, collecting and owning DVDs is more than a trip down memory lane.
This trend if it unfolds in the same way as vinyl grew in popularity throughout the 2000s, it means that integrators will see more demand for disc players and likely disc players as a complement to Kaleidescape systems and streaming media. Those near-future equipment racks could resemble audiophile systems with turntables, media players and DACs, and CD players all living peacefully together.
Currently, Sony, Panasonic and Magnetar are still among the companies manufacturing disc players with companies like Oppo Digital and Samsung notably ceasing player production. Soon there may even be opportunities for integrators to partner with stores such as Vidiots and CineFile Video Movie Rental in their local areas to promote video rentals and sales, and home theater demonstrations that highlight the power of today’s home AV equipment in tandem with physical media.
People say that fashion runs in cycles and now maybe with the resurgence of vinyl and the possible reemergence of DVDs and Blu-ray discs, those same people will say the same thing about physical media.
Here’s a recent post on KMB Comm that looks at the emotional attachment music fans have with vinyl.