I think you're not taking into account the difference in technology.
Let's take movies pre-VHS/Beta. You could see a film in the theaters, and once it was out of theaters, it was probably gone forever. It probably existed somewhere, in some studio vault! But the technology to make it available for home use simply didn't exist. People didn't have room in their homes or the money to set up a film projection studio, and even if you did, film cannisters were big and bulky and film itself was a fire hazard. There was just no way that you could practically have it in your own home, and projecting it for public use cost money--you needed the physical space and the equipment and the projectionist, and also you had to pay the studio. So only popular movies that lots of people would want to see again would get re-released in theaters. It was ephemeral, but that was a limitation of the actual physical medium. None of this is because of decisions on the studio's part, there's nobody to blame, it was an inherent issue of the medium. TV, same thing. There simply wasn't any way to practically have your own copy that you could re-watch at will.
Even books and music were ephemeral. Most albums and most books got a single printing, and that was it. Either you bought it when it was new, or you never had a copy at all unless you were lucky enough to stumble upon a copy in a second-hand store. Manufacture costs were decently high, so they had to have a decent guarantee that if they reprinted something it would sell well despite not being new. If something was out of print and you couldn't get a copy of it, again, it was a limitation of the physical medium. It was not a case where the media could be available with trivial ease. You might be very disappointed if you missed something or your copy got ruined or whatever and you couldn't find another, but there's nobody to blame.
And then came VHS and DVDs, and not only could you have your own copy to watch whenever you wanted, old forgotten stuff was being reprinted and brought out that you hadn't been able to get ahold of before! The technical barriers disappeared.
With the rise of digital media, the few remaining technical barriers disappeared. Any media the company has the rights to can be made available to the customer. It's simple and easy. Books, music, TV, videos--as long as it exists in a digital file, it's pretty cheap to serve it to the customer. And anything that exists in a physical form (anything that hasn't been permanently lost in the meantime) can be converted to digital with a little bit of work. The only reason something isn't available to the customer is if the media owner has chosen not to make it available.
And while in experiential terms, both now and the 60s have lots of ephemeral media, the difference is that in the 60s that wasn't a choice anyone made, that was simply the reality of the level the technology was at. It was a natural ephemerality. Now the ephemerality is entirely artificial, and purely the result of decisions a tiny group of humans have made that affects everyone else. Of course people are going to respond differently!
no subject
Let's take movies pre-VHS/Beta. You could see a film in the theaters, and once it was out of theaters, it was probably gone forever. It probably existed somewhere, in some studio vault! But the technology to make it available for home use simply didn't exist. People didn't have room in their homes or the money to set up a film projection studio, and even if you did, film cannisters were big and bulky and film itself was a fire hazard. There was just no way that you could practically have it in your own home, and projecting it for public use cost money--you needed the physical space and the equipment and the projectionist, and also you had to pay the studio. So only popular movies that lots of people would want to see again would get re-released in theaters. It was ephemeral, but that was a limitation of the actual physical medium. None of this is because of decisions on the studio's part, there's nobody to blame, it was an inherent issue of the medium. TV, same thing. There simply wasn't any way to practically have your own copy that you could re-watch at will.
Even books and music were ephemeral. Most albums and most books got a single printing, and that was it. Either you bought it when it was new, or you never had a copy at all unless you were lucky enough to stumble upon a copy in a second-hand store. Manufacture costs were decently high, so they had to have a decent guarantee that if they reprinted something it would sell well despite not being new. If something was out of print and you couldn't get a copy of it, again, it was a limitation of the physical medium. It was not a case where the media could be available with trivial ease. You might be very disappointed if you missed something or your copy got ruined or whatever and you couldn't find another, but there's nobody to blame.
And then came VHS and DVDs, and not only could you have your own copy to watch whenever you wanted, old forgotten stuff was being reprinted and brought out that you hadn't been able to get ahold of before! The technical barriers disappeared.
With the rise of digital media, the few remaining technical barriers disappeared. Any media the company has the rights to can be made available to the customer. It's simple and easy. Books, music, TV, videos--as long as it exists in a digital file, it's pretty cheap to serve it to the customer. And anything that exists in a physical form (anything that hasn't been permanently lost in the meantime) can be converted to digital with a little bit of work. The only reason something isn't available to the customer is if the media owner has chosen not to make it available.
And while in experiential terms, both now and the 60s have lots of ephemeral media, the difference is that in the 60s that wasn't a choice anyone made, that was simply the reality of the level the technology was at. It was a natural ephemerality. Now the ephemerality is entirely artificial, and purely the result of decisions a tiny group of humans have made that affects everyone else. Of course people are going to respond differently!