MP3 and Me

I never thought I would own an MP3 player. I have never had an urge to join the digital music masses. Through experience, I knew that music-playing devices died quick deaths in my possession. Every Walkman and cd-player I have owned was used briefly and then neglected once the initial round of batteries bit the dust. I was never too upset about their passing from my life - their sound quality was marginal, I didn't enjoy carrying piles of tapes or discs, they were bulky and unattractive, they skipped or stopped at the most inappropriate times...Good riddance.

For a while, now, I have been observing my students using their MP3 players. They are far easier to hide and use clandestinely than other music devices. The students also seemed to enjoy the sound more than with other devices. My noodle began to wonder if such a plaything was do-able for me. I was not convinced, however, that I would use such a purchase and delayed furthering my purchase research for a long time.

Puppies, snow and midterm exam week diminished my reluctance. Walking dogs, shoveling snow and having to sit through 2-hour blocks giving/grading exams made me reconsider the usefulness of having music on my person. The great grind of the research machine began. Most of my students have ipods and I researched them first. Quickly I realized that I would not take a bite of the Apple. A number of reviewers questioned the sound quality and, worst, there were limitations on locations from which you could download your music. I find that rather odd for a company who vilifies Microsoft for its monopoly tactics and it cheesed me to no end. Most likely, my growing dislike stemmed from an abhorrance of going with the flow. I consider the average American to be more or less intellectually bankrupt, so I don't feel following their lead to be a wise move. Out with ipod.

I then prowled the specs of the Creative Labs products and found them to be more to my liking. They got better reviews for sound and were compatible with far more download sites. Not as eye-catching as the ipods, but that doesn't really count for much in my world. I settled on the Micro Zen Photo, grey front. 8 gigabytes of storage holds plenty of tunes and some nice photos to boot. I can now show people the latest pics of my pups as easily as if I kept snapshots in my wallet. The sound is killer and its still nice and small for easy portability and concealment.

But, as with any digitech product, hardware is only part of the puzzle. The next issue was software and tunes. The player came with its own software package, but I had a feeling that I could work around that and use something else. Enter Rhapsody. The Real Player people put this together and its not a bad site. Lots of good music and comedy albums and the software interface works great with my player. It might not be the cheapest, $14.95/month for unlimited downloads and transfers to my Micro Zen, but it is easy to use and that carries a lot of weight with me. With my broadband connection, I've been downloading muy albums from my tempestuous youth and new stuff that I've been wanting to give a listen. Hey, might as well get my flat-fee worth...

It has been a joy, let me tell you. This last snowstorm (Monday) was made far more pleasant by shoveling to the sounds of Queen, Jethro Tull, Heart, and Ozzy. Puppy promenades fly by while lost in Les Mis. I listened to part of an Eddie Izzard album during my prep block and was glad the kids weren't there to hear me bust out laughing. I am having tres fun with it and, of course, wondering what took me so long to get on the bandwagon. I anticipate that since I finally broke down and bought an MP3 player, this ensures that they will soon become defunct as a new technology rises to take their place. That's ok, I guess there's always room for one more new toy...