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http://www.californiaaggie.com/article/?id=2336
The night before Christmas, my friend called to tell me that his family just gave him his "big" holiday gift. "I got my iPod," he said, already personalizing it. The implications were lost on me until a few days later, when he asked to borrow my 500-album CD collection, which he proceeded to fastidiously "rip," or copy onto his iPod's 40-gigabyte hard drive. A week later, he had over 6,000 songs from hundreds of albums that weren't his own.
The newfound ubiquity of Apple's iPod digital music player is more prevalent than ever following the 2003 holiday season - especially on campus, where students everywhere can be seen wearing the easily noticeable white ear-bud headphones.
John Jaworski, the sales floor supervisor at the UCD bookstore, said they are having trouble keeping iPods in stock.
"[They] just roll off the shelf," he said. "As soon as we get them they are gone."
Jaworski noted the multiple capabilities of the 2.4-inch wide, 4.1-inch tall, .62-inch thick digital music machine.
"The students like it just because it is compact and you can store so much music on it," he said. "Also, [the iPod] allows you to store data if you want to back up [information]. A lot of departments buy the iPod just for that - they use it for data storage capacity. A professor can take 10 GB of information and go to another Mac somewhere else across campus and be able to transfer that file."
The iPod comes in an assortment of sizes and colors. "Size" refers to the capacity of the internal hard drive, although the newer, candy-colored iPod Minis are also physically smaller than the original snow-white model. The Minis hold 4 GB of information, which Apple equivocates to roughly 1,000 songs.
Past the Minis, iPods can be purchased with 15 GB, 20 GB, or 40 GB of hard drive space, the latter allegedly holding up to 10,000 songs. The chasses of the larger models are about the size of a deck of playing cards.
The cultural pervasiveness of the iPod is not only shown in sales, but in merchandizing - which includes attachable voice recorders, FM stereo adapters, and camera capabilities - and cross-marketing with the PC world.
"[The] iPod is the largest selling mp3 player on the market," Jaworski said. "Hewlett Packard is in the market with Apple right now. It's going to be another way that Mac is going to get revenue through their invention."
It is easy to gawk at the price of the iPods, which run from $249 (for the Mini) to $499 (for the 40 GB). Through the bookstore, students, faculty and staff can get $30 discounts. Regardless, the visible increase of iPods on campus suggests that students - or their gift-giving families - consider the device a worthwhile investment.
"People want something that is more multifaceted," Jaworski said. "If you are going to spend that much money on something, then you better be able to do something with it."
iCaveats
There is an ethical issue, especially with the new ease of assimilation iPods provide music enthusiasts. Anyone with iTunes - Apple's digital music jukebox - and a USB cable port can hook up their iPod to another computer and quickly transfer hundreds of songs in minutes.
The Recording Industry Association of America directed me to musicunited.org, a site backed by major labels, distribution companies and some artists. The front page of the site reads explicitly: "The unauthorized reproduction and distribution of copyrighted music is just as illegal as shoplifting a CD....The rules are very simple. Unless you own the copyright, it's not yours to distribute."
Such corporate warnings are predictable, but not entirely wrong. My friend who ripped 7,000 songs will never pay for those songs, and the artists will not see the royalties they may have otherwise. But at the same time, he might not have discovered those artists without the benefit of the speedy ripping technology and portable hard drive space.
Some - presumably most financially pinched students - find it easy to look past the RIAA's admonishments.
Jesse Drew is the associate director of the newly formed technocultural studies department. He noted how new technologies are often frowned upon or feared by corporations.
"Recording industries were against the radio at first, and TV tried to slow down cable," Drew said. "Every industry has tried to slow down tech innovation."
Drew doesn't view iPods as inhibitors in any way - fiscal or otherwise. He said that they will probably help the musicians that the RIAA believes will be harmed.
"The whole phenomenon gives access to a lot more artists," Drew said of digitally downloading and trading music. "The fact that you can download [songs] eliminates the middleman and that is not necessarily bad for artist."
The abilities of the iPod do eliminate middlemen, such as large retailers. But Apple has also become the middleman, opening the iTunes music store, an online store that features "a vast catalogue of music from all five U.S. major labels and agreements with 200 independent labels," according to the company's website. There are over 500,000 songs available for download at $.99 apiece.
"Musicians do need to be paid for their songs," Drew said, noting that iTunes seemed to be a viable step toward "a new system of downloading."
iPracticality
Ethics, pricing and availability aside, students are reveling in the usefulness of their iPods.
Sophomore Behzad Farahbakhsh bought his 10 GB iPod a year-and-a-half ago. He now has 1,500 songs on it.
"It makes it easier for me to listen to the music I want," he said. "Other companies have yet to match the size of the iPod in relation to how much storage space and the simplicity of the features."
Those features, which include a circular touch wheel, four small buttons and a backlit screen, all contribute to the iPods fast-growing approach toward omnipresence. Generational troubles, including issues with battery life and the need for software upgrades, are continuously being addressed by Apple. But with a veritable stranglehold on the capacity, usefulness, and even aesthetic markets, only the long-term effects on the industry remain to be seen.
Five UC Davis undergrads divulge the last five songs that they played on their iPods.
Philip Neustrom
sophomore
math
1. Junior Senior - "Move Your Feet"
2. The Postal Service - "Sleeping In"
3. Depeche Mode - "Personal Jesus"
4. The Faint - "Posed To Death"
5. Interpol - "Say Hello To Angels"
Evan Michalski
junior
managerial economics
1. Hella - "Hello Great Architect Of The Universe"
2. The Mars Volta - "The Apparatus Must Be Unearthed"
3. Q and not U - "Busy Lights Busy Carpet"
4. Beatles - "Dear Prudence"
5. Coheed and Cambria - "A Favor House Atlantic"
Andrea Chalupa
senior
history
1. Counting Crows - "Long December"
2. 2pac - "Hail Mary"
3. Fiona Apple - "Never Is A Promise"
4. Chess - "One Night in Bangkok"
5. AC/DC - "TNT"
Ryan M. Fuller
sophomore
biochemistry
1. Elton John - "Your Song"
2. 112 - "Hot & Wet"
3. Anthony Hamilton - "Lucille"
4. Ben Folds Five - "Annie Waits"
5. Jay Z - "Change Clothes"
Behzad Farahbakhsh
sophomore
neurobiology, physiology and behavior
1. Beatles - "Hard Day's Night"
2. Violent Femmes - "Blister in the Sun"
3. Frank Sinatra - "Fly Me to the Moon"
4. Outkast - "Spottieottiedopaliscious"
5. The Turtles - "Happy Together"
DeadMan2003
doobybrain
purfus
