ipod musings

With much resistance at first, I have now succumbled fully to the ipod revolution. I was really put off my the advertisements at first. in the Bay Area, at some BART (Subway-like public transportation) stations, the platforms would be covered with IPOD ads. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing those Even though there are definite faults (it's expensive, the battery-life is ridiculously not what they advertise, etc.), I love my ipod. it's just crazy to have so much of my music available at once. I used to carry my discman everywhere with me, and would have a cd case that could hold 10 CDs. I'd carefully pick my selections before going out, etc. so having it all easibly accessible in this tiny little thing was awesome. I even have ipod accessories, such as portable speakers. my ipod allegiance is pretty pricey though for me it's been worth it.

if it weren't of my use of p2p technology, and my habit of downloading stuff, I don't think I would have ever been sucked into this. This is interesting in the light of what we've been reading about class. Lessig talks about how the recording industry has tried to shut out napster and its ilk, as well as targeting specific downloaders and suing the pants off them, with mottos of zero tolerance for copyright infringement. he says that this has become "a war on file-sharing technologies, not a war on copyright infringement". However, Apple has more embraced technology and learned how to deal with it so it's profitable for them.

In my personal use, I began using ITunes (i have a pc), because it made it easier for me to listen (and later download) other people's music. because I had a good amount of mp3s, I wanted to then buy an MP3 player, and since I liked ITunes' interface I bought an IPOD. I also ended up buying a video IPOD, because I had downloaded videos of TV shows and movies, and thought it would be cool to watch those while I worked out or something. After buying an ipod, I began getting into the ipod accessories stuff. So due to P2P technology, which in theory I get free stuff from, I end up purchasing a lot of stuff as a result. It's interesting how the ipod industry is growing, and new advances are being developed, and it's arguably partly the result of p2p technology.

another way apple is capitalizing on the fact that people are dowloading more is through it's itunes music store. It makes it really easy to buy music, and you can get an album instantly. Also, there are now special itunes releases or special versions of albums with extra tracks that you can only purchase through this. for example, I had a really hard time finding Seu Jorge's cover of "Space Oddity" (From the Life Aquatic soundtrack), and couldn't find it using Kazaa, or through other Pomona computers. Soon, there was a CD released that had all the Seu Jorge covers of David Bowie songs that were featured in the film, all except "Space Oddity". In order to get that song, you had to buy the album off of Itunes. This may not be the end all or be all example of this, but it shows a small way how corporations can capitalize on these technologies (not that i'm a fan of corporations and want to help them out, i'm just sayin')...