DVD sales have plunged over the year as more people have switched to streaming.
Sales of DVDs, Blu-rays and other physical discs have plummeted nationally by more than 90% over the past two decades, according to a study by the Digital Entertainment Group. DVD and Blu-ray sales peaked at more than $16 billion in 2005 and fell below $1 billion for the first time last year.
Video stores have vanished from the landscape. Redboxes that once stood sentinel outside every pharmacy have disappeared.
However, DVDs remain in strong demand at Northwest Indiana’s libraries, which have seen an increase in patrons checking out DVDs as streaming services have become more expensive.
People are also reading…
Hoosiers checked out 2.29 million DVDs at public libraries last year, according to the Indiana State Library’s 2024 Public Library Annual Report.
People checked out more than 119,000 DVDs at the Lake County Public Library branches, more than 51,000 at the Porter County Public Library System branches, more than 37,000 at LaPorte County Public Library branches, more than 14,000 at the Gary Public Library, nearly 10,000 at the Crown Point Community Library and more than 7,000 at the Michigan City Public Library, according to the Indiana State Library.
“The DVDs do get checked out quite a bit,” Hammond Public Library Interim Executive Director Cornell White said. “I’m leaning into the DVDs and Blu-ray because it seems our collection there circulates. We can use more DVDs and Blu-rays. I want to develop that more.”
Residents checked out more than 14,500 DVDs at the Hammond Public Library last year, according to the Indiana State Library.
“I want to increase that part of the building,” White said. “About 25% to 30% of the circulation is DVDs.”
The same is not true of all physical media. The Hammond Public Library is looking at reducing shelf space for CDs as more people stream music. Vinyl sales have been picking up, but White said vinyl is not ideal for library distribution, given the expense of records and their susceptibility to damage from scratches.
“I’ve thought about vinyl, but if it costs us more for vinyl than for a book and then goes out once and comes back scratched up because the cat jumped on the record player, then what do we do with that?” he said. “I’m not going to charge the patron because of a damaged record. But if the community at large asks for it, maybe, but I don’t think it will go over with my board. Maybe if we had other mediums, but those went away. All we have left is streaming.”
People find ways to stream music for free. But despite the popularity of free, ad-supported streaming services like Tubi, Roku and Plex, streaming has gotten more expensive as streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney+ and Hulu have raised their prices.
“With the shrinking of the economy, people are cutting back on the streaming services,” White said. “People might (be) going to a public library and spending less every month on entertaining the kids. If you notice, it’s more subscriptions as the day goes long. You’ve got Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+, Netflix and so on. If you add all that up, you’re paying a cable bill again. If you cut the cord, you’re paying it in increments. So people are still using the DVDs. I anticipate DVDs will keep going up in the near future.”
The Hammond Public Library would like to steer more of its patrons toward reading, potentially by encouraging them to see if the book really is better than the movie, White said.
“I would like to get people to get into a hobby of just reading,” he said. “We have a lot of books. Perhaps we can cultivate book clubs and DVD discussions, movie clubs. Perhaps we can pair that up where people watch the DVD and read the book.”
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