iPod, THEREFORE I AM......
Before i begin, i've nicked the title from journalist and editor of GQ Dylan Jones' fine book about the iPod and his own lifes' journey of musical discovery. Worth a read.
Since the beginning of the '00s, music had increasingly become available as a digital file (or MP3) to be shared, downloaded and played through the internet, and not always legally! This gave unsigned bands another route to an audience that bypassed record companies, and became another way to discover music from throughout the decades without shelling out a fortune on CDs. All of this was fine, but it meant that you either had to burn the files to blank CD's or sit at your PC if you wanted to hear the songs, as there was no way to make them portable. So when i first started downloading songs - almost always singles - from iTunes, it meant that i had to copy them to a CD, then copy the CD to MiniDisc, a time consuming task. When the first iPods came out in 2001 they were way out of my price range and were only compatible with Apple Mac computers, so i had to wait a few years before i could finally get my hands on one. By August 2005 the price had dropped enough for me to purchase one - a 60GB iPod Photo. This model had been introduced the year before, and had now been upgraded with a colour screen and intergrated into the main iPod line. Armed with a couple of iTunes vouchers, and having upgraded from dial-up to broadband, i set about connecting it to the PC. At the time this meant uploading the software from a CD-ROM that came with the iPod, and after a few expletive-heavy attempts at installing it - i'm not the most computer literate guy in the world - i joined the world of white earbud wearers (well, not completely true - i have never been a fan of the earphones Apple provide, as they let too much noise in). As i began downloading tracks from the iTunes Store, and spent hours uploading my CD collection, i knew my listening habits would never be the same again. The possibilities of carrying around my entire music library, able to access it at any time, clicking and dragging to create playlists, or - even better - being able to create playlists on the go through the iPod itself, putting it in shuffle mode to create that pub jukebox feel..... it made my personal world of music even more private. I was never without it for quite a long time, and although i still bought CDs in large quantities the iPod became my primary way of listening to music. In fact some of those CDs never got played - i developed a habit of putting them straight onto the computer after which they would be filed on the shelf to gather dust. This was a brave new world where i could just download a new release at the touch of a button, and as more and more of the music i liked began appearing on the iTunes Store i spent less and less time and money in record shops. Throughout the 00's millions of people would abandon physical formats for downloads, and as a result record shops began closing at an alarming rate. The attraction of quickly downloading music without having to leave the house overtook the joy of going through the racks, and it wasn't long before the CD single was replaced by the download. Some cult artists and labels stuck by the physical format, still releasing CD's and Vinyl, often in limited and collectable editions for die-hard fans, but until the resurgence of Vinyl in the next decade, the MP3 was king.
I myself still bought CD's and visited record shops in addition to downloading music, and i still used MiniDiscs to record radio programmes, but connecting my iPod to the speakers i soon bought became how i listened to music. This became even more the case when i bought a 120GB iPod Classic, with more space than i could fill! It would be a few years before i became disenchanted and felt the pull of the physical format, something aided by over two years without the internet.
I still have an iPod - my fourth, an iPod Touch that connects to the store through Wi-Fi, enabling you to download music without the need for a computer - and i use it occasionally, mainly at work, but it's become just another way to hear music, rather than the predominant one. The iPod Touch aside, Apple have stopped making and promoting the iPod, and anyone with a smartphone can listen to music on the move, mainly through streaming sites like Spotify. There are those who denounce the downloadable track as the death of music, and there's no doubt that the iPod has changed the music industry forever, but used wisely it can be a good way to discover music.
Since the beginning of the '00s, music had increasingly become available as a digital file (or MP3) to be shared, downloaded and played through the internet, and not always legally! This gave unsigned bands another route to an audience that bypassed record companies, and became another way to discover music from throughout the decades without shelling out a fortune on CDs. All of this was fine, but it meant that you either had to burn the files to blank CD's or sit at your PC if you wanted to hear the songs, as there was no way to make them portable. So when i first started downloading songs - almost always singles - from iTunes, it meant that i had to copy them to a CD, then copy the CD to MiniDisc, a time consuming task. When the first iPods came out in 2001 they were way out of my price range and were only compatible with Apple Mac computers, so i had to wait a few years before i could finally get my hands on one. By August 2005 the price had dropped enough for me to purchase one - a 60GB iPod Photo. This model had been introduced the year before, and had now been upgraded with a colour screen and intergrated into the main iPod line. Armed with a couple of iTunes vouchers, and having upgraded from dial-up to broadband, i set about connecting it to the PC. At the time this meant uploading the software from a CD-ROM that came with the iPod, and after a few expletive-heavy attempts at installing it - i'm not the most computer literate guy in the world - i joined the world of white earbud wearers (well, not completely true - i have never been a fan of the earphones Apple provide, as they let too much noise in). As i began downloading tracks from the iTunes Store, and spent hours uploading my CD collection, i knew my listening habits would never be the same again. The possibilities of carrying around my entire music library, able to access it at any time, clicking and dragging to create playlists, or - even better - being able to create playlists on the go through the iPod itself, putting it in shuffle mode to create that pub jukebox feel..... it made my personal world of music even more private. I was never without it for quite a long time, and although i still bought CDs in large quantities the iPod became my primary way of listening to music. In fact some of those CDs never got played - i developed a habit of putting them straight onto the computer after which they would be filed on the shelf to gather dust. This was a brave new world where i could just download a new release at the touch of a button, and as more and more of the music i liked began appearing on the iTunes Store i spent less and less time and money in record shops. Throughout the 00's millions of people would abandon physical formats for downloads, and as a result record shops began closing at an alarming rate. The attraction of quickly downloading music without having to leave the house overtook the joy of going through the racks, and it wasn't long before the CD single was replaced by the download. Some cult artists and labels stuck by the physical format, still releasing CD's and Vinyl, often in limited and collectable editions for die-hard fans, but until the resurgence of Vinyl in the next decade, the MP3 was king.
I myself still bought CD's and visited record shops in addition to downloading music, and i still used MiniDiscs to record radio programmes, but connecting my iPod to the speakers i soon bought became how i listened to music. This became even more the case when i bought a 120GB iPod Classic, with more space than i could fill! It would be a few years before i became disenchanted and felt the pull of the physical format, something aided by over two years without the internet.
I still have an iPod - my fourth, an iPod Touch that connects to the store through Wi-Fi, enabling you to download music without the need for a computer - and i use it occasionally, mainly at work, but it's become just another way to hear music, rather than the predominant one. The iPod Touch aside, Apple have stopped making and promoting the iPod, and anyone with a smartphone can listen to music on the move, mainly through streaming sites like Spotify. There are those who denounce the downloadable track as the death of music, and there's no doubt that the iPod has changed the music industry forever, but used wisely it can be a good way to discover music.
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