The IPod

I was in an electronics retailer the other day, looking for more memory for my computer at a great price. Of course they didn't have any. If I could have remembered which store had the ad in Sunday's paper...

I sure wish you could buy PERSONAL RAM!

I have a mind like a steel sieve.

Anyway, a nice young (college?) kid and I got to talking. I asked him what was hot and he told me the IPod nano was so hot they couldn't keep them (especially the expensive one) in stock. He showed me the demo model. Really cool. And small.

I remember - when was it? 1978 or so, seeing the first SONY WALKMAN (on cassettes!) I ordered it on the spot! Incredible. It was so cool to be on vacation, sitting on the beach in the sun, with these tiny headphones on, signaling that I was 'in the know.' And the sound was so much better than what we had up till then!

Fast forward a few years to the same story with the early portable CD player. Sitting on an airplane after the 'use of electronic devices okay' being real cool. And the sound!

And now, the IPod. But I have two issues - even though there's no denying the cool factor - the sound isn't what I'd want unless I'd use uncompressed files, buy expensive Etymotic headphones see this section of my website for more, and then have to buy all those songs AGAIN, or dub them from discs.

Just too much trouble. And way too expensive. And man, if the darn thing broke or I lost it after spending THOUSANDS on it...

When I worked in radio last, we had a huge file server which had all the songs from all the stations in the building on it and I could listen to any and all of them from my desktop - the ultimate collection. Once in a while I'd go find some gem and entertain myself, but truthfully, the novelty wears off. A "reunion" with that special song works once or twice but then, I'm done for another 10 years.

I have assembled quite the stereo system at home, in a special room designed for one purpose - the best sound you can get. Years in the making and tweaking, it's the best I can manage - I call it my land yacht because for the money invested I could have a nice nice boat!

I'd hate to diminish those musical experiences by overplaying my favorites - hmmm.... like RADIO does.

I think the model is wrong. I think you should get preloaded IPods with all music FREE for X plays. Then if you want to keep a song, you click on it and when you recharge the IPod, it 'charges' your account for permanent permission to keep playing that song. A download would replace that song with another. This would help disseminate new music to people who normally wouldn't hear it, and certainly the computers could find what you like and load similar songs or genres.