 In
case you wondered, the iPod, the device from Apple Computer
that stores and plays back music, is a success. CEO Steve
Jobs told the Wall Street Journal last week that
the "iPod grew from nothing to a billion-dollar-year
business by year two." It was launched in January
2002.
The reason for the popularity
of the devices despite their relatively high prices
is that they're just so neat. Other MP3 players -- and
there are a lot of them out there -- just don't measure
up when it comes to cool. Little larger than a pack
of cards, the top of the line unit offers 40 gigs of
storage capable of holding as many as 10,000 songs.
Priced at $699, you might prefer to invest in a new
stereo or at the least, new speakers for the old one.
Then again, who needs to have instant access to 10,000
pieces of music? Consider instead the 15-gig model.
It stores up to 3,700 songs and retails for a mere $399.
Or you can hold on for a month or two and purchase the
new iPod mini. Launched in the US in February where
it retails for $249 US, it will likely come in at around
$300 Canadian. It's about the size of a small cell phone,
comes in five colours and stores almost 1,000 songs
on a four-gig hard drive. (By the by, though most use
the devices to store music, you can put any data on
them that's storable in a hard drive.)
Still scratching your head about
why they're so popular? Another reason is that they're
so easy to use. Using a PC or Mac computer -- the iPod
works with either -- you can select tracks or whole
albums from you current CD collection and download --
or as the cognoscenti say 'rip' -- them onto an iPod.
They can then be selected using the device's screen
and played back in any order you wish. Finding individual
pieces is quick and easy. You can either listen on the
iPod's earpieces or plug the device into your home stereo
or into newer-model car radios.
There just something about carrying
around your entire music collect in a shirt pocket that's
proved irresistible.
Apple itself is the leader in
legal downloads with about 70% of the US market, which
amounts to 2% of the total music market in that country.
The iTunes Music Store is part of the free iTunes jukebox
software (www.apple.com/itunes for Mac or Windows),
it charges $0.99 US but is available so far only to
those with a US credit card though you can still browse
around the virtual store from Canada.
Then there's the illegal or free
download market, which continues to thrive despite a
spate of music industry lawsuits against users, which
have moderately dampened consumer enthusiasm. To tap
into to this music lode type "MP3+free+downloads"
into your favourite search engine. If you aren't feeling
sinister, try these perfectly legal public domain music
sites where you can download some old classics and new
concerts for free, without Karmic consequences: www.mp34u.com,
www.publicdomain4u.com,
www.archive.org/audio.
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