Why I'm still addicted to my MP3 Player
Like Tom Petty, I believe music is holy.
So, naturally, I can’t trust the whims of a broadband network to send invisible streams of melodic data to my phone.
Yes, this might be viewed as ridiculous and ignoring the reality that today's streaming services are pretty reliable most anywhere. But when considering an invaluable asset like music, I intend to keep it on my person, like a CIA operative with a briefcase locked to their wrist.
Except my briefcase is a silver MP3 player, specifically, Sony’s 64 GB Hi-Res Walkman. I have the most recent edition of the gadget, which I purchased last year. It holds gold: James McMurtrey. Neil Young. Lucinda Williams. Yo La Tengo. Petty.
The MP3 player unchains me from connection. I can be barreling underground through the New York City subway, flying 35,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, hiking across the granite valleys of the High Sierra Mountains, or driving through the desolate New Mexican desert — and there’s nothing to hinder the incessant flow of music.
Except for battery power, that is.
MP3 players have become so scarce today that upon seeing the silver rectangular gadget on my desk, coworkers ask what it does, like it’s some long-disregarded, archaic piece of technology.
Which it is.
Still, ancient technologies are famous for their reliability and relevance, hundreds or even thousands of years after their inception: Take the hammer, for instance. Or the wheel.
In 2001, Steve jobs revolutionized MP3 technology by introducing the iPod to enthralled global masses. Before the iPod, MP3 players were either unwieldy, book-like objects or lacked the memory to hold much music. But the iPod overcame these hurdles.
"The coolest thing about iPod is that your entire music library fits in your pocket. OK? You can take your whole music library with you, right in your pocket. Never before possible. So that’s iPod," said Jobs at the launch event.
Sage Words, Mr. Jobs. Sixteen years later, this technology couldn’t ever be more relevant — to me, anyhow.
Incredibly, Apple is still producing the iPod, although I fear it will one day go the way of the Dodo with little warning — just a simple press release. My fear is exacerbated by the fact that Apple stopped reporting iPod sales nearly three years ago, at the end of 2014. Over the holidays the previous year, Apple sold 51 million iPhones — compared to just 6 million iPods. Yet at the device's peak, between January and March of 2009, nearly 23 million iPods were sold. These quarterly sales outpaced the iPhone by a whopping 19 million.
Still, the iPods' continued existence today suggests there are more people like me out there; people who are terrified by thought of their music not being immediately accessible and always physically near — and instead being transmitted through the air by a system of disparately-placed towers. What if the system should fail? What if one strays too far from a tower?
Indeed, some scoff at the extra handset I carry around and remind me, "You can just upload songs to your phone." True, but I cringe at the thought sonic interruption. Phones are used for everything, incessantly receiving notifications and providing directions. Haven't you been on a road trip when the music was rudely interrupted by a Google command "to keep going straight"?
In contrast, the MP3 player has a simple, steadfast mission, and it completes the task without interruption. Although our numbers are likely few, there are still others out there who truly appreciate the MP3 player:
Meanwhile, others long for the trusty devices:
For those of us that still cling to our MP3 players, it's simply because we must.
It's the same reason that Tom Petty wouldn't quit playing rock and roll with his band, The Heartbreakers.
“The thing about the Heartbreakers is, it’s still holy to me,” Petty told The Los Angeles Times, less than a week before he died. “There’s a holiness there."
Petty added, "And to us, in the era we came up in, it was a religion in a way. It was more than commerce, it wasn’t about that. It was about something much greater."
Topics Music
Mark was the science editor at Mashable. After working as a ranger with the National Park Service, he started a reporting career after seeing the extraordinary value in educating people about the happenings on Earth, and beyond.
He's descended 2,500 feet into the ocean depths in search of the sixgill shark, ventured into the halls of top R&D laboratories, and interviewed some of the most fascinating scientists in the world.
