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)."

I was obvious that the last bit was a joke...

[Osrin]

... nobody in their right mind would listen to Placido Domingo.

Lame

[Jazzer_Techie]

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

I can not hear you!

[Anonymous Coward]

I lost my hearing because I use crappy "iBuds", and listned to my music way too loud!

I have a great idea

[ClosedSource]

"You don't have to pay for the four filler tracks on every album."

Wow, I just had a great idea. Record companies could have sold a smaller record with just one song on it and sold it for less money. Wait. Since there are two sides of a record, they could put another song on the other side. They could have called these records something like a SINGLE. They could have had some of the advantages of the iPod years ago.

Re:iPod's marketing is so clever,

[sulli]

Really, the whole site should be marked Redundant.

Re:I think he's wrong

[Moofie]

Keep saying that. You might be able to make it true some day.

iPod shmyPod

[St Swithins]

When I go jogging, I carry around one of these [blogspot.com] puppies with me. Whenever I need a break, I just stop to change needles, give it a crank and I'm off. A whole block can listen to whatever I'm listening to and it's a great conversational piece as well. And go ahead - mod this flamebait.

Re:I don't like em either; I disagree about the UI

[Anonymous Coward]

admit it. you're just a recently laid off Creative engineer who is pissed that your anime influenced color schemes didn't take over the world.

Take over the world?

[Trogre]

When did that happen?

Perhaps it did and I just didn't notice, but they're not an option for me for 4 reasons in order of importance:

1. No Ogg Vorbis
2. DRM
3. No FM Radio
4. I'm heterosexual :)

Okay so option 4 may be a little unfair, but there are much better options for playing music than what Jobs is peddling.

Re:iPod shmyPod

[mlewan]

I'm not going to mod you flamebait, but I'm very tempted to call the police, if you are the guy playing loud music outside my window.

Re:iPod's marketing is so clever,

[weg]

Of course, that's assuming some other mechanism isn't in the pipeline to circumvent that.

Yeah.. Sony is negotiating with Roxio to automatically add a RootKit to all audio CDs burned with Toast ;-)

Re:iPod's marketing is so clever,

[Deekin_Scalesinger]

The people who can't be bothered to figure that out are probably so rich that they don't really care where the music comes from anyway...

or they just have live bands playing at thier house and in their limo all the time.

Re:Only one REAL reason

[Deekin_Scalesinger]

Its just an MP3 Player, not a tool to overthrow governments.

WHAT?!? Fucking salesmen...

Re:iPod's marketing is so clever,

[Durf]

Of course, that's assuming some other mechanism isn't in the pipeline to circumvent that.

Poster 1: "They're probably plotting something! Maybe! You never know!"

Posters 2 through 10: "Wow, how insightful!"

No One Has Stated the Real Truth

[zo219]

I am a sixty-year old woman, I own a black iPod Video, it is loaded with cartoons for my grandkids and thirty years of rock for me
... and ... (hmm, maybe this isn't the best place to post this) ... I have neither seen nor held anything so Lickable in my life.