I write about the iPod and digital music in today's Daily News
My editorial on the iPod, digital downloads, and the transformation of the music industry is in the opinion section of today's Daily News:
Like the portable CD player before it, the Sony Walkman, cassettes, LPs, 45s, 78s, wax cylinders and radio, the iPod represents a degree of technological evolution and change that would come one way - and with one device - or another.
And when your Shuffle will no longer shuffle, the devaluation of recorded music as a salable product - given that it's too easy to get for free - is transforming entertainment way more than the iPod itself.
While on the topic of wax cylinders (have you ever even seen one of these pre-record media?), BoingBoing today had a post on the curious "digital rights management"-type statement printed on the 1907 cylinder. I guess you could call it an analog rights management disclaimer.
Comments
Apple did a good job of producing a music player that brings music to our ears with quality of sound, with elegance and simplicity. I do not conceive of Apple controlling all of music(say what in that op ed?). The recording companies got themselves in to a bit of a bind by their own behaviour. I still buy CDs, often from a little independent book store, often from Amazon, as I like hard copies of classical music, and I want certain recordings by certain musicians. One thing that Apple has done is perhaps too much cater to the labels, and should push the indies more. Now there is a music revolution that still needs furthering.
Posted by: Leonardo | December 20, 2006 10:27 PM