iPod ? An American Icon

HyperLiteG4

HyperLiteG4

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article from Rolling Stone Magazine, Issue 922 dated May 16, 2003

The iPod - an American Icon
In two years it has changed how we listen to music
by Moby

I have a fifteen-year-old cousin who has never once purchased a CD, and he has a huge music collection. The iPod makes the days of portable CD players seem like a bad, distant memory. I love the novelty of having all of my favorite CD's in one tiny little box, all just waiting to be heard. Having 5,000 songs on something the size of a cigarette pack. Two years ago, I had a meeting with some people from Apple wherein I was singing the praises for iTunes. My only problem with iTunes, I said, was that there wasn't a portable MP3 player that was proprietary for the Mac. They kind of looked at each other with shifty eyes and said, "Well, we shouldn't show this to you, because it's only a prototype, but here it is..." and they handed me the first-ever iPod. I couldn't get my hands off of it. Now you can't imagine music any other way. I can be sitting on an airplane and think to myself: "Self, wouldn't you like to listen to the first Roxy Music record?" And there it is. I would have burned out the first four Roxy Music albums on vinyl by now.
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Originally posted by HyperLiteG4
article from Rolling Stone Magazine, Issue 922 dated May 16, 2003

"I have a fifteen-year-old cousin who has never once purchased a CD, and he has a huge music collection."
Click to expand...

Which of course brings up another American icon (well actually not really just an American icon) and that's music piracy. Funny how his cousin has never purchased a cd yet has a huge music collection. I guess most of his collection was purchased then downloaded online and/or free music ;)

This isn't meant to start some discussion about music piracy, it's just interesting how much it permeates our society now. An article can start with a sentence like that and the legal implications melt away to the technological gadgetry of it all, then social implications, but never touch on the profundity (at least from a legal/moral standpoint) of the initial statement.
 
It is amazing that such a small object coupled with high speed internet has so profoundly changed the world of music. The concept certainly isn't new, Sony's Walkman had an equivalent impact on the world of music and had its own threat to the music industry.

I've also been very interested in the word "piracy" it almost gives the entire argument sort of a Robin Hood quality.

There's no going back though, the iPod promises us a revolution in the music industry, perhaps eventually even in the video/film industry. Its icon status is unquestionable but every icon has its lasting effect on the world and I wonder what that will be.
 
Hmm, the kid could've done what I do. Record the music off of the radio and convert it into an mp3. That's how I get most of mine. Not the highest quality, and I often have to chop a part of the beginning or end 'cause of a DJ talking, but works for me.
 
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