It was 10 years ago tomorrow that a curiously heavy, signature-white, palm-sized device showed up on store shelves, then in our cars, on the exercise bike, and in our pockets. The iPod forever changed the way we heard music. It wasn’t long after its 2001 introduction that the device was attached to our collective hip, carrying with it much of our music collection.
While Sony’s Walkman was already making our music portable cassette by cassette, the first iPod — a 5-gigabyte model — held more than 1,000 songs. Now, of course, you can buy a 160-gig iPod Classic that will hold 40,000 songs, all in the size of a single cassette tape.
Ask believers about their first iPod, and a nostalgic smile takes over their face.
Photo: Bloomberg
“It literally simplified my life,” said Kyle Wofford, who handles management and marketing at Boulder boutique music firm United Interests. “As a lifelong music fan, I’ve always had a lot of CDs. And I would carry, at a minimum, 200 CDs with me whenever I would do a road trip. I had these giant Case Logic cases filling up the back seat. When we’d go on tour, we’d have more than 1,000 CDs combined floating around the car. And all of that changed when I bought my first iPod.”
The iPod and its many incarnations — the Shuffle, the Touch, the Nano, the original — have seen more than US$320 million in sales while driving worldwide technological trends. In the same way that we “Google” things online every time we search, we buy “iPods” — even if the music device is a different brand or model. But since we outgrow even our most essential tools, it’s no surprise that a decade after being swept off our feet — and just a few short months after Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ death — we’re spending less time with our beloved iPods. In Apple’s last fiscal year, the company sold around 42 million iPods — a seemingly robust number. But that follows four straight years of sales that exceeded 50 million. Our iPods are gathering dust on the shelf as other devices and services are pushing forward our ever-evolving relationships with music.
The flashy iPad is fun and trendy, and groundbreaking streaming service Spotify has given us millions of songs at our fingertips — for free. But the iPod’s biggest competitor is its younger brother, the iPhone. “The iPhone has diminished the iPod a little bit for me,” said Denver music promoter Peter Ore.
Ore books shows for Denver indie promoters Soda Jerk Presents, filling rooms such as the Summit Music Hall and the Marquis Theatre with punk rock, hip-hop and metal. But Ore is also a travel enthusiast who hopes to get 40-plus days on the slopes this year, so mobile convenience is essential in his choices for personal technology.
“Most of the time I’m fine with just my iPhone, because it’s the e-mail and the music and the phone,” Ore said. “But if I’m flying international and it’s going to be a longer flight, more time away from a charger, I’ll listen to my iPod to preserve the iPhone battery. Other than that, Apple is cannibalizing itself.”
United Interests’ Wofford understands that need for mobility. He was on the road for five of the past six weeks, handling managerial duties for his acts Caroline Smith & the Good Night Sleeps, Trace Bundy and These United States. And while he misses his last iPod, he already has plans to replace it — with the new iPhone 4S, which has the largest hard drive of all iPhones at 64 gigs.
“I don’t feel the need to have [an iPod] anymore, whereas it used to be unimaginable to not have one,” Wofford said. “I don’t think Apple cares, as long as you’re buying a product from them. And the new iPhone will cost me three times more than the iPod I originally wanted.”
Wofford’s new phone will cost US$399, compared with a new Touch (US$199), Nano (US$129) or Shuffle (US$49). And when you look at the new iPhone 4S, it’s impossible to not see the original spirit and vibrant functionality of those first few iPod models. Apple will eventually abandon the iPod in favor of flashier, more current offerings, sure. But the iPod won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
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