How iPods Took Over the World

An anonymous reader writes "The Observer has a piece today about the iPod's ascension to dominance of the mp3 player market. The author argues that it's largely the result of clever business tactics and the iTunes music store." From the article: "The second thing about the iPod: it puts you, not them, in control. Basically, the record labels are devotees of the Henry Ford business model: 'You can have any music you want so long as it's what I want to give you.' But using the cyberspace jukebox, you're no longer at their mercy. You don't have to pay for the four filler tracks on every album. You don't have to buy albums at all. You can put country next to classical, punk next to jazz, Barry Manilow next to Placido Domingo (wait, that's a joke)."

Comments

Not the rise of the iPod.

[AhtirTano]

This has nothing to do with the rise of the iPod. The ability to get single songs rather than the whole album is why downloading music (legally or illegally) got popular. We have been putting any two songs we want side-by-side since the earliest days of cassette tapes. The only way the iPod factors into this is the convenience of transfering our custom playlists onto a play-back machine. In the old days, I spent hours swapping tapes to record in the order I wanted; and I spent way too much money on blank tapes.

I love my iPod. Especially because of the sheer volume of sound files it holds, and the way its integration with iTunes* allows me to manage my songs simply. But I've been arranging songs for my personal use (without buying the entire album) for more than 15 years.

*The application, not the store. I don't like using the iTunes store, because the interface is horrible for browsing. I only use it for podcasts and the occasional audiobook.

Re:More to it

[anagama]

Remember what most MP3 players looked like before the iPod? I'm not just talking about the general ugliness of some of them, but the way the interface was designed specifically to appeal to people who LOVE high-tech gagetry, and think the Windows file manager is downright spiffy.

My first music player was a Creative Nomad II MG. Even after owning it for a year, I couldn't skip songs or navigate the content without grabbing it and looking at it. The dreadful UI had buttons lined up vertically on both sides of the device -- worse than the navigation issues, it was stupidly easy to accidentally delete songs. Within two years it was just a dust collector. The device itself was $250 and an extra memory card about $100. By the same token, the first time I picked up an iPod in a store, it was obious with less than 60 seconds of button pressing how the thing worked. With a little familiarity, it's a snap to operate without looking (nice feature when driving).

About a year ago, I saw some refurb 3g 15gb ipods on sale someplace for $190, I bought one. It wasn't because of commercials (I don't watch TV). It wasn't because of iTunes (although admitedly, I have fallen prey to the ITMS crack -- but I recovered after an emusic intervention). I just wanted to put my CDs on a useable device and the iPod fit the bill.

Re:iPod's marketing is so clever,

[TheRaven64]

iTunes defaults to ripping tracks as un-DRMed AACs which you can play anywhere you can play an AAC

A clarification: iTunes will only rip to DRM-free formats. It will play some DRM'd formats (m4p, audible), but it will not create them. This is unlike WMP, which will take an un-DRM'd source format (CDDA) and add DRM to it when you rip it (although I believe this 'feature' can be turned off).

Re:I think he's wrong

[ArcherB]

Well, what does the Apple player do that my Lyra or iRiver MP3 players do not... other than come bundled with a nifty iTunes store that is pretty much the same thing I get from MusicMatch JukeBox?

Granted, I do get to spend twice as much money for an iPod that I do for my Lyra, but that's hardly reason to buy one.

The iPod is a lot like a Gucci purse. Any old K-Mart purse will carry stuff just as well, but it is not nearly as trendy.

(not that I carry a purse, but you get the idea)

How it took over?

[suv4x4]

Simplicity, hype, marketing.

There are far better mp3 players out there, but they are harder to use, or their knobs are too small, or they have too many functions, or they are not well advertised...

What you gotta understand, and since we're kinda "geeks" here, I guess you already do, is that iPod is far from the best mp3 player out there, let alone with best value/price ratio (mentioning value/price ratio and Apple in one sentence makes me laugh).

Case in point, my shitty mp3 player:

$880 mp3/wma player with FM radio. It's smaller than iPod shuffle, but has a screen with song selections, doubles as a mass storate USB stick (1GB), it has rubber grip & it doesn't scratch at all, even if I put it in my pocket with my keys. Oh and it uses one AAA battery, so you never have to charge it, since you charge the other batteries while you're out listening to the player (and they are so tiny, you can carry 2-3 as a backup in your pocket for more than 16h total play time).

The brand? Canyon or something. Popularity: none. The manual is written in poorly written English, never seen ads or posters for it.

But iPod sucks compared to this thing.

Re:I think he's wrong

[fafaforza]

> Those people bought iPods.

I'm not so sure that those people even gave other products a passing glance, much less enough to make an informed choice. Their only concern during purchase is the color.

To say that everything out there pales in comparison to the iPod isn't very fair. The iPod has some usability shortcomings just as other players. I've owned the great 5GB Rio Carbon, and got a color iPod solely for the space. And I do miss the ability to bookmark a 5 hour mp3, start to play music in shuffle mode, then switch back to the bookmark, all without taking my Rio out of my pocket.

What's with the iPod only bookmarking "podcasts" and audiobooks, and not any old mp3 file?

What's with the iPod only having one shuffle option, and no option to shuffle based on genre, artist, etc?

So I don't think other players are getting their fair share of attention or respect. Maybe it's too much work to compare the available units to make a truly independant decision.