I love physical media as much as the next person, but there’s no denying the sheer convenience that comes with digital distribution. Whether we’re talking about music, TV shows, films, books, or video games, consuming content digitally using a modern smart device is both effortless and approachable.

Of course, physical media comes with its own set of upsides, too, including real, tangible ownership, collectibility, the ability to trade and resell copies, among several other perks. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as pulling the plastic wrap off of a new physical product and placing it into its reader or player, for example.

Recently, in an effort to split the difference between physical and digital media, I’ve downloaded a particular set of applications onto my iPad mini. Each of these apps simulates the physical media experience to one degree or another, which is incredibly charming, all while maintaining the convenience inherent to digital distribution. Here are three apps that scratch that physical media itch of mine to great effect.

MD Vinyl

Simulate a record player

Subscription cost

One-time $10 for lifetime access

Free trial

No

Ads

No

MD Vinyl is an app that simulates the nostalgic turntable experience on a phone or tablet with interactive widgets to show what’s currently playing in a more unique way on your home screen. 

MD Vinyl taps into your Apple Music or Spotify library, presenting your tunes in a user interface designed to emulate a classic turntable. Artwork is presented on screen in record form, with a needle that can be moved around to seek through tracks with ease. There’s also a Cover Flow-style interface that presents albums in a scrollable list, which is very cool to see in motion. The $10 app is incredibly well-designed with impressive attention to detail, and it’s one that I keep coming back to day in and day out. I’ve grown sick of Spotify’s text-heavy UI, and, in my eyes, MD Vinyl is the perfect old-school-meets-modern-tech alternative.

My Classic

Simulate an iPod Classic

From the get-go, My Classic presents itself as a Game Boy-inspired music player that connects to Apple Music and Spotify. However, the $3 app has a trick up its sleeve: by inputting a special button combination, the interface transforms into an almost one-to-one replica of a traditional Apple iPod Classic, complete with a click wheel, Cover Flow for fluidly scrolling through albums, and plenty of other iPod Classic flourishes from back in the day. Now, an iPod isn’t quite the same form of physical media as, say, a CD is, but it’s still a throwback to a time in which purpose-built physical gadgets ruled the tech roast.

Shelf

Simulate a disc collection

Simply put, Shelf is the ideal virtual bookshelf. The free application lets you input any 4K UHD Blu-ray, standard Blu-ray, DVD, and even digitally-owned copy of a movie or show into a single, centralized location, with tons of filtering tools, collection statistics, tagging options, and more. The app’s interface is minimalistic and streamlined, with the ‘My Shelf’ home page acting perfectly analogous to a real, physical bookcase. As an added bonus, film insights can be referenced directly from within the interface, and iCloud backup support makes for effortless syncing across not only iPad, but also other iDevices.