The rise of the mp3 player
From Mod Mania
The rise of the mp3 player – Rooya Rasheed
We grew up listening to the classic Beatle songs that our parents used to listen to. As we matured, we formed our own taste and style in music, and the technology surrounding us evolved. And as consumers, we adapted to it. We embraced the technology, incorporating it into our lifestyle and thereby becoming routine. Music plays a vital role in our society. Most of us own a portable mp3 player that we listen to almost every day. Like our mobile phones, our mp3 players have become a necessity.
We never dreamt of an mp3 player to take over the world so soon. I never believed it even after I saw one of my friends holding one of the earlier versions of the iPod a few years ago. I personally believed it was a waste of money as it was very expensive and i had the feeling that it would have some technical problems, as it was new and it wouldn’t be wise to buy it just yet. However as the years progressed, the increased amount of white ear phones I saw on public transport, changed my mind. Also because the thought of carrying a lightweight personal media player, the size of my hand, rather than a bulky CD player along with the CDs I wanted to listen to, seemed more efficient and sensible.
I got my very first iPod at the end of year 10, a second generation 30 GB. It was basically, permanently attached to my ears for the next two years. I am not as fond of it anymore as my hearing is poor and I would rather listen to music through my Nokia mobile phone whilst playing Sudoku at the same time. Despite the storage capacity of my Nokia being smaller, I no longer feel the need to have 3000 songs on my iPod as I used to.
Mp3 also known as MPEG Audio Layer 3 is used to compress audio files so they take up lesser hard disk space. It can be stored and played on many digital devices such as computers, mobile phones and portable mp3 players. Consumers use mp3 files to listen to and store music. For example, “A four-minute song on a CD would create a file of 42 MB (megabytes), while the same song encoded to MP3 would be reduced to just 3.84 MB. This reduction means that the file requires one-tenth of the hard disc space, allowing 10 times as much music to be stored in the same space.” http://encarta.msn.com/text_701843787___0/MP3_Format.html)
The most successful mp3 players have been the Apple iPod, which has been constantly improved over the years. Without the creation of the iPod, Apple wouldn’t have made such astounding sales. Along with great marketing and advertising, Apple has led most people to believe iPods are almost essential in everyone’s life.
Apple is very strong in marketing their products through colourful ads on TV and radio, as well as billboards. It currently doesn’t have any major competitors making major gains at Apple’s expense. Apples concept of the iPod is based on their view, that consumers are buying mp3 players based on design, the aesthetics, the brand and need for more storage space, rather than quality. However, Apple’s quality has improved a great deal over the years with upgraded versions making it the “best mp3 overall” according to a review from consumer search (http://www.consumersearch.com/www/electronics/mp3-players/). The top 5 mp3 players according to them are IPod Nano, Creative Zen V Plus, iRiver Clix, Apple iPod classic, Microsoft Zune and Samsung YP-U3.
Before the iPod era, Discmans were the in-thing. It was fat, bulky, and annoying to carry, but it provided us our daily dosage of music whenever and wherever we wanted it. So, when mp3 players came out, the popularity rose amongst the Apple’s iPod. With their tremendous ads a black outline of the person dancing with an iPod behind a colourful backdrop, who didn’t want one?
Mp3 players have changed the way, we as consumers collect, purchase, listen to and transfer music collections. The popularity of MP3 files has had a major impact on sales of recorded CDs. Now there are online music stores, such as Apple’s iTunes, where consumers can buy their choice of songs from albums, as well as, movies.TV shows, and podcasts. Apple markets their products on their online music store which accompany the iPod, encouraging consumers to buy one.
All kinds of audio recordings are available as podcasts. Podcasting brings sound and visual together. The most popular podcasts among consumers are TV shows, news stories and radio broadcasts. Lecturers upload recorded classes as podcasts onto websites for students who are unable to attend their lectures. This acts a great advantage in education and shows how technology is advancing every day.
The downside of the online music stores are the fact that the range of businesses related to CD production such as manufacturers of discs and cases, and printers of artworks do not contribute to their products anymore. This side of the industry has and will experience further loss and has to consider looking at alternative options.
The ability to make music available on the internet in mp3 format has caused unsigned artists to use this as an opportunity to make their music heard. Common web-based forums such as MySpace allow musicians to let the public listen to their songs and get responses and feedback, through blogs, conversations, and forums. For upcoming artists, they no longer need the support of record labels, giving them greater independence. They only need marketing and visibility which they can do via the Internet. They don’t even need to wait for corporations to invest in them, when they can get the attention of the consumers who buy and listen to music.
Since the growth of the Internet, the escalation of the MP3 format in the 1990s made sharing copied media simpler. The most recognized legal case concerning mp3 format has been A&M Records against Napster, filed in 2000 and decided the following year. Napster was implicated with its involvement in providing a free music sharing service where users could post audio mp3 files so that other users could download, and vice versa. They were sued for assisting copyright breach by its users, where Napster users were evidently involved in ‘music piracy’. Thus, Napster was charged and their business was shut down.
The current copyright law allows us as consumers to make a copy of a CD we’ve bought for personal use. It can be encoded as MP3 files to be listened to on their mp3 player or computer. However, sharing of the contents of the CD with another person is regarded as illegal. Despite this, sharing of mp3 files on the Internet still occurs. And there are dedicated download websites where file sharing occurs, violating this copyright law.
The music industry has tried to stop file illegal file sharing by targeting and suing people. They have also offered legal download sites that don’t violate the law. However, stopping music piracy has proved to be impossible, because most people prefer to buy their music online, and they want to buy it as cheap as they can, if not for free. And download programs such as Lime Wire, where file sharing occurs on major level, does not help this problem.
Because technology is evolving, we know that the MP3 format will be replaced by an even better, faster, reliable format. However the MP3 format has changed the way we as consumers buy and listen to music. It has given us consumers the advantage of accessing music through the Internet at little or no cost. Nevertheless, this has caused record labels and music industry to cope with the difficulties of illegal file sharing, gaining income from recorded music and trying to cope with a market that is drifting away from providing music in the form of CDs. This shows that technology is not only improving their products but also changing the system of the music industry.
The recent trend for personal media players is to have multimedia features. Such personal devices including Mp3 players are portable multimedia devices, multimedia cell phones, portable gaming devices, personal digital assistants and digital cameras. The most popular devices are the Mp3 players.
Like Mp3 players, cell phones have improved over time with a number of features such as the ability to take photos, perform computer functions, play and store music, send and receive multimedia messages, access the internet, wireless/Bluetooth, record and play audio and video, and listen to the radio, to name a few. The latest cell phone that has all these abilities and more is the Apple iPhone which came out last year. Aesthetically its features are similar to the iPod and its functions are also similar. It is observable that mobile phones will soon replace mp3 players because of its greater functions and features.
As always, there is a snag, which is the environmental and health concerns of these remarkable devices. Such environmental concerns are that a great deal of power and energy that is used to charge the batteries. Also the discarding of old mobile phones along with its batteries has become a serious environmental risk.
The most recent health concern has been about cell phones and if it can cause brain tumours or cancer, if mobile phones are used without earphones, for frequently long periods of time. Studies have proven that the radiation given off from a mobile phone can have the capability to affect brain cells and tissues in the head. Common health concerns are to do with earphones where excessive loud listening to music can damage one’s hearing.
In conclusion, music has been appreciated by most of our society for many generations. And the personal, portable media devices which have evolved to meet the needs of consumers, have definitely taken up an important role within our lives. Thus, the further development and technological enhancements of these products will definitely be, well accepted and appreciated over the years to come. But I feel that it’s also very important to make sure we have a close watch on the negative aspects that come with these improvements and how they could affect our lives in a way we don’t desire.
REFERENCES: (http://encarta.msn.com/text_701843787___0/MP3_Format.html) (http://www.consumersearch.com/www/electronics/mp3-players/) (http://encarta.net/text_701882474___0/Personal_Media_Device.html)
