I buy discs from Amazon occasionally. They often throw in video streaming credits as a bonus to this pretty often. Sometimes Amazon just gives them to you for buying unrelated items, like video games, to strengthen your relationship with Amazon.

I’ve been wanting to see all the Stanley Kubrick movies that I’ve never seen. I’ve been wanting to rematch 2001: A Space Odyssey again and because my iMac is angled to my treadmill in my office, I can right now for free with those video credits they keep tossing me. Or I can also buy the digital rights for $10 and cloud-stream it from Amazon on any computer with a supporting web browser as long as Amazon stays in business. Or I can order the BluRay for a cheap $10 (with free shipping from Prime) and physically own an archival 1080p disc once it arrives.

Here’s where the psychology of Amazon ecommerce is genius: Buy the BluRay and you can start watching the streaming rental right now at no extra charge, appeasing your instant gratification AND your archival possession need.

They give you every option you can want: archival disc, convenient, space-saving cloud-based digital rights ownership, or a disposable single-view rental. All for under $10.

Over the summer, I also realized my 27″ iMac has become a better TV than the 19″ standard def CRT TV I had hanging up and was paying a monthly fee for a FIOS box to watch terrible looking video on it.

Wyatt Cenac was right: a computer is a SUPER TV.

Amazon, iTunes, Netflix, Comcast, FIOS, TimeWarner… they’re all just middle men sending art to an audience through pipes.

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