Fetishizing the iPod

Writing about the iPod in the Current section was so nice, the L.A. Times did it twice. On the same day.

First Steven Levy, pimping a book about the same subject, talks about how iPods in general, and their "shuffle" capability in particular, is reimagining the way we are in the world:

The iPod has changed us in a lot of ways. Its insular nature protects us in public spaces with a happy bubble of our favorite songs. The accessibility of one's music library, when one chooses to expose it, provides a peep show to our personalities. And the passion engendered by the device's Zen-like simplicity and museum-quality looks has raised the design bar for the entire field of consumer electronics. No wonder the iPod has charmed everybody from Karl Lagerfeld (he claims to own 60 iPods) to President Bush (he goes into Ear-bud Land on a daily basis for his workout).

In the very same section, Thomas de Zengotia (is that a real name?) fetishizes the iPod, repeating many of Levy's sentiments:

The iPod is the most perfect realization of the culture of self-construction, even more so than the cellphone. After all, though you can filter people out of your world with your cell, once they are on — well, they have their own scripts. But your music never lets you down. It always delivers what it delivered before, what you know so well, what you want again.

What's more, with the iPod's amazing storage capacities, you can keep adding to your cache of meaning enhancements. You can build an evolving library of self-reflection, a virtual history of your life expressed in song. You get to dote on your past as well as your present — because there's nothing like a song to make memories come alive, is there?

And if you happen to be in the mood for surprises? Well, there's always the iPod shuffle function. Another stroke of genius. Randomness domesticated. Safe risk. You don't know what's coming on next but, whatever it is, you can be assured of this much: It will be about you.

Never mind that a single section, on a single day, has two "essays," about the very same topic, both pretty much fawning over the iPod (with only slight hints of a perturbation in the Force). And while the iPod, iTunes and all that goes with it is revolutionary (or perhaps just evolutionary) in both the realms of entertainment and commerce, there's more afoot than just the iPod itself. Like the portable CD player before it, the Sony Walkman before that, portable and home cassette recorders, vinyl LPs, 45 RPM singles, 78 RPM discs, wax cylinders, radio, the printing press, etc., the iPod represents a degree of technological evolution and change that would come one way (and with one device) or another, destined to change the way we consume entertainment, and the way said entertainment is made and marketed for us to consume in turn.

If you ask me (and I know full well that you did not), the devaluation of recorded music as a salable product, given that it's too easy to get free illegally over the Web, is transforming the world of entertainment way more than the iPod itself.

Sure iTunes is there, at 99 cents a song, to offer a "digital rights managed" file that can be transferred to a maximum of five computers (unless you burn it to disc as a .WAV file and re-rip in that format or as .MP3), but should I pay 99 cents for as many of the 20 tracks on that Elvis live record ... or get the whole thing from iTunes for $9.99 ... or get the physical disc, rippable forever with no restrictions for $8 from Amazon?

So many choice, so little relation to real value. The idea that I'm pretty much "renting" that live recording of "Suspicious Minds" until I go through five computers -- which takes me 25 to 30 years, but some only 10 years --or neglect to back up my hard drive and lose it at any time, well, that doesn't sound all that attractive. Sure, I don't have to go through all the machinations of buying the CD, hoping my PC will do a clear rip (it's dicey as hell on This Old PC) and bringing it into iTunes. It's so much easier to click and buy. At 99 cents, you're tempted not to care about the future in increments of $1 minus 1 cent. Live for today, buy again next decade.

There's still plenty of free music out their in this post-real-Napster era. I found Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" as an .MP3 in about 5 minutes. I felt guilty enough to get it on iTunes for 99 cents the next day. But when I downloaded "99 Luftballoons" from iTunes, I just picked the "best match" on iTunes and got some weirded out, 20 years later live version. Question my taste in crappy music -- I'm doing it myself -- and question why I didn't listen to the preview before clicking (It was late ... the kid was sleeping ... yadda), but I ended up with a bum version of Nena's only hit. iTunes doesn't provide enough information, the catalog isn't deep enough (no "Elvis as Recorded at Madison Square Garden" at all). And does anybody want one company controlling the hardware, software and media of all recorded music (and eventually video)? That means Microsoft, Apple or other.

The whole idea that recorded music, as a means of making money, is over and done with -- at least as it has been known for the past 50 or 60 years -- just means that a new model needs to be found to, as the Clash once said, "turn rebellion into money." It means dealing constructively with downloads, albums vs. tracks, iPods, iTunes, MySpace, YouTube, touring (and ticket prices), podcasts, merchandising and more.

Hey, 30 years ago Gene Simmons realized that music was one thing, but selling KISS-branded crap of all kinds was another way more lucrative one. I watch Gene Simmons' reality show today and am amused that the KISS' "The Demon" (I didn't know the various KISS members had such monikers -- you learn something ...) wonders who wouldn't merch the hell out of their music. Hey, I spent 99 cents on "Rock and Roll All Nite" (would it kill them to spell "Night" right?), so consider the deal done. I didn't spend $200 on a KISS concert ticket. Sorry, Gene.

Anyhow, back to my point -- and yes, I do have one, the world of recorded music and the money that could be made from it was by no means static from the 1920s through 2000. During World War II, there was a union-imposed ban on recorded music entirely. And the record "industry," as it is called, got itself a 15-year reprieve from retooling and creating its own survivable future while the advent of the CD spiked sales of back catalog during that period. And in the wake of Napster, that same industry needed Steve Jobs to bring legitimate digital music sales to reality (they could've done it themselves and reaped all the benefits ...) and still isn't terribly comfortable dumping their entire catalog into the 99-cent electronic bin.

Summing it up ... the iPod is a tool. There's always a new way to hammer that nail. Watch your thumbs, O consumers.