Article
How much is enough?
Three years ago, I was a dedicated user of the then-state-of-the-art Rio 500 mp3 player. On its built-in, unexpandable flash memory, it held 64MB of data, or approximately one hour of music. Each day, before I stepped out of my dorm room to wander the UW campus, I would drop a dozen songs -- whatever I had been listening to -- onto the player and stuff it in my pocket.
I was totally satisfied.
In fact, I was more than satisfied. I loved this thing. It was tiny, light and simple. There were no moving parts, and the basic plastic case was super durable. From a listening perspective, it could hold enough music for the short walks to and between classes. And as a listener, it kept me on my toes -- I would notice right away if I forgot to update the songs, so I was constantly shuffling through my music collection to rediscover old favorites and truly refine my tastes.
But in Fall 2001, my whole music-listening world changed. I remember it well -- October 23, 2001 -- as the day when Apple promised us something new "that wasn't a Mac." The rumor sites lit up with predictions, and most seemed to be anticipating a device that would kill the PDA market, hold 40GB of data, and cure world hunger. Needless to say, everyone (including me) was a bit underwhelmed by the iPod.
"It... plays music?" we first asked, but slowly begin to realize the ways in which the iPod would revolutionize music listening. During a short stint as a writer for Apple on AOL, I even wrote a piece about how, despite it's lack of new capabilities or shocking features, the iPod would totally change the industry. Now, most manufacturers have emulated the iPod's design, and it's become a bona fide cultural icon.
The iPod's genius was mostly related to its ability to carry your entire music library in your pocket. While the iPod's drive size has never been out of the ordinary, its revolutionary UI features (the scroll wheel, for example) were directly related to its capacity. Geeks of the world saw this as the main raison d'être, which is why many of them lambasted the original iPod (and every subsequent revision) for being a poor value.
What the Geeks failed to see was the iPod's value beyond the numbers. Beautiful, elegant, compact (still virtually the smallest) and something you'd be proud to be seen with, people didn't just buy because it held a lot of music. They bought because they liked to be seen with their white headphones on, and they liked to use it because it was so simple.
When the iPod Mini came out earlier this year, Apple was trying to take these semi-intangible qualities of the iPod to a new level. And once again, people complained: "for only $50 more, you can get an iPod with three times the capacity!" Blah. Who needs all that space?
I have a 15GB iPod, and it's way too big. Even for me: a musician, music fan and digital music enthusiast with a 25GB mp3 collection. With all that room, I lose track of music. Scrolling through a list of 100 artists, alphabetically, does little to inspire me when I'm trying to decide what to listen to. On my Mac, I use Clutter to add a tangible element to my music collection -- I keep a handful of albums on my desktop, cycling new ones in and old and stale ones out. But there is no practical way to do this on the iPod.
So, I took the drastic step of limiting myself to 5GB on the iPod. This way, my music collection is constantly being cycled. In the current rotation is a hand-picked mix of new music and old favorites, forcing me to constantly decide what music I truly enjoy. Every once in a wihle, I'll throw something random on there, and force myself to listen to it. How refreshing.
People have bemoaned the iPod Mini's relatively miniscule capacity, but I think it's a step in the right direction. There is some sublime, romantic quality to having only 4GB to choose from. Just as you used to often find yourself stuck with two CDs in the car or just one in your discman, smaller MP3 players cause you to be an active music listener -- and in the worse case, you get to know a few albums really well.
If a) I didn't already have an iPod and b) had a lot of money, I might consider buying a mini (my roommate just got one, and it is truly magical). I might even look at some of those other mp3 players -- Rio has a model that holds 1.5GB. Or maybe I'll just haul out the old Rio 500, and rock the 64 for old times' sake.
[note: edited March 8, 2004 for style and grammar]