More iPod than I really want to talk about

I think we have a running dialogue going on about where the music industry is going to be a year from now. Greg agrees with Mark Cuban and disagrees with me.

I should probably start with a caveat. I think they are both right. I think you will see exactly what Cuban and Greg envision, a revolution in the way we buy, sell and consume music.

My point was I think it is a stupid waste of time.

At the ripe age of 22, I am already a crotchety old man. That has to be some kind of record. Yes, I have some CDs that are just burned copies of songs that SpaceMonkey downloaded. Yes, now I'm lost without my PDA, my cell phone and my laptop. But I just don't see the need for an MP3 player. I'm already busy enough with actual life that I don't have time to go searching for songs and downloading them and putting them on a player then scrolling through that playlist and then stop what I'm doing to listen to a song.

Anyway, that's really my beef. I'd be spending gobs of money on something I would never use or enjoy so it seems pointless. I'm just going to continue using the radio with its imperfect but free content and the CDs I've already invested my money in.

Comments

[Greg Wythe]

There will come a day, young man (I take lectures on crotchetiness from nobody), when you realize the clutter of advertisements and ClearChannel derived playlists is just too big of a restriction to live with.

Furthermore, I think the same model that Cuban described will eventually apply to video, thereby allowing one to go into Blockbuster, FYE, or Wal Mart, and plug in their 20GB gizmo and partake of whatever form of enjoyment they prefer. So it's not just music.

Furthermore, as it pertains to the one-hit-wonder phenomenon that Kuff discusses, I think much of what will drive this is not people using their free time to search, but rather that the new delivery methods make it a time saver to get what you want. That's what lovers of the one-hit wonders fret about, at least.

But, all that said ... there's always going to be a Diff'rent Strokes phenomenon. Radio won't magically disappear and there will always be people who prefer their entertainment be spoonfed to them. The rest of us will pray for your souls.

;-)