Who Needs A Ipod?

Back in early 1990's I was one of those guys that held out from buying a CD player. I was a vinyl junkie through the 80's who bought a armful of albums every weekend and spent the week nights taping friend's albums onto 90 minute Maxell cassettes. I enjoyed the large record jackets, the black vinyl and the crackly sound of my lousy stylus. Despite the smaller compact size and superior sound quality, I didn't want to give in to this new fad, I figured it was going to be the next Laser Disc or Betamax or 8-Track. It became apparent towards the end of the 80's that I wouldn't be able to buy some of the newest releases because they were no longer pressing them onto vinyl.

In 1992, I was in Seattle and browsed the local record stores snatching up some excellent vinyl, then I came upon an album I had been looking for, actually it was a CD from the Squirrels, "What Gives", that was only available in CD format. I soon discovered that I would be missing out without a CD player because less and less artists were producing albums and cassettes. I still bought the Squirrel's CD, got a friend to transfer it to tape, but it took me another year to buy a portable CD discman to actually play it on. What the hell, I still have my Dual turntable circa 1975, and I could still play records on it, though it's being used to stack CD's on it.

Fast forward to 2006, I didn't think I needed a Ipod, despite having to carry stacks of discs to work each day and on vacation at the lake I would pack 25 discs into one of those CD wallets. How dependable was this small unit?, was it prone to glitches over time?, what if I dropped it and if I lost it, would I lose everything on it? When I received my Nano Ipod (for my birthday), I was able to load the same amount of CD's on this tiny unit. It's only 1 gig, so I can't load my whole CD collection onto it, so I've decided I will only load on new releases before I make a disc from it or buy it.

So far so good, Apple of course makes a ton of $ on all those semi-necessary accessories such as battery charger/AC adapter, FM transmitter (to play on home or car radio), carrying case, and skins (Ipod scratches and scuffs easily). I enjoy the size, of course and it's so easy to operate and loads songs very quickly. The sound quality is only as good as it's source and it's too bad you can't add more storage space (hard drive space) but then again these are mainly glorifyed flash drives with controls and a screen.

In the upcoming days I will let you see what I have on my Ipod (new-ish releases) and give you a brief and hopefully informative review. I will also try to provide some song samples (MP3) or helpful links for more info on the artist, as soon as I purchase some online storage space. I urge you to bookmark this blog and tell all your friends, and please check in every couple of days as I will try my best to keep this site updated.