I’ve had the four-gigabyte version of the iPod mini for about seven months now, and I have to say that it’s really brought music back into my life in a big way. While in grad school I did not listen to much music because I couldn’t afford the necessary time or money. I don’t have any more time now, but I am able to listen more often because I take about 700 songs with me wherever I go. In high school and college, my friends and I used to buy new music constantly, taping it and sharing it with each other. I do the same thing now, except that digital media have replaced magnetic. I don’t really think the music industry has much to worry about from me.
Having a Powerbook running iTunes means not only that the Apple aesthetic governs the appearance of both devices, but also that the integration with the iPod mini is pretty seemless (though that’s not really the case with other devices). I’m a little anxious about what my happen when the battery dies, but mostly I’m quite happy. When my iPod mini began acting funny a few weeks ago, I took it to the local Apple store and they replaced it, free of charge. Now that’s customer service.
G,
I know what you mean. I just got an Iriver 5GB player, and it’s had sort of the same effect on me. Now I *need* to have a new song or two to listen to on the player every couple of days. And I’ve really been going back into my collection, pulling out old stuff I’d forgotten about…
The other thing I’ve been doing more of is listening to podcasting. I’ll probably be posting on this soon: there’s a lot of really interesting, generally RIAA/legal music being distributed via Blogs and XML.
Mostly all this is good. But on the downside, it’s yet another time-suck (like I really need another one!). For the susceptible, MP3 players are an invitation to obsession…