This Won't Teach You Anything: A Pop Culture Podcast

Why Physical Media Still Matters in a Streaming World

• Andrew • Season 5 • Episode 3

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We explore why vinyl still matters in a world of infinite streaming, focusing on attention, ownership, and the small rituals that change how music feels. Travis from "Roody’s Roundup" joins to share memories, first records, and must‑have albums for any collection.

• streaming solves access but flattens attachment
• playlists replacing albums and context
• the vinyl ritual as intentional listening
• ownership beyond licenses and algorithms
• record stores, Discogs, and smart collecting
• first media memories and 45s nostalgia
• must‑own pressings from Stones to Amy Winehouse
• balancing convenience with presence

If you enjoyed this episode, or if this show has ever felt like a quiet place to land for a bit, leaving a review really does help more people find it


Why Physical Media Still Matters

SPEAKER_00

Every song you've ever loved lives in your phone right now. And somehow vinyl records are selling more than they have in decades. That doesn't make sense unless convenience was never the point. Today I want to talk about why physical media still matters and why music sounds different when you have to choose it. As I was saying, there's something funny about how easy music is now. And what I mean is, every song ever recorded lives in your pocket. Every album, every era, every deep cut. You can wake up, open an app, and be listening to anything in seconds. No real effort, no friction. And yet vinyl sales keep going up. That shouldn't make sense. I mean, if convenience was all that mattered, records would have disappeared completely years ago, and they almost did. But instead, record stores are reopening and new artists are pressing vinyl. You know, it brings to mind a third man records and Jack White up in Detroit and his allegiance to vinyl and the sound. Other old albums are being reissued. Teenagers are buying turntables. I remember having a turntable in my house growing up, a couple different ones, and records were just a thing you'd listen to. And then it became uh cassette tapes and eventually CDs and the crystal clear sound. And, you know, records at the time became old tech and you know, just not something. It was tougher to go ahead and put the effort into getting a record out, so on and so forth, and when you're in your teens, it's nothing you were interested in. You wanted that convenience of throwing a Walkman on with headphones and you know doing your chores or mowing the lawn or going on a trip somewhere and just being able to just have it what you wanted to listen to. A mixtape was a way to go back then, and you really couldn't move around with records in a mobile way. So today I want to talk about why physical media still matters in this streaming world, and specifically why vinyl records refuse to die. Now remember, this won't teach you anything, but it might remind you of something you already knew. Streaming solved one problem, access. But in solving that problem, it quietly created another. When everything is available, nothing feels special. I remember the days of Napster and LimeWire before Apple Music and and all Spotify. And, you know, people could go ahead and go on there despite at the the changing in and outs of legality and have any song at their fingertips. And moving in a more legal direction with Spotify and Apple Music, as I mentioned. It was amazing to be able to get any song you wanted without leaving your house, your even your desk or your phone. This was just something you couldn't do. I remember record stores, yes, music stores, record stores, what we called them, even though that by the time uh towards the end of these places it was more CDs and and things of that nature. So going in and looking at at CDs and having to buy an entire CD or a tape for one song as singles were going the way of the dodo, so to speak. You couldn't really do it, so you had to buy this whole thing. And then around here we ended up getting a I believe it was called Blockbuster Music. And it was, you know, n you didn't go in and rent music like you did videos at a blockbuster store. It was you could go in there and they would open the CD for you and you could listen to it before purchasing. So that was kind of cool. So that was kind of like the streaming before streaming, where you could kind of listen to stuff before you bought it and decide if you really wanted to make the investment. Whereas when you paid a subscription service nowadays, you've got everything, you don't like it, you just skip to the next. But speaking of that, streaming, you know, as as I mentioned, when everything is available, nothing's nothing really feels special. You don't have to work for it, you don't have to do other anything than sit down, pull up your phone, and go. Streaming turns music into background noise. You know, playlist replaces albums, songs float by without any context. You don't sit with music anymore, you kind of skim it. There's no real commitment required. If you're bored 30 seconds in, you skip. If you don't like the first track, the album never gets another chance. And I don't think that's because music got worse. I think it's because the experience changed. So vinyl vinyl demands something from you. You have to choose the record and take it off the shelf, handle it carefully, maybe clean it, place it on the turntable, hit it with that anti-static brush, and then the most important part. Kind of that awesome moment, you know, it's almost like lighting a fuse when you drop the needle. And that small ritual matters. You're not casually listening. You're deciding to listen. You're making a choice to go ahead and make that investment of the most precious commodity that we have, and that's time, you know, not money, not anything else. Everything is time. We all have a limited amount. And so when we're deciding to go ahead and put that record on, you know, and for side A, could be 20 minutes, you know, not really enough to get the house cleaned. So I find myself putting that record on and just sitting in the best spot in my living room where the speakers for me hit just right, and just sitting back and sometimes closing my eyes and just listening. With vinyl, you the way it's laid out, you hear side A the way the artist intended. You sit with the songs you might otherwise skip, you absorb the artwork, the liner notes, the sequencing. And in a world that never stops moving, that's not nostalgia, that's resistance. So why are people coming back? Why is the vinyl resurgence why isn't uh it just about sound quality or warmth or anything? It's not about those. You know, the vinyl resurgence isn't about sound quality, debates, or analog warmth. It's about ownership. When you buy a record, it's yours. No licensing changes, no disappearing albums, no algorithm deciding what you should hear next. If you've ever looked for a soundtrack with various artists, specifically songs that may be from different genres at different times, and not necessarily just f songs that were made specifically for that movie, you know, compilations. You might notice that you either can't find the soundtrack on a streaming service, you can find the individual songs, but not altogether on that soundtrack due to licensing issues. Sometimes they're grayed out and so on and so forth. But when you buy a record, like I said, it's yours. You know, the licensing, whatever happens after you buy that, doesn't matter. Those tracks are always there in the same order, and you can listen to them on that compilation disc of a soundtrack. And you build a relationship with the music. Your collection becomes a reflection of taste, memory, and moments in your life. Streaming gives you access, and vinyl gives you attachment. And this is where I wanted to bring in someone who's seen this shift firsthand, not just as a listener, but as someone who talks about nostalgia, memory, and culture every week. It's my brother and the host of Rudy's Roundup, an all Disney Things Disney podcast. Because if there's one thing that one company that understands the power of physical media, it's Disney. So I wanted to ask him about why vinyl feels like it's coming back and what vinyl means to him, and why people seem to crave tangible connections again. I've got a special guest here today, Travis Rude, host of Rudy's Roundup Podcast and All Things Disney's podcast. Travis, how are you?

SPEAKER_01

I'm doing well. Thank you for having me. It's I'm excited to talk about this subject.

SPEAKER_00

Excellent, excellent. Where can where can people find Rudy's Roundup?

SPEAKER_01

Well, we are wherever you get your pod podcast from, you know, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Also, we are on YouTube. We're at Rudy's Roundup, which is just just like Woody's Roundup, but with an R. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So Rudy is R-O-O-D-Y. That's correct. All right. And you can also catch both of us together along with our good friend Funkle Hipster on the YouTube channel of Rudimentary, just getting ready to rev up season two. Travis, where can you you find that and how?

Access Versus Attachment

SPEAKER_01

So right now we are video only, which rudimentary, the whole thing behind that is making the easy things difficult to understand. And why wouldn't we have a podcast that is video only? If you're looking for it on YouTube, it's R-O-O-D-I-M-E-N-T-A-R-Y, the rudimentary podcast.

SPEAKER_00

Indeed. Thank you for having all that together because I did not write it down. So uh brought you on, I wanted to go ahead and talk to you about uh vinyl, as I know that here recently you just invested in some equipment to go ahead and and begin re-enjoying the sound of vinyl.

SPEAKER_01

That's correct. I now have an office. The goods of kids moving out of the house leaves more room in the house, so I've got a an office where I can record. And vinyl, I you and I both know, you know, we grew up with dad's vinyl collection. And so I'm very excited. I've got a lot of them still from dad's collection, and you know, went out, bought speakers, bought a record player, and I have been enjoying it much to the dismay of my wife sometimes. Yeah, well, you know, it's the little things that count.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. Yeah, I mean, uh so the interesting thing with vinyl, right? I mean, you know, growing up, you know, I was when I was younger, much younger, records were still the main, one of the main media. And I remember at that time it was vinyl and eight-tracks and things of that nature, and then slowly moving into cassette tapes and then eventually CDs. So what uh what was the first method of media, you know, that you remember enjoying or maybe uh your first purchase?

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's funny you you mentioned that, you know, as we talk about throwbacks and everything. I wanted also to let you know that for this special episode, I have you may know I collect microphones sometimes ad nauseum, you know, with my purchases. But I am doing your podcast while using the Shure S55 special edition microphone, the old one that looks like Elvis would have used it on records and things like that. I'll shoot you a picture of it if you want to put it in the show notes. You can. But my first interaction, aside from radio, you remember riding, you know, with dad. I remember riding with dad in oldies 101.7. But I remember in the solarium they had that gold record stand that that went from floor to ceiling that had all of the records in it. My first purchase was actually one you made for me, and I believe it was because you were told by our parents you had to. It was at Coconuts Music, you would won a gift card off the radio, and mom made you spend some of that on me. And it was, are you ready? Mm-hmm. A 45 of Wipeout by the Fat Boys. That was my first record purchase. I didn't make it, but that was the first record of my own was Wipeout by the Fat Boys.

SPEAKER_00

And the Wipeout by the Fat Boys was a collaboration with the Beach Boys.

SPEAKER_01

That's correct. Yes. And it was, you know, being seven, eight or however old I was, it was the coolest thing. You had the human beatbox on there just jamming, and the fact that the the Beach Boys were with the Fat Boys doing it just made it that much cooler.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I remember that summer that was a huge hit on the radio, and it was just something about having something physical. And I think you probably wore that vinyl out. It's probably still somewhere around somewhere. Do you still have it?

SPEAKER_01

Uh, it might be in the tub of records that I have from when I moved out and then when dad gave me his record collection. So I'm I'm gonna say yes, there's a very good chance I have it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think you need to go ahead and locate that and surprise your wife with it.

SPEAKER_01

And just over and over. That's a good call.

The Vinyl Ritual And Attention

SPEAKER_00

I'll let her know that uh that you brought that up. Yeah, no, she she will enjoy it much to the much the way that we did, I'm sure. So, Fat Boys, Beach Boys, no one in the world would have ever guessed that that was the introductory record into your collection of your own. I do remember, so the the first media that I can remember getting something, it was on my birthday, and it was the first album I ever owned. It was not on vinyl, it was Michael Jackson's thriller on cassette. As far as vinyl, I think the ones that, you know, besides having uh they used to have these storybook records. So you it have a little a book, and in the back of the book it would have a little like half jacket where a record would would slide in, and you would play that and it would read out the the book to you, you know. If there are most of them were Disney and you could, you know, hear the story and it would tell you when to turn the page and and all of that. Those those I remember non-musically as being some of the first. The first ones that I can remember right off uh were you know, I really think that I've got one that predates that one that you thought, and I think it's another one that mom made me give you. It was so on the radio, there was a contest they would run during the week, and it was called the Coca-Cola Hot Nine at Nine. Oh, yeah. And it was on the local pop music station uh uh 97.3 W M E E here in Fort Wayne. And what it was is that you would go ahead and they would play the top nine songs of the day based on the songs that were requested to the radio station. And you would go ahead, they'd play those nine songs, you'd write down the nine songs in order of which they were played, and then you had to be the ninth caller when the first when the number one song started playing. So by the end of the number one song, they would record your interaction with the DJ, and then at the end of it, they would have you read back the the top nine if you got it right, then you would get you got nine vinyl singles or 45s from Karma Records and then like a six-pack of Coca-Cola, I believe, maybe a t-shirt too. I I remember the Coke being one and the the nine 45s, the nine singles you could buy. And it wasn't the nine that were on there, it was any nine singles that you wanted. And so I remember I'm trying to remember the ones that I got, but I I do remember the one that I'm sure mom made me let you have one. It was John Waits Missing You. Oh my yes, that was probably your first one because that that predates the Beastie Boys, not Beastie Boys, the Fat Boys that you were talking about, but I remember that that you had you had that 45. Um that that may be the first one. Both times I was made to give you something that was mine and haven't forgot it. Mom was very mom was very free with my winnings, and yeah, I won't forget it. So now do you remember John Waits missing you on vinyl?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I remember the album cover or the 45 cover, and I remember again playing that song out. You know, it was I'm like, this guy's awesome. This guy's gonna be around forever.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Yep. I think John Wayne played the Clyde, played the Clyde here within the last year over uh here in Fort Wayne.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, he did. I tried to get my wife to go, and much like most of my ideas, she wasn't a fan of it. Yeah, you should have soloed that one.

SPEAKER_00

But so yeah, uh, you know, with with some of those uh being the things, what what do you what do you think is behind the vinyl resurgence?

Ownership Beyond Algorithms

SPEAKER_01

Well, I was I was gonna ask you, you know, as we were prepping for this and and you know, kind of get your ideas on things like that, because I know you've been big into vinyl recently. You've got an amazing setup, which I'm very jealous of, especially the record player, which you came you know through family. Amazing record player, by the way. But for me, I think what it is is I think you know, as our generation gets older, you know, I'm mid-40s. We want to reach back to the past, especially with with everything now at your hands. You know, I have Apple Music, Spotify, just the free version, Amazon music, you know, so I can get any song I want at the at the touch of a button, pretty much. But I think it's a lot of going out and finding those memories, like you and I just talked about, you know, the the the fat boys and beach boys, John Waite, you know, those guys. And just right now, you heard my excitement when you mentioned John Wade and the memory it brought back. And for me, it's I I think my I guess my want or my desire to go back to vinyl is to hear that true sound. You and I talked a lot about you know audio and sound and things like that, and how great this sounds, or how amazing this sounds in today's age. But then, you know, I was just listening to a Supremes album, and you know, you heard the pops and the hisses. And I think it's just for those people to reach back to when they were young, or maybe even when they heard their parents listening to music and things like that. You know, I remember dad's, I believe it was a Kai, you know, stereo system, you know, in the computer room. And for me, it's just I want to give that to my daughter, and she had for trust. Christmas retro player, speakers, you know, her Beatles albums, you know, things like that. So I think it's just a desire to go and reach back. But like I said, you'd been collecting more than me. So what's your thought on it? You know, what's what's going on now in today's world that makes people want to shop and get vinyl albums?

SPEAKER_00

I in thinking about it, I I really believe it has to do with the evolution of coming full circle to where you you went from albums to tape recordings to CDs to strictly digital to where there's kind of a uh a detachment from things. I mean, you we live in an age where, as you mentioned with Apple Music and Spotify, you have access to almost every song that was ever recorded. You know, there's some here and there due to licensing issues that you may have trouble finding, but I think it's a desire to go ahead and have and and and feel and hold something tangible. Right? And with vinyl, there is a commitment when you're going to play a vinyl record. I mean, you have in 20 to 25 minutes or so per side. So you know when you put side one on, you got 20 or 25 minutes, you know, if you're gonna clean the house or you're gonna do something like that, it may not be the best mode of media to listen to music because you got to stop and then flip the record over and you start it again. What I find myself doing is I will put a record on and I'll just sit there and I will just listen to it as it plays, and I will listen to things, you know, individual parts of music. And I do this throughout any media, but there's there's little things that I pick up on or try to pick up on. Like this time I'm gonna listen to the bass line only, or I'm gonna listen to the guitars only. I mean, I hear the whole thing, but I'm gonna really focus on this part of it. And every once in a while I hear something on a song that I've listened to a thousand times where I'm like, you know what? That little walk that they did on that guitar, I've never I've heard it, but I've just never listened to it and really appreciated it. And that's one of the things that you can do on any media, but you know, when I find myself sitting there listening to vinyl and just kind of detaching myself from everything else and just, you know, not looking at my phone, not doing anything else, and just sitting there and listening to music, other than, you know, having my earbuds in and doing paperwork or cleaning up or things like that where my mind is split between two tasks. I sit there on the couch and I just listen to the music and I find myself really paying attention to the the entire composition instead of you know it being in the background.

Introducing Travis From Rudy’s Roundup

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I I love, like you said, you you don't plan something around it because of the limited amount of time. Otherwise, you know, you'll start hearing that that you know, that clit or you know, that needle as it hits the end of the record, and you're like, crap, I didn't have to get to that before, you know, you don't want anything to happen. And now the value that we have for albums, I know you and I'll test back and forth when we see something, the other lights. But do you remember, you know, if dad only found out during those summers when we were home? Remember when we were trying to be DJs every once in a while, we'd find a record and you know, we'd scratch on the on the record player pretending we were DJs. Dad, if you're listening, it was all Andy's idea. But I love, like you said, hearing something that you may not have caught. And I tend to do that a lot with records or songs that I've, like you said, have listened to thousands of times. And most of you know, the Elvis albums I have, I've heard those songs hundreds and hundreds or thousands of times. And I want to hear it again, but I want to hear it now on my nice record player, which I invested in, my nice speakers. I want to hear it on that type of setup. I don't want to hear it from my phone, I don't want to hear it through Bluetooth, I want to hear it record player and the pressings that we get, you know, the music that we liked or the music that that we have a passion for. We're talking original or second pressings, where there is no digital, there is nothing of that. These are the pressings, whether it's the Stones, you know, the Beatles, Elvis, you know, those we're hearing it as it was laid down. And that's another thing that I think is awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, definitely. There's there's a you you'll hear it from just about anybody. The the terms that you keep hearing from people are like there's a warmth to vinyl. Um, you know, I know when I go into the local record stores around here, it's it's funny because you see people older than you, people your age, and then you see younger people that are really going, you know, nuts for this stuff. I mean, it's not cheap either. You know, you you know, a a great place to to look outside of the local areas is, you know, the internet, much as it has done with everything else, has made the world smaller. And a site called Discogs is really great because you can go ahead and put, you know, oh, I want an original pressing this 45 from 1958, and lo and behold, I have not looked for something on there that I haven't found. Now, I've found things that I really couldn't afford spending the money on, but I still found them. But, you know, that's always fun to kind of kind of browse that way. You know, to uh finish up this succession. I know that we could go on and on, but what uh what would you recommend as a you know your choice for a must-have record in a collection? Now, this can be anything. This isn't something that you know a a 21-year-old person is going to go out and just you know, write off it's not gonna be their first record, but just something if they have an appreciation for vinyl, what would you think is a is an album for a collection that that needs to be in there?

SPEAKER_01

Oh man. This is where you know I I'm like, man, why didn't I get what questions you were gonna ask? Yeah, kind of throw it out there.

First Records, Radios, And 45s

SPEAKER_00

Well, let me let me start with mine, and you go ahead and and you you can go ahead and and and think. I've got a couple. And right off, I'm gonna go with the Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street. Yeah, that's an absolute must vinyl recording. You know, it it is it it's the stones at their most raw and powerful. It is blues-based rock and roll, and it just is something that that should be in every record collector's collection, and then something a little more recent, obviously a couple favorites of mine, but one of the ones that always ranks high on vinyl record sales charts is Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, which you know a lot of those songs have a kind of a retro feel to them anyway. But just it that that album was made to be on vinyl out of all the media. That's that's needs to be on vinyl vinyl and it needs to be in in collections.

SPEAKER_01

That's I know you're a huge Amy Winehouse fan, and yeah, anytime I see that album, you know, whether somebody's posting it or you know, there's an article about it, it's it talks about the vinyl product, and that's that's the one you want to own. And I will go, I'm glad you want a couple, because I'll do two real quick. One of them more for the novelty of it, and then one that since you said raw, I'm gonna bring this one up. The novelty one, but also is is near and dear to my heart. If you've listened to the rudimentary podcast, you know I live in the 50s, 60s when it comes to music, but we'll go 70s, and it's the Elvis Moody Blue album. And for the last one, yes, the novelty of it is why because the Yep. Go ahead. Yeah, the vinyl itself, the more common one, is blue, the record is blue. I remember taking that out of the sleeve at dad's house and seeing it, and I've remembered that moment that you know, seeing that for the first time ever, which you were the one that told me, ironically, that the black standard color is the more rare one, you know, going to this day. So it may it's by far not his best album at all. A couple good songs, but novelty of it, the blue vinyl. The other one for me is came from Discogs, is the original pressing of Sam Cook live at the Harlem Square Club. And you talk about raw, the album itself wasn't released for 21 years after it was recorded because the executives thought you know it was just too much. And the the album from start to finish is one of my favorite things to listen to on vinyl. I've listened to it multiple times since I've got my setup already. And so if you're looking for something raw, live, just a great record, just who cares what's in the background. You hear ladies screaming, guys yelling, you know, stuff like that. It's a great raw album. So I would go to those two.

SPEAKER_00

Great choice. I know last weekend you you were playing that and we were listening to it.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

So, yeah, I think you know, there's no wrong way to start a vinyl collection, but you know, it it they're if you're gonna do it right, it shouldn't be all old stuff, it shouldn't be all new stuff. You know, spread your wings out a little bit and grab some different genres and just really enjoy it, put it on and and just stop what you're doing and listen to it. It it's it's a great way to connect with music that you enjoy. Like I said, you know, it's it's a little bit different commitment than just pulling something up on your phone and listening to it. So, hey, Travis, I wanted to go ahead and thank you for jumping on here. And again, you can catch Travis on his Disney podcast, Rudy's Roundup. And you can catch us both on YouTube on at the Rudimentary channel. And season two, hopefully, be starting soon. Travis, thanks again. Really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01

No problem. Thanks for having me. Love talking vinyl. Anytime you need to talk, music or just whatever, I'll lend you my opinion, even if you didn't ask for it. Thanks.

Nostalgia, Sound, And Passing It On

SPEAKER_00

Appreciate it. I really do enjoy having guests on, especially family members and discussing something that we're passionate about. So thanks again to Travis, the host of Rudy's Roundup. That's R-O-O-D-Y-S Roundup on your favorite streaming platform. Give them a rate view and maybe even subscribe. Tell them what you think. Again, Travis, thanks for stopping on. Back to this show and our talk about vinyl. I don't think vinyl is about rejecting streaming. I think it's about balance. Don't get me wrong, streaming is incredible. But vinyl reminds us that art isn't just something to consume, it's something to live with. Physical media asks you to slow down, commit, and actually pay attention. And maybe that's why it still matters. If you enjoyed this episode, or if this show has ever felt like a quiet place to land for a bit, leaving a review really does help more people find it. It's one of those small things that makes a bigger difference than you think. You can find us on social media, just search this won't teach you anything. I post clips, episode thoughts, and whatever else fits the conversation, and if you want to reach out directly, you can send us a text straight from the episode description page. It comes right to the show, and I read and reply to every single one. So if you've got a favorite record or one you know you'll never get rid of, I'd genuinely love to hear about it. And remember, this won't teach you anything, but maybe it reminded you of why you fell in love with music in the first place.