Tom Rizzuto

And if we need another example from history about the importance of physical media, let's move away from the world of music and let's move into another world where streaming has also become very popular.

Let's talk about movies.

Nosferatu is a classic of the silent horror genre.

Film historians will tell you that Nosferatu changed the way that scary movies were even thought about.

But here's what a lot of people don't know.

We actually came very close to losing Nosferatu forever.

And that's because film historians will also tell you that Nosferatu pretty conclusively ripped off Bram Stoker's Dracula.

And the Stoker family, for obvious reasons, were not pleased about this.

In fact, they were so displeased that they took the Nosferatu production to court, and they won.

And as part of that court decision, it was decided that every single copy of Nosferatu had to be destroyed.

And obviously, they missed a few.

And because they missed a few, Nosferatu lives on to this day.

And look, it's very possible that Nosferatu is not as important to the history of world events as rock and roll was to the Soviet kids.

Or maybe it is.

I don't know.

Who am I to say?

There may be messages and meanings in Nosferatu that we have yet to interpret.

But the point is, we still have it to interpret.

And the reason we still have it around is because it is just more difficult to get rid of every single piece of a physical piece of media, especially if it is mass produced.

So, again, what does this mean to us today?