Did we listen to just as much music before the iPod?

(Credit: Apple)

Before the iPod and iTunes supposedly changed everything, we listened to records, CDs, tapes, and radio in our cars, on the street and in mass transit. Music was nearly as portable as it is now, but iPods and other MP3 players radically increased the quantity of music you could take with you. Looking back to the dawn of the iPod/MP3 era, sound-quality improvements weren't part of the agenda, just the quantity of music that was transportable. Apple's early ads touted the advantages of having "1,000 songs in your pocket," which struck me as an odd way to entice buyers in 2001, but the strategy worked!

The first portable Sony CD player, the D-50

(Credit: Sony)

John Lennon wasn't obsessed with the number of tunes he had on the road when he was touring with the Beatles. His personal music player was a 47-pound, 40-disc portable jukebox the size of a small suitcase! That's pretty extreme, but I remember lots of kids had portable record players in the 1960s and 1970s. In-car, under-dash singles players weren't uncommon. Once ... [Read more]



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