iPod turns 10: Has convenience and portability made music more disposable?

[marmar]

from the Chicago Tribune:



Greg Kot Music critic
11:01 p.m. CDT, October 20, 2011


A cultural shift that eventually became a landslide began 10 years ago this month, though almost no one noticed at the time. Apple Inc. rolled out a portable MP3 player it dubbed the iPod, and after a promising opening quarter in 2002, sales dropped more than 50 percent.

The next year, Apple opened the iTunes digital music store; even though it held only 200,000 songs, a natural synergy was created with the iPod. Sales of the portable player quadrupled in 2004 to more than 4 million units. The pocket-sized player with the white ear buds was endorsed in iconic television commercials by bands and artists such as U2, Gorillaz, Feist, Daft Punk, Black Eyed Peas and Coldplay.

Now the iTunes store is the single biggest music retailer in America, with more than 20 million tracks available and 160 billion songs downloaded since its launch. And the iPod is by far the most popular digital music player, commanding nearly 80 percent of the market and piling up a staggering 300 million sales since 2001.

“Even artists who were longtime holdouts, like the Beatles, are now part of the (Apple) ecosystem,” technology analyst Michael Gartenberg says. “They realize this is where consumers are listening to their music and, more importantly, buying their music.” .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/turnitup/chi-ipod-10th-anniversary-the-ipod-turns-10-20111020,0,6361738.column

[originalpckelly]

1. What the fuck is with this shit of calling stuff an ecosystem?

It's a fucking computer, not the grand fucking canyon.

[dkf]

2. Wait til spottify catches on.

[Tesha]

7. Or Zune, huh? That was really something!

Spotify streams, doesn't it?

That means it requires a continuous network
connection and that's still not so common,
especially as the load on mobile data networks
continues to increase.

Also, keeping the mobile data network radio
continuously active drains your battery like
it's going out of style.

For these reasons, Spotify hasn't taken over
Europe where it's been available for several
years now.

Tesha

[dkf]

11. That is why the grandfathered unlimited 3G plans are so valuable.

Att has me for life.

And I'm constantly draining my battery anyway. That's why I have chargers all over the place.

[customerserviceguy]

13. I'm curious about your remark

Tell me what's so good about my 3G plan. It's as slow as AOHell dialup most of the time, I envy my friends who have 4G phones.

Before I replace this Windows Mobile device with a 4G Android, give me a reason to not do that.

[dkf]

15. Obviously I'd prefer to be on 4g unlimited.

But I'm hooked on ios so I'm stuck.

I was going to wait for the iPhone5, but after reading Mary Meeker's assessment that VR will be huge as the new QWERTY and hating my touchscreen keyboard I gave in and ordered the 4s. A co-worker told me SIRI was really cool...he sucked me in! I won't post the SIRI ad, because I'm not sure how DU feels about product promotion, but it is really really effortless. You can look it up yourself if you are so inclined.

But beyond that, I have Netflix streaming, Hulu streaming, and I download podcasts. A few hours of keeping the kids occupied with veggie tales while shopping and my 2 gig ipad allocation for the month is shot so I value my unlimited iPhone even more. $30 for unlimited data with a 26% company discount!

And yes if I had a windows phone, and wasn't attached to ios, I would jump to android. The thing about android is it is the less secure of the two platforms at least as far as I've been reading.

Android is great for hacking (in the good way). A friend was telling me about all the changes he made to overlock this and underpower that and take the throttle off something or other. Then again I would probably land up bricking it so maybe I need to stay away from that.

[Tesha]

19. Well, right now, most places won't offer you 4G speeds.

The roll-out in North America has only reached
a few places so far; the situation will be much
better a year from now.

Also, the current crop of 4G radios will drain
your battery faster.

Tesha

[customerserviceguy]

38. Range shouldn't be much of a problem for me

I live and work in fairly densely populated areas that would most likely have pretty solid 4G coverage already, besides, wouldn't the machine revert back to 3G towers if 4G's weren't available?

Battery life is indeed an issue, and there would have to be some sort of easy to use switch that turned it off, sort of like airplane mode, while leaving the basic phone feature operating. I do have a charger in my car, one at my desk, and one next to my laptop computer, which is the primary one I use at home. I wouldn't have too much trouble keeping it juiced, and would be willing to buy a higher capacity battery, like I did for my current smartphone.

[htuttle]

3. The 'pre-digital music world' he longs for existed for less than 100 years

Before that -- back to the dawn of history -- music was something that a person did, instead of something they made and sold.

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. Indeed

Before 120 years ago, nobody had heard the same song performed twice - in the whole history of human beings. Now, of course they performed a song over and over again, but it was always conditioned on new performances - only recording devices allowed the exact duplication of a performance. Very nice way to put it:

"music was something that a person did, instead of something they made and sold"

Great post! :thumbsup:

[tridim]

5. It doesn't have much to do with Apple, since they didn't invent the MP3 player

I do think it has a lot to do with ear buds, which make music 100% private and disgustingly lo-fi. It's also the fault of modern studios that mix music for maximum volume at the expense of subtle dynamics.

[dkf]

6. Steve Jobs might have been anal about design but his earbuds suck.

[Tesha]

8. But happily, he used the world-standard 1/8" / 3.5mm headphone connector...

...so purists can connect any medium- or high-
impedance headphones that they wish!

Still, tens of millions of people are happy with
the Apple earbuds or iPhone headsets.

Tesha

[dkf]

10. Yep they are...and more power to them.

One you learn to appreciate better sound quality it can get expensive.

[Tesha]

20. "Better sound quality" is a nebulous concept, though.

Besides the Apple earbuds, I've used several
sets of Sony and Sennheiser headphones over
the years and performance "varies".

The Sennheiser's had great fidelity, but were
an "open ear" design so didn't block ambient
noise.

The Sony noise-cancelling headphones worked
pretty well, but introduced some subtle hiss
and had a real problem that their amplifiers
would overload on very-low-frequency noise
(more like shifts in air pressure) so in some
environments (like riding on a slightly-
flexible bus), they were always "cutting out"
as the bus deformed going over bumps.

The Sony ordinary (passive) headphones were
fine but bulky.

I also used a variety of Nokia headsets of
both the earbud and the canalphone variety.
I had very high hopes for the Nokia canalphones
and indoors, they sounded great, but outdoors,
they suffered terribly from wind noise.

All in all, the Apple earbuds are a much better
compromise than many people give them credit for.

By far, my favorite headphones were my original
set of Koss PRO-4A headphones with the original
liquid-filled earcups. But Koss quit making them
and when they died, the new pair was noticeably
inferior. And of course both old and new are 8
ohms so they can't be driven by a lot of modern
electronics (that expect 32 ohm headsets).

Tesha

[dkf]

29. The Senns are nice..my BIL has some. I have a great pair of Denon closed phones.

Not necessarily for accuracy as its probably more V shaped in response but really fun and for late night movies they are the best.

If I'm listening for vocals and for portability I'll move to my Shure iems. My Grados were a decent entry point soundwise but not exactly stylish (got some comments at work) and my yuin earbuds are for walking around as they allow me to hear traffic if I need to.

Those are the ones I keep handy. Still looking for the holy grail though.

[tridim]

35. I truly adore my $99 Sony MDR 7506's

I don't care if $500 headphones sound "better", the Sony's sound gorgeous bottom to top.

I've had the same pair for 10 years, still going strong.

[guitar man]

42. Those are world-standard headphones

Used in recording studios all over the planet. I've got 3 pair hanging in my studio right now. Another $100 pair of cans I love is the Sennheiser HD280. Both pairs deliver great "bang for the buck" performance IMO .

[tridim]

12. I'll give you that, it truly is a miracle that Jobs chose to use a standard connector

But the fact that millions of people are apparently happy with the sound of Apple earbuds is pretty sad. They're only hearing a fraction of the music.

I know full-ear headphones aren't practical for everyone, but damn they make music sound good. I thought that was the point of listening to music?

[Tesha]

18. Part of the point is listening to music where full-ear earphones are too bulky, too...

...obtrusive, and too obstructive of the rest of the
sounds of the world. The earbuds are better in each
of those ways.

Tesha

[TwilightGardener]

9. I don't use earbuds. They hurt, they sound bad. Whose ears do they fit, anyway?

Not mine.

[Demoiselle]

14. I've disliked ear buds for a long time.

It seems to me that they make everything sound BIG and FABULOUS because it's bouncing around in your skull....and sometimes it's, as you say, just maximum volume and no subtle dynamics. I like to SHARE listening to music. But then, I'm a crotchety old Grandma.

[Codeine]

26. Modern mixing often makes music physically and mentally exhausting.

That's almost certainly contributed to today's disposability of music.

[toddaa]

16. I still buy CDs

Of course, I rip 'em at 320kb, but I still like the experience of listening to an album from beginning to end. I lean towards artists who still know how to properly compose and package a full length album, rather than two songs and a bunch of filler. Alas, my album collection disappeared in the floods of '93, otherwise I'd still be spinning vinyl.

When I do buy mp3s, which is rare, I go the DRM free route at Amazon. iTunes is forbidden on any computer in my house. It took me two days to try to get the damn thing to transfer songs to a new ipod I bought my daughter for her birthday. After much frustration, I wiped both the hard drive and the ipod clean of Apple DRM shit, installed Rockbox, and now she and I are much happier. I am baffled by the "Apple's are easier to use" myth.

[Initech]

17. iTunes is horrible.

But I'm the same way - I buy the albums and listen to them from beginning to end. I don't get why a lot of progressive bands now are putting out albums that cost like $100 for the LEs but if that gets people buying the actual albums I'm all for it. But as far as my ipod goes - it's easier to carry one 160GB iPod classic than it is to carry my entire CD collection around!

[Tesha]

21. But iTunes now sells DRM-free music as well. Did you know that? (NT)

[Fire Walk With Me]

22. The internet, mainly. Yes, music has become an entitlement, something throwaway.

Musicians however will still be making music because an artist HAS TO.

[onethatcares]

23. got me, but I just bougt Exile On Main Street, Nebraska and

Ultimate Santana on cd because I'm too damn cheap to buy a new turntable and run my vinyl on it.

and I supported a locally run shop that has thousands of cds/records and tapes.

To me that's a win-win.

Now, I gotta tell you, my phone only makes and receives calls, I don't have any apps.

[pintobean]

24. I've been using Creative's Zens for years

The X-Fi sounds better than anything I've listened to. iPods sound horrible.

[Ezlivin]

25. "iPods sound horrible"

The only thing that matters is the type of encoding.

It's all bits otherwise. An iPod will sound as good as a Zune and vice-versa if they have encoded the music identically.

If you want great quality from your iPod/etc then rip your own CDs and choose a lossless encoding. (http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/ipod-sound-quality-and-aac-encoding-tests/)

My iTunes library largely (98%) consists of CDs I ripped using Apple's lossless encoder. The quality is untouched, but the filesize is not as drastically reduced as it would be if I chose a lossy encoding method. I don't mind the tradeoff because I'm after sound quality, not reduced filesize.

[tridim]

27. Of course CD encoding is already lossy.

I really do think it's time for CD and MP3 encoding to be phased out and replaced with a lossless format like FLAC.

[Tesha]

31. No, CD encoding *IS NOT* lossy.

It's 16 bits, 44.1 KHz stereo PCM with no loss of
data except for the slightly limited bit depth
(which shows on really quiet passages, but
more-modern noise shaping has substantially
overcome that limitation).

Perhaps you were thinking of DAT tapes (which did
use lossy encoding).

Tesha

[tridim]

33. I guess I'm saying it's lossy as compared to better digital audio formats.

For instance I can sample analog audio on my system at 48KHz, which is physically more accurate than a 44.1KHz sample. The uncompressed WAV's on my hard drive are less lossy than the audio on a CD. CD's are also usually dithered down to 44.1.

Less lossy. :) Good band name.

[Tesha]

34. Luckily for the rest of us, "lossy encoding" is a well-defined technical term. (NT)

[tridim]

37. You're so special Tesha.

[Tesha]

39. I owe you a further explanation.

My quick quip about "lossless" encoding versus "lossy"
compression was only being slightly snide, but I owe
you a further explanation.

To an electrical engineer, audio engineer, or software
engineer, "lossless encoding" has a very specific
meaning: it means that the encoded audio stream can
reproduce all of the accuracy digitization of the audio
or video stream. So if the audio was originally encoded
at 44.1 KHz, 16-bit stereo, then that exact audio stream
can be reproduced at the output of the digital-to-analog
converter and at that encoding accuracy (about 96 dB
signal-to-noise ratio and with a Nyquist frequency of
22.05 KHz).

This signal may be uncompressed (as with CDs) or
compressed by a lossless compression algorithm
(as with FLAC, etc.), but the end result is the same:
within the abilities of the digital channel, nothing is
lost.

By comparison, a lossy compression algorithm (such
as MP3, AAC, or video MPEG) deliberately throws
away data to reduce the number of bits that need to
be stored. And when reproduced, the output is not
equal to the input (within the abilities of the D/A converter);
it merely contains those parts that the compression
algorithm deemed "important".

These two terms ("lossless" and "lossy")are widely used
and well-understood as I've described them above. If you
want to talk to any industry professionals, that's the way
you've got to use them. You can't make up your own
definitions and expect people to understand you.

Tesha

[tridim]

43. Don't sweat it

I know you're upset that I don't use a Mac. As I've said, I stopped caring about the PC wars long ago.

Ironically, in a different universe we'd probably be working together, it sounds like we have similar interests. I've served as my own audio engineer for at least 25 years. I don't claim to know it all, but I do know how to write, play, record. mix and master music.

[pintobean]

28. Zen, not Zune, and I'll take the word of experts and my own ears

I've loaded the same flac file on an iPod, a Zune and a Zen, plugged in a pair of AKG K240MKIIs and compared. I also had a half dozen friends compare. To a person, we rated the Zen best by far and the Ipod last.

[Ezlivin]

32. Was it a double-blind test?

Experts also believe that $4,000/foot cable "sounds" better than ordinary cable.

But, hey, if you're happy, and I'm happy, why not just party together? Hell, we both LOVE music!

:)

[pintobean]

36. Double-deaf test

No,that's not it. Dumb. That's it. We were double-dumb. :7

[Warren DeMontague]

30. I can put 2 months of continuous live Grateful Dead soundboards on my 160GB ipod

please, spare me the anti-technology griping and whining.

[quinnox]

40. My 2nd generation Nano still going strong

I don't know how many times I have dropped it, but the damn thing seems near indestructible.

I still like the old model when I see the new bulkier models so I'm sticking with it.

[Evasporque]

41. monolithic music producing and publishing days are OVER!

The days when everyone but the artist made money...are GONE.

The industry is whining now because a HIGHER PERCENTAGE of sales than ever before is going direct to the artist.

What happened to music...is going to happen to banking and finance in America and around the world.

More smaller pies with many pieces.

Instead of two or three huge pies with one big piece and a tiny sliver for the rest of us...