-->
-->
A few years later, I started borrowing my
brother’s Discman. With this cool looking device’s new interface, I could
navigate through songs much faster. I was still limited to seeing the name of
one song at a time, but at least I didn’t have to guess where the next song
starts.
Discuss a Product that has changed significantly over the years that you’ve used it. How have the interactions changed? Why have they changed? Is the product better or worse now?
The portable music player has changed
significantly during the past few years.
I enjoyed climbing up the mountains in Iran listening
to music on my Walkman. When my father bought me The Walkman I was very excited
to show it off. I’d carry my one mixtape around, listening to it for several
weeks until I knew every song by heart. This was because carrying multiple
tapes was inconvenient. Often I would fall in love with one or two songs.
Though it was annoying navigating through the tape to find those songs, it was
definitely worth it.
In the summer of 2002, during our family
vacation in Singapore I came across, Panasonic’s SD Card Player. I bought it
because it was much smaller and lighter to carry around than the Walkman and
the Discman. It had the ease of the Discman’s interface, but also I carried
five times the amount of music. I realized I was listening to music more than ever.
But listening to music completely changed when I
bought my iPhone. Carrying music was no longer a decision I had to make because
I had my phone with me all the time. Collecting music is much cheaper. Instead
of buying an artist’s entire album I can now only
buy the songs that I like. Easy and cheap access gives me the opportunity to
learn about more artists. Moreover, I have access at all times to music through
providers like Pandora.
I believe that with these changes, music
companies have taken advantage of the available technology to improve the user’s
experience, making the enjoyment of music easier and more practical. The size
of these electronics has considerably diminished while their capacities have
increased, resulting in an improved listening experience.
However, I realized that because of the
unlimited access to music, ignoring my surrounding is easier. Therefor I limit
myself to listening during certain hours of the day. Despite the improvement in
this new technology, isolation seems to be a side effect.
The music industry has changed tremendously over the past few decades. To go along with the device progression that you list, the fundamental business and service models that drive the industry have also had to change. The way we purchase and consume music is totally different today, largely enabled by the new paradigm of devices! Remember that when the iPod first came out, it wasn't just the iPod, but it was the iPod+iTunes. Neither would have succeeded without the other.
ReplyDelete