A nudge into the present
Today is a landmark day in my life. Not because it marks one year that I’ve been at my current job (which, by the way, it does), or because I've accomplished some great achievement in the pursuit of world peace. This is a great day because I won a free iTune with my Pepsi.
I’ve never purchased a tune online in my life, and my experience with the old free file-sharing Napster was cut short by some judge who deemed the business illegal (I was late jumping on that boat). I’ve never bothered to buy songs online because I can’t see forking out 12 bucks or so to buy twelve tunes that constitute and album when, for a couple of bucks more, or many dollars less if I use my BMG Music Club membership, I can get a plastic case and cool album art to go along with the sound. Which, by the way, is of much higher quality than the MP3 format that I can download.
But Apple, the company that has so kindly offered me the free song through its iTunes website, is very smart. Since I opened my Pepsi this afternoon I’ve spent part of my day wondering what song I’ll choose. Since I only get one free song, it had better be a good one. I think I’m going to go for Bob Dylan, a song that I’ve heard of, am curious about but don’t know, like “Bye and Bye.” Of course, the fact that I’d even consider Bob Dylan over 50 Cent probably makes it easy to understand that my avoidance of iTunes thus far hasn't been just about sound quality or money. Figure this one out yourselves, the big generational/culture gap thing. Yet, Apple got me thinking all afternoon, and at some point within the next few days I’m going to surf to iTunes and figure out how to legally download music over the internet and a barrier will be laid low. Just like when I swore that I’d never get a cell phone but now wouldn’t be without one. Or when, as a kid, I thought touch-tone phones were just the latest fad (I picked that one up from my stuffy techno-phobe parents).
Itunes falls in the same category of life-changing technological experience. By giving me a freebie, Apple has gently nudged me into a new era that I wouldn’t have entered of my own volition. They know my world will never be the same.
I’ve never purchased a tune online in my life, and my experience with the old free file-sharing Napster was cut short by some judge who deemed the business illegal (I was late jumping on that boat). I’ve never bothered to buy songs online because I can’t see forking out 12 bucks or so to buy twelve tunes that constitute and album when, for a couple of bucks more, or many dollars less if I use my BMG Music Club membership, I can get a plastic case and cool album art to go along with the sound. Which, by the way, is of much higher quality than the MP3 format that I can download.
But Apple, the company that has so kindly offered me the free song through its iTunes website, is very smart. Since I opened my Pepsi this afternoon I’ve spent part of my day wondering what song I’ll choose. Since I only get one free song, it had better be a good one. I think I’m going to go for Bob Dylan, a song that I’ve heard of, am curious about but don’t know, like “Bye and Bye.” Of course, the fact that I’d even consider Bob Dylan over 50 Cent probably makes it easy to understand that my avoidance of iTunes thus far hasn't been just about sound quality or money. Figure this one out yourselves, the big generational/culture gap thing. Yet, Apple got me thinking all afternoon, and at some point within the next few days I’m going to surf to iTunes and figure out how to legally download music over the internet and a barrier will be laid low. Just like when I swore that I’d never get a cell phone but now wouldn’t be without one. Or when, as a kid, I thought touch-tone phones were just the latest fad (I picked that one up from my stuffy techno-phobe parents).
Itunes falls in the same category of life-changing technological experience. By giving me a freebie, Apple has gently nudged me into a new era that I wouldn’t have entered of my own volition. They know my world will never be the same.
posted by CatZoo at 11:13 PM
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