After the near loss of Microsoft Paint this week, I didn’t think my middle-school self could handle much more. Then, yesterday, a piece of that self died when Apple decided to discontinue the production of the iPod Shuffle and Nano. Sure, they still sell the iPod Touch, but it’s not quite the same. This is the final end to an era of handheld devices made for one purpose and one purpose only: music. It’s a humbling reminder of how much the music industry has changed in a little under two decades.
There’s no denying that, although outdated now, the iPod laid the base of modern music. It may have “killed the album,” but it also transitioned the world into a whole new mode of engagement. People went from paying $15 per album to being able to pay per song. So, people weren’t listening to full albums anymore, at least not as much as they used to. I remember on long car rides, I’d just shuffle through the thousands of songs I had stored on my device. It was awesome being able to jump seamlessly from Green Day to Fall Out Boy to The Used to get my full dosage of teen angst.
Of course, the iPod wasn’t the only MP3 player of its time, but there’s no denying what made it rise above the rest. The simple ability to search through songs as well as its sleek design (at least compared to other clunkier MP3s) made it one of the more convenient models on the market. And who can forget the feeling of that iconic whirring as you scrolled through thousands of songs?
The ironic part is that the music industry the iPod helped build now has no room for it. The iPod simplified music engagement into the pay-per-song format. So, instead of having to carry around a bulky CD player with limited listening options, you could have hundreds, even thousands of songs in your pocket. Then, in the late 00s, Spotify streamlined the process even more by allowing users to pay a monthly subscription to access the 30+ million songs in their database. Now, instead of being limited to the songs you’ve downloaded onto your iPod, you can access nearly endless music. Why carry around a CD player with limited options when you can have the much more convenient iPod with comparably endless options? Why have an iPod when you can access seemingly unlimited music on your smartphone?
The iPod created a world that it could not live in for long. But now, we must respectfully bid ado. For a over a decade, it brought music at the touch of a button and paved the way for the music industry as we know it today. And for that, iPod, we thank you.
Images Courtesy of Pixabay
