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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland, senior writer at how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com. And today we're going to revisit the

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Speaker 1: world of m P three's because I promised you guys

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Speaker 1: I do an episode about the history of MP three players,

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Speaker 1: and this is that episode. I've already covered the history

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Speaker 1: of the MP three format itself and how digital audio works,

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Speaker 1: so you can check out those earlier episodes as well

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Speaker 1: if you want to. But first let me just give

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Speaker 1: like kind of a very brief overview of the history

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Speaker 1: of the MP three super summarized version. If you recall,

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Speaker 1: it originated as a project out of a research company

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Speaker 1: called the Frown Hawthor Gazelle Shoft Company. A team of

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Speaker 1: researchers led by Karl Heinz Brandenburg created the MP three

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Speaker 1: format back in seven. Now, what he was doing was

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Speaker 1: trying to build a compression formula that would allow for

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Speaker 1: high audio quality that doesn't take up as much space

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Speaker 1: as raw audio files do. Those are huge, so how

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Speaker 1: do you get them smaller so that transmission is easier.

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Speaker 1: He wanted to do this for audio transmission across phone lines. Now,

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Speaker 1: the name MP three comes to us courtesy of the

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Speaker 1: Motion Picture Experts Group, also known as IMPEG, and the

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Speaker 1: reason the three is there is because the full name

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Speaker 1: for the format is the IMPEG Audio Layer three. So

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Speaker 1: Brandenburg's team's research led to this audio compression format. Al

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Speaker 1: Fraunhofer a Gazelle Shoft applied for a patent in Germany

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Speaker 1: in nine and for a patent in the United States

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Speaker 1: uh in. And this is a good spot to include

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Speaker 1: a bit of information to clear up some ambiguity. An

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Speaker 1: MP three player can be a couple of different things.

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Speaker 1: One version of an MP three player is just a

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Speaker 1: program that you run on your computer and it's meant

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Speaker 1: to decode compressed MP three files and then play them

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Speaker 1: back so that you can listen to them. Now, the

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Speaker 1: other meaning of MP three player is really what I

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Speaker 1: was going to talk about today. That's a dedicated, typically

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Speaker 1: portable device that is a decoder and an audio system

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Speaker 1: all in one, kind of like a Sony Walkman was

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Speaker 1: the old cassette player. I think of MP three player

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Speaker 1: as this handheld personal audio device, but technically MP three

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Speaker 1: player can refer to either. And since it can refer

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Speaker 1: to either. I'm going to cover the history of both,

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Speaker 1: but I'm really going to focus more on those handheld devices.

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Speaker 1: Now frown hawfor a gazelle shaft, and I do love

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Speaker 1: saying that name over and over, which is why I

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Speaker 1: take every opportunity to do so. They marketed an MP

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Speaker 1: three player program for computers, but it failed to catch on.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't terribly user friendly, people didn't really care for it,

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Speaker 1: and the MP three was actually in danger of fading

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Speaker 1: into obscurity. If no one had created a user friendly

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Speaker 1: MP three program, chances are that format never would have

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Speaker 1: caught on and we would have some other compression format

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Speaker 1: that would be the standard uh or at least a

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Speaker 1: major standard in audio compression. Now, there were other researchers

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Speaker 1: and companies working on a way to find success where

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Speaker 1: the German company found frustration, and that's when we flash

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Speaker 1: forward to ninet. So remember ninety seven is when the

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Speaker 1: company first started developing the MP three compression format. Ten

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Speaker 1: years later is when Thomas lav Lak created the a

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Speaker 1: MP MP three playback engine now use Lac was born

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Speaker 1: in Croatia and studied at the University of Zagreb's Faculty

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Speaker 1: of electrical engineering and computing, and he had graduate weighted

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Speaker 1: with a degree of engineering. And he developed his MP

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Speaker 1: three player software when he was a student, and he

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Speaker 1: wanted to launch it as a commercial product. He said,

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Speaker 1: all right, well, I've created this thing that can play

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Speaker 1: MP three files, and I want to be able to

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Speaker 1: make this something like a piece of software that could

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Speaker 1: actually sell. So he formed a partnership with an American

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Speaker 1: entrepreneur named Brian Littman. Together they created a new company

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Speaker 1: called Advanced Multimedia Products. This was back in the time

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Speaker 1: when multimedia became like the catchphrase. It was a buzz term,

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Speaker 1: kind of similar to like the way we call Internet

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Speaker 1: of Things or cloud computing. Those are real buzz terms today.

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Speaker 1: Multimedia back in those days was the big buzz word,

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Speaker 1: and it also could mean things like full motion video

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Speaker 1: in computer games, and I've talked about that in a

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Speaker 1: previous episode. They were terrible and amazing and terrible. So

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Speaker 1: Advanced Multimedia Product that's where you get the a MP

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Speaker 1: in a MP MP three. It wasn't AMP like an amplifier,

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Speaker 1: but rather an acronym for Advanced Multimedia Products. Side note

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Speaker 1: it was Lack would later go on to work in

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Speaker 1: the world of video games. He co created a company

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Speaker 1: called two by two Games, which released a turn based

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Speaker 1: war game called Unity of Command. So, if you've ever

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Speaker 1: played Unity of Command, that was made by the same

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Speaker 1: person who created the first commercially successful MP three player program.

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Speaker 1: So this program hits the market and it is commercially successful,

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Speaker 1: but it's not entirely easy to use for everybody. That's

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Speaker 1: when a University of Utah student named Justin Frankel took

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Speaker 1: this AMP program and he poured it it over to

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Speaker 1: the Windows operating system, along with help from a few

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Speaker 1: other developers, and he called this sport win AMP w

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Speaker 1: I N A MP. Justin Frankel, by the way, would

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Speaker 1: actually go on to develop the New Tell, a peer

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Speaker 1: to peer sharing program, and new Tell in this case

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Speaker 1: is spelled with a g N you good New Teller.

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Speaker 1: There's some disagreement online, by the way, regarding to who

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Speaker 1: contributed to creating winapp and who was ultimately responsible who

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Speaker 1: did most of the work. But I'm gonna be honest

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Speaker 1: with you, guys, I cannot sort it all out. There

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Speaker 1: are multiple stories out there. They all disagree with each other.

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Speaker 1: Some of them seemed to be a little more conspiracy

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Speaker 1: oriented than others. It's very difficult to sort out what

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Speaker 1: is the actual truth. It seems to me like there

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Speaker 1: were multiple players involved and there's disagreement about who did

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Speaker 1: most of the work. So for the purposes of this podcast,

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Speaker 1: let's say that Frankel developed WINAMP and just put a

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Speaker 1: little asked a risk behind that phrase, because honestly, without

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Speaker 1: chatting with all the parties involved, I can't really make

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Speaker 1: an educated guess as to who whom was the ultimate

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Speaker 1: party responsible. I'm guessing it was more of a group effort.

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Speaker 1: Now when AMP would actually go on to become one

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Speaker 1: of the top MP three playback programs on the Windows platform,

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Speaker 1: in it was a free program, anyone could download it,

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Speaker 1: and that really helped cement the MP three format. It

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Speaker 1: helped establish it as a format that would stick around

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Speaker 1: because now you had a free program you could use.

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Speaker 1: You had a compression formula that allowed you to store

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Speaker 1: a lot more music in the same storage space as

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Speaker 1: if you were to use the raw music files you could.

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Speaker 1: You could store way more music with m P three

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Speaker 1: format because it compressed it so low, so low as

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Speaker 1: in low storage space, and of course that depended upon

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Speaker 1: things like the bit rate you set your encoding at

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Speaker 1: and if you wanted to learn more about that, you

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Speaker 1: can listen to the digital audio episode I did to

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Speaker 1: talk more about bit rate. I'm not going to go

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Speaker 1: into that here. So the NP three format was no

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Speaker 1: longer in danger of fading off into obscurity. In one

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Speaker 1: year after when it became free, A o L purchased

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Speaker 1: the rights to win app. They actually acquired a company

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Speaker 1: called null Soft. That was the company that Frankel had

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Speaker 1: formed when he was marketing win app. And the price

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Speaker 1: for acquiring Nullsoft was a cool eighty million dollars, not

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Speaker 1: bad for a University of Utah dropout. Frankel dropped out

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Speaker 1: of the out of college once he had developed this

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Speaker 1: program because he was running his own company. He had

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Speaker 1: created a startup and UH found enormous success by getting

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Speaker 1: acquired by A o L. This was just one example

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Speaker 1: of a long and storied history of people creating company

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Speaker 1: needs that showed some utility and then selling out to

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Speaker 1: a larger company. And by selling out, they don't mean

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Speaker 1: they sold out in the you know, derogatory sense. They

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Speaker 1: made really good business decisions by making millions of dollars

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Speaker 1: off of their work. Um, I only wish I had

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Speaker 1: come up with something equally as useful so that I

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Speaker 1: could be a millionaire. Gosh darn it, but don't we

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Speaker 1: all anyway? It was not long for this world ultimately,

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Speaker 1: because in a O l shut down winnapp. Uh you

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Speaker 1: couldn't download it anymore. They stopped supporting it. But of course,

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Speaker 1: by the MP three format was firmly entrenched, so the

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Speaker 1: death of winnapp did not mean the death of the

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Speaker 1: MP three. And there are tons of other MP three

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Speaker 1: pro player programs and MP three compatible programs out there,

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Speaker 1: way more than I name. Some of them have really

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Speaker 1: interesting features. Some of them are really slimmed down programs

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Speaker 1: that just have basic commands. Most operating systems have some

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Speaker 1: form of MP three playback functionality built into them with

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Speaker 1: a stock application, so you don't even have to download

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Speaker 1: anything to be able to access MP three files for

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Speaker 1: most cases. So instead of focusing on the software side,

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Speaker 1: let's shift over to talk about portable MP three players.

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Speaker 1: When did they start to show up? So while it

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Speaker 1: was Lack was working on the a MP MP three

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Speaker 1: player program, and thank goodness, I'm not gonna have to

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Speaker 1: say that anymore. There was a company in South Korea

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Speaker 1: that was busy creating the first solid state handheld MP

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Speaker 1: three player. Now that company was this Sahan Information Systems Corporation.

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Speaker 1: The original product they launched was called the MP man

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Speaker 1: Digital Stereo Player, kind of like a Walkman, but it's

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Speaker 1: an MP man, And of course Walkman came from Sony.

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Speaker 1: This came from Sahan Information system Now, the company wasn't

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Speaker 1: prepared to market this worldwide, so they actually partnered with

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Speaker 1: another company, Iger Labs, and Iger Labs was in charge

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Speaker 1: of marketing this product over in the Western world, and

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Speaker 1: they showed off the device at the nineteen s Bit

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Speaker 1: trade show in Germany. The product would then hit the

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Speaker 1: consumer market in the summer of nineteen so you have

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Speaker 1: the software side developing at the same time as the

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Speaker 1: hardware side, which was kind of interesting right now. There

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Speaker 1: were two versions of the early MP man MP three player.

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Speaker 1: Others would follow after a while, but the first two,

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Speaker 1: we're pretty simple. One of them had thirty two megabytes

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Speaker 1: of memory, which was enough to hold about thirty two

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Speaker 1: minutes of audio encoded at a killabits per second. That's

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Speaker 1: about eight standard length songs. Obviously standard length is you know,

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Speaker 1: that depends, but we're talking three to four minutes, right. So,

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Speaker 1: just for fun, out of the mischievous of my heart,

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Speaker 1: I decided to ask eight co workers a simple question.

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Speaker 1: If you could fit one and only one song on

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Speaker 1: an MP three player for your use, what would it be?

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Speaker 1: And so here is the how Stuff Works employee playlist,

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Speaker 1: as determined by the eight co workers I asked. H

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Speaker 1: I asked a couple of others this question later on

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Speaker 1: and tortured them as well. By the way across the board,

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Speaker 1: when I asked this question, it was clear to me

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Speaker 1: that the people responding were giving more thought to this

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Speaker 1: question than perhaps any other piece of work that crossed

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Speaker 1: their desk this week. That's not a judgment, I'm just

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Speaker 1: making an observation. So co worker Allison said that she

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Speaker 1: would put put under pressure by Queen and David Bowie

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Speaker 1: on this MP three player. Christopher went with a door

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Speaker 1: by Prince, although he has since reconsidered his choice multiple times.

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Speaker 1: Nathan chose later Alice by tool. Sherry chose telephone call

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Speaker 1: from Istanbul by Tom Waits Ramsey, who is the director

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Speaker 1: for the Forward Thinking series. Now his choice was waiting

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Speaker 1: Room by Fugazi. Our office manager to Mika said she

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Speaker 1: would go with the Imperial March by John Williams from

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Speaker 1: the Empire Strikes Back soundtrack. I think she wins. Julie,

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Speaker 1: who hosts Stuff of Life among other things, went with

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Speaker 1: Nina Simons Centerman, specifically a live version. She wanted me

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Speaker 1: to make sure I mentioned that. And then we have

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Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, one of the hosts of Stuff they don't

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Speaker 1: want you to know, who decided to torture me because

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Speaker 1: he chose a song that I don't think I can

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Speaker 1: pronounce sefan Inglare by a group called Seeger Ross, and

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Speaker 1: I know I butchered it, and I know that that

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Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily Matt's intent, But I also know that Matt

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Speaker 1: is probably not disappointed to hear that I cannot say

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Speaker 1: the name of the song he chose. Now, I think

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Speaker 1: it's only fair that I do the same as my

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Speaker 1: co workers. But I'm giving myself all eight tracks. So

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Speaker 1: here are eight songs I feel like I could put

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Speaker 1: on an MP three player that could only hold those

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Speaker 1: eight songs. First up is Tie your Mother Down by Queen,

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Speaker 1: because it's a song that was written in nineteen six

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Speaker 1: by Brian May and May went on to become an

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Speaker 1: astro physicist. So if an astrophysicist can write an amazing

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Speaker 1: song called tie your Mother Down, I think you have

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Speaker 1: to include it on your MP three player. Next, I've

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Speaker 1: got Sabotage by the Beastie Boys, which I think is

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Speaker 1: best played in a car that has all the windows

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Speaker 1: rolled down. Third is my one and only entry from

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Speaker 1: They Might Be Giants. This when we can't keep Johnny down,

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Speaker 1: Because you know it's My name is Jonathan, so I

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Speaker 1: went with that. Anyone who knows me is aware that

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Speaker 1: I'm an enormous fan of They Might Be Giants, so

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Speaker 1: picking any one song from them was really tough. Fourth

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Speaker 1: would be The Clashes cover of Pressure Drop, which was

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Speaker 1: originally by Toots and the Maytals, which was one of

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Speaker 1: my favorite cover songs. And then next I've I've chosen

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Speaker 1: this must be the Place by the Talking Heads. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Then we would have a song from a more recent

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Speaker 1: band that I've become obsessed with. That would be The

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Speaker 1: Struts and Put Your Money on Me. After that s

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Speaker 1: O B by Nathaniel Rateliff in the Night Sweats, and

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Speaker 1: the last song I would put on my MP three

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Speaker 1: player would have to be something that would indicate my

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Speaker 1: love of musicals, So I picked the song once in

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Speaker 1: a while from The Rocky Horror Show, not the Rocky

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Speaker 1: Horror Picture Show, but the play The Rocky Horror Show,

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Speaker 1: and specifically the roxy cast version. So look up the

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Speaker 1: different songs. I mentioned, both the ones that my coworkers

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Speaker 1: picked and the ones I picked to kind of get

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Speaker 1: your idea of why anyone would want to put that

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Speaker 1: on an MP three player that could only hold eight songs.

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Speaker 1: It will give you a lot more information about the

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Speaker 1: personalities of the people who work here and of me.

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Speaker 1: I guess that's also a warning. Now. I did say

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Speaker 1: that the MP man was available in two versions. The

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Speaker 1: second one actually had sixty four megabytes of storage. That's

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Speaker 1: double the amount of data you could stuff onto the

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Speaker 1: other version. It did not have a rechargeable battery, though.

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Speaker 1: The thirty two megabyte had a nickel metal hydride battery

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Speaker 1: that you could recharge and had nine hours of playtime,

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Speaker 1: which is pretty incredible, right, like nine hours to play

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Speaker 1: eight songs over and over again. Well, the sixty four

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Speaker 1: megabyte instead of having that rechargeable battery, it ran off

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Speaker 1: a single double A battery. Now, technically the double A

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Speaker 1: could be rechargeablepending upon what brand you purchased, but you

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Speaker 1: get what I mean. It wasn't inherently a rechargeable battery.

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Speaker 1: The original player, the thirty two megabyte version, it didn't

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Speaker 1: have expandable memory. So if you wanted to upgrade, you

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Speaker 1: had to do this. You purchase your thirty two megabyte

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Speaker 1: You decide, you know what, eight songs isn't enough, I'd

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Speaker 1: really like to have sixteen on there. You would send

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Speaker 1: your thirty two megabyte model and a check to cover

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Speaker 1: the difference in cost off to Eiger Labs, and they

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Speaker 1: would send you a sixty four megabyte version in return.

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Speaker 1: That's how you upgrade. It didn't have anything to do

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Speaker 1: with removable storage discs or anything like that. So how

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Speaker 1: much did these things cost? Well, the thirty two megabyte

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Speaker 1: mp man cost a cool two hundred fifty dollars when

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Speaker 1: it launched in If you were to take that same

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Speaker 1: product and look at inflation, you could say, all right,

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Speaker 1: well today, that means it would cost close to three

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty eight dollars. So you would be spending

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Speaker 1: almost three hundred and seventy dollars in order to listen

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Speaker 1: to eight songs on the go in digital format, and

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Speaker 1: of course that also depends upon the song length. Right.

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Speaker 1: If you wanted to store songs by the Ramans on there,

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Speaker 1: you'd probably be able to squeeze in an extra tune

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Speaker 1: because most remote songs are three minutes or shorter. But

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Speaker 1: if you're a big fan of the musical genius known

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Speaker 1: as meat Loaf, you might only get a couple of

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Speaker 1: tracks on your m P three player before you filled

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Speaker 1: up all the memory. Now I've gotten more to say

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Speaker 1: about the MP man and the more successful MP three

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Speaker 1: player that followed it, but first let's take a quick

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Speaker 1: break to thank our sponsor. The launch of the MP

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Speaker 1: man wasn't an enormous success, but it did help establish

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Speaker 1: the MP three as not just a digital compression format,

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Speaker 1: but also a filed type that could be used for

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Speaker 1: portable devices. So in September, just a couple of months

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Speaker 1: after the MP man launched, a new MP three player emerged,

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Speaker 1: and this was the Rio P MP three hundred and

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Speaker 1: that debuted at a price of two hundred dollars, which

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Speaker 1: then prompted Eiger Labs to reduce the MP man price

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Speaker 1: to two hundred dollars as well. The b MP three

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Speaker 1: hundred also had thirty two megabytes of storage space, and

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Speaker 1: you'd load music from a computer using a parallel port cable.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember. Those were kind of the things we

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Speaker 1: would use before stuff like USB cables became a standard.

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Speaker 1: So how did this PMP three hundred measure up to

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Speaker 1: the MP man apart from the identical amount of storage space. Well,

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Speaker 1: if you look at an MP man, and I do

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Speaker 1: recommend that you search for these different devices and look

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Speaker 1: at images just so you can see what these actually

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Speaker 1: looked like. Um, the MP man had a very small

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Speaker 1: digital display, almost like an electronic calculator, like handheld electronic

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Speaker 1: calculator that you would have basic one, not even a

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Speaker 1: scientific model. And so it had a very small digital

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Speaker 1: display that mostly showed how much time had passed from

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Speaker 1: the launch of a song. And it had two physical

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Speaker 1: buttons that you can use to navigate the device, one

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Speaker 1: called mode and the other called info, and it weighed

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Speaker 1: about sixty five grams. The p MP three hundred had

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Speaker 1: a larger digital screen than the MP man, and it

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Speaker 1: also had more buttons, including three on the top edge

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Speaker 1: of the player and several more on the front surface

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Speaker 1: of the player beneath where the screen was a circle

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Speaker 1: in the front, gave basic controls like play fast, forward, rewind,

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Speaker 1: and stop, and other buttons allowed you to do things

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Speaker 1: like change the volume level or select basic functions like repeat.

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Speaker 1: These would be things that become standard in future MP

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Speaker 1: three players. The additional features and lower price point pushed

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00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:57,800
Speaker 1: the Rio ahead of the MP MAN. Now that's not

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00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:01,600
Speaker 1: to say that the launch of the Rio was perfectly smooth.

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Speaker 1: In October nine, the Recording Industry Association of America a

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Speaker 1: k a. The r I double A sued Rio Port,

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Speaker 1: which was a subsidiary of a company called Diamond Multimedia.

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Speaker 1: And Diamond multi Media essentially produced the Rio through Rio Port.

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Speaker 1: So what was the beef? Well, the r I double

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Speaker 1: A claimed that the Rio violated the nineteen two US

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Speaker 1: Home Recordings Act. The mp MAN was such a niche

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Speaker 1: item that the r I double A didn't even take

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Speaker 1: notice of it. But the Rio was making a bigger splash,

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Speaker 1: and so the R I double A said, we've got

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Speaker 1: a niphus in the butt. Anyone familiar with media organizations

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Speaker 1: knows that this is a pretty common occurrence. So you

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Speaker 1: get a new technology that debuts and it allows people

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Speaker 1: to create, play and share recordings of media and then

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Speaker 1: lawsuits come flying in. We saw it with the development

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Speaker 1: of video cassettes, both Beta max and VHS. We saw

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00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:06,000
Speaker 1: it with just cassette tapes. We saw it with c

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Speaker 1: d s and specifically writeable c d s, and we

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00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:13,320
Speaker 1: saw it with m P Three's no big shock. Every

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Speaker 1: time that someone comes up with a new way to

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Speaker 1: do this, we see the various industry UH components react

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Speaker 1: normally through lawsuits. And on the one hand, you can

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Speaker 1: kind of understand where they're coming from. If someone can

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Speaker 1: replicate a recording or make it available for other folks

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Speaker 1: to download for free, why would anyone bother to pay

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Speaker 1: for a recording? Right? So, why would I bother to

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Speaker 1: pay for a song if I could just go online

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Speaker 1: and download it for free and you know, there's no

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Speaker 1: repercussions there. But on the other hand, we've seen multiple

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Speaker 1: times that the legal tactics don't prevent piracy from happening,

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Speaker 1: and in some cases, lawsuits might encourage people who otherwise

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Speaker 1: wouldn't dream of hirating stuff to actually go to the

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Speaker 1: dark side and do it, saying saying, you know, I

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Speaker 1: wasn't going to do it before, but because of the

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Speaker 1: way this company is acting, I'm totally gonna do it now.

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Speaker 1: Maybe they're just justifying what their activity is, but it's

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Speaker 1: not a great story, and it also leads to companies

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Speaker 1: adopting various types of digital rights management or DRM that

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Speaker 1: can ultimately cause more frustration to legal customers than two

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00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:27,639
Speaker 1: people pirating that software or files. More on that in

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Speaker 1: a little bit. So for about a week and a

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Speaker 1: half in October, the r I double A was able

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Speaker 1: to secure a sales ban on the Rio, so about

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Speaker 1: ten days or so the Rio could not be sold

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Speaker 1: legally in the United States, but by October six that

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Speaker 1: ban was lifted. Real Port would countersue the r I

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00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:56,639
Speaker 1: double A in December and said that what that organization

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Speaker 1: was doing was illegal. They were trying to stifle a

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Speaker 1: market that they didn't actually control, and that market would

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Speaker 1: be digital music. There was a lawsuit that followed, and

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Speaker 1: the court ruled that the Rio wasn't in violation of

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Speaker 1: any rules because the company couldn't control the behavior of

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Speaker 1: its customers. In other words, it's not an MP three

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Speaker 1: player manufacturer's fault. If customers fill up their devices with

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Speaker 1: stolen files, they can't control that. It's the same as

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Speaker 1: saying it's not a computer manufacturer's fault if a hacker

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Speaker 1: uses their computers to make malware. Dell can't control if

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Speaker 1: I take a Dell computer and start creating malware off

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Speaker 1: of it, so Dell should not be held at fault

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Speaker 1: if I unleash a damaging malware onto the world. By

401
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:48,159
Speaker 1: the same token, an MP three player manufacturer can't guarantee

402
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Speaker 1: that its customers are going to play by the rules,

403
00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 1: and it can't be held responsible when they don't. The

404
00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: r I double A appealed this verdict, and then the

405
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:58,440
Speaker 1: court said that the RIO didn't qualify as a recording

406
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:02,760
Speaker 1: device under the definitions a Recording Act, so therefore it

407
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:05,320
Speaker 1: couldn't be in violation of any rules because it didn't

408
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:08,639
Speaker 1: qualify for the rules that are I double A said,

409
00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:12,159
Speaker 1: we're in play, so the MP three player lived to

410
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:15,440
Speaker 1: fight another day. On a side note, the r I

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00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 1: double A would soon see its fears realized upon the

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Speaker 1: birth of peer to peer sharing services, namely Napster. These

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00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:26,920
Speaker 1: services became massive resources for pirates, first of music files

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Speaker 1: and then later for all types of files. Now the

415
00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 1: technology itself and peer to peer sharing isn't illegal, but

416
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,920
Speaker 1: it was put to illegal use frequently enough that everyone

417
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:41,399
Speaker 1: in the industry was equating this perfectly legal means of

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Speaker 1: distribution with illegal activity. It became an enormous headache for

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Speaker 1: a lot of people who used peer to peer sharing

420
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Speaker 1: for totally legitimate legal purposes. Uh. It didn't help that

421
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:54,879
Speaker 1: there were also lots of people using it to pirate

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00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:58,280
Speaker 1: the crap out of music, movies, and games and other

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Speaker 1: types of files. This would also extend into the era

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00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:06,920
Speaker 1: of the bit torrent networks. So I've talked about those

425
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:11,840
Speaker 1: in previous episodes. I won't dwell on it here. Those lawsuits, however,

426
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:14,600
Speaker 1: got the attention of the industry at large, and nobody

427
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 1: wanted to get sued by a powerful organization representing the

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Speaker 1: interests of the major music labels. They had almost bottomless

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00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:25,840
Speaker 1: amounts of cash and could completely bankrupt smaller companies that

430
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:29,880
Speaker 1: were trying to get into this industry. So various entities

431
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,879
Speaker 1: in the technology sector, including consumer electronics companies and various

432
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 1: rights holders formed what was called the Secure Digital Music

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Speaker 1: Initiative or s d m I. Their goal originally was

434
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:48,920
Speaker 1: to create a strategy, some encryption specifications and other strategies

435
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:51,800
Speaker 1: to prevent the unlawful distribution of MP three recordings, so,

436
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:54,680
Speaker 1: in other words, they wanted to create a digital rights

437
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:58,960
Speaker 1: management strategy. To do this, they created a digital water

438
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: marking process that would attach a bit of code to

439
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:04,440
Speaker 1: a music file, and that bit of code would act

440
00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:06,960
Speaker 1: as a water mark. If you tried to remove the

441
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: water mark, it would in theory, cause damage to the

442
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:13,159
Speaker 1: MP three file, so that you would get signal loss,

443
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:16,920
Speaker 1: you would have a lower quality sound file, or maybe

444
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: it wouldn't even play properly at all. And they also

445
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: work to create a standard for MP three players. So

446
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: the idea was that MP three player manufacturers would implement technology,

447
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,359
Speaker 1: some kind of code hard coded into the device that

448
00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:35,200
Speaker 1: would prevent an s d M I compliant player from

449
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:38,919
Speaker 1: playing an sd M I compliant music file if it

450
00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 1: didn't have authorization to do so. So, in other words,

451
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:44,720
Speaker 1: think of it like a key in a lock. If

452
00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 1: the key was not present on the device, it could

453
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:51,880
Speaker 1: not unlock a music file that had been illegally loaded

454
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 1: onto the device. And to make sure that their plan worked,

455
00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:58,200
Speaker 1: the s d d M I group invited various hackers

456
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 1: to try their hand at removing a digital watermark without

457
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:05,200
Speaker 1: harming the MP three file. So there was a group

458
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:09,120
Speaker 1: led by a Princeton University professor of computer science and

459
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,560
Speaker 1: his name was Ed Felton. They claimed that they managed

460
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 1: the task. Now, the SDM I group said no, no, no, no, now, yeah,

461
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:21,040
Speaker 1: you you didn't do it because just because our software

462
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 1: says that the watermark is gone doesn't mean the watermark

463
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:27,199
Speaker 1: is really gone. Plus there's signal loss here in this

464
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,480
Speaker 1: audio file, so you didn't really successfully do this. Now,

465
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:36,280
Speaker 1: Felton's group did not opt for the non disclosure policy.

466
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:40,280
Speaker 1: The group had offered a prize, a cash prize award

467
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:42,960
Speaker 1: to anyone who could manage to do this. If you

468
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:46,479
Speaker 1: opted out of that non disclosure policy, you were not

469
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:50,120
Speaker 1: eligible for the award. Well, Felton's group never agreed to

470
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:53,800
Speaker 1: the non disclosure part. So they moved to publish their

471
00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 1: method to defeat the s d M I um uh

472
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:03,320
Speaker 1: D r m S strategy. And that's when several groups,

473
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:05,880
Speaker 1: including the r I double A, sprung into action. They

474
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:09,080
Speaker 1: threatened legal action under the Digital Management Copyright Act or

475
00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:13,480
Speaker 1: d m c A. Felton turned to the Electronic Frontier

476
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,920
Speaker 1: Foundation the e f F, and said, hey, now this

477
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:18,880
Speaker 1: is not fair. So they took it to the U

478
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,160
Speaker 1: S Department of Justice, and the d o J said,

479
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:26,080
Speaker 1: you're cool, Felton, because legit academic research isn't a violation

480
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 1: of the d m c A. So the paper was published,

481
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 1: the s d m I essentially dissolved without any fanfare

482
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 1: in two thousand one. Turns out that protecting digital information

483
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 1: is pretty tricky, and this approach was ultimately a failure.

484
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: It's probably a good thing seeing is how those approaches

485
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 1: to DRM tend to do more harm. They they negatively

486
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:52,080
Speaker 1: affect legitimate legal customers more than they affect the people

487
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 1: who are skirting around the law. And trust me, nothing

488
00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 1: is more frustrating than the feeling you're being punished for

489
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: following the rules. Anyone who's played a single player video

490
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,960
Speaker 1: game that will only work if you have an active

491
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,440
Speaker 1: connection to the Internet probably knows what I'm talking about.

492
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 1: All right, back to the MP three players. After the

493
00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 1: launch of the MP Man and the Rio, other devices

494
00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:20,120
Speaker 1: began to hit the market, and the biggest challenge companies

495
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:23,520
Speaker 1: faced was to provide a decent amount of memory storage

496
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 1: while trying to keep the price down, because in those

497
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:29,920
Speaker 1: early days, if you wanted to use solid state flash

498
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 1: based memory storage, you're paying a pretty hefty price. We're

499
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:37,200
Speaker 1: talking between three and four dollars per megabyte, which adds

500
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 1: up to about thirty five hundred dollars per gigabyte. That's

501
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:44,520
Speaker 1: that's an enormous amount of money. I don't have thirty

502
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 1: dollars to spend on a one gigabyte MP three player.

503
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:52,240
Speaker 1: I don't have it to spend on a tarobyte MP

504
00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:57,040
Speaker 1: three player, to tell you the truth. Now, a new

505
00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 1: MP three player debuted with a much larger hard drive

506
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 1: then its competitors. And this was the Remote Solutions Personal Jukebox,

507
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: and it had four point eight gigabytes of storage. How

508
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 1: How could Remote Solutions Personal Jukebox have four point eight

509
00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:16,400
Speaker 1: gigabytes when everyone else is struggling with thirty two or

510
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:20,120
Speaker 1: sixty four megabytes? Did it cost the same amount as

511
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 1: a car? No? And the reason was personal juke box

512
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 1: wasn't using solid state flash memory. Instead, the Personal juke

513
00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:33,760
Speaker 1: Box actually was using a repurposed laptop hard drive. In

514
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:37,280
Speaker 1: other words, it used a disc based storage system hard disc,

515
00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,960
Speaker 1: not floppy disk, and it used magnetic storage instead of

516
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,920
Speaker 1: the solid state model. Now, that kept the price down,

517
00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 1: but it was still monstrously expensive. The launch price for

518
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 1: the Personal Jukebox was seven hundred dollars, which is about

519
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 1: the same as one thousand, one hundred fifty one dollars

520
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 1: in today's money. And you might think that a laptop

521
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: hard drive would make an MP three player larger and

522
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 1: heavier than those that use flash storage, and you're right.

523
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:08,240
Speaker 1: It was not really a portable device, at least not

524
00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:10,200
Speaker 1: in the same way that the flash based ones were.

525
00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:14,960
Speaker 1: In two thousand, another disc based hard drive MP three

526
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:18,880
Speaker 1: player debut, and this one was the Creative Nomad Jukebox.

527
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 1: It cost five dollars for six gigabytes of storage, so

528
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 1: more storage for less money, But like the Personal Jukebox,

529
00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:28,800
Speaker 1: it was a hefty monster. It was too big for

530
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 1: a personal listening device. It kind of looked like a

531
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:34,959
Speaker 1: personal CD player rather than MP three player, much too

532
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,480
Speaker 1: large to fit into a pocket. If you wanted to

533
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:39,640
Speaker 1: go lightweight, you would have to opt for something else,

534
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 1: like the I to Go Ego, which had a micro

535
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:48,000
Speaker 1: drive capable of storing two gigabytes of music. But there

536
00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 1: was a hefty price tag for the Eye to Go Ego.

537
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:57,000
Speaker 1: It cost two thousand dollars a two thousand dollar MP

538
00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:01,720
Speaker 1: three player, and that's by two thousand year standards like

539
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,520
Speaker 1: the year two thousand. If you wanted to adjust for inflation,

540
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 1: it's more like two thousand seven eight seven dollars for

541
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:10,520
Speaker 1: a two gigabyte MP three player. It's not even made

542
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:15,000
Speaker 1: out of platinum or anything. Other alternatives were also popping up,

543
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:18,560
Speaker 1: though most of them had those storage limitations. There was

544
00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:22,000
Speaker 1: the r C A Lira or Lyra if you prefer,

545
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:25,160
Speaker 1: it's l y r A, and that marked r C

546
00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 1: as attempt to get into the MP three player business.

547
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,720
Speaker 1: The first model had a thirty two megabyte capacity on

548
00:33:31,800 --> 00:33:34,760
Speaker 1: a CF card, and I also had a fairly large

549
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:39,160
Speaker 1: monochromatic display and several physical buttons for operation. If you

550
00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 1: wanted to store music on the device, you had to

551
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:45,480
Speaker 1: use proprietary software to write to the CF reader. Moreover,

552
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,320
Speaker 1: the files you'd store would be converted into an encrypted

553
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:52,200
Speaker 1: format that would only play on the Lira or Lyra

554
00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 1: or whatever. Now, because it actually used a removable memory card,

555
00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:00,920
Speaker 1: you could upgrade the memory. You just buy a higher

556
00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 1: memory card. Now, the max in those early models was

557
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:08,479
Speaker 1: five dred twelve megabytes, so still way less than those

558
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:12,640
Speaker 1: hard disk style MP three players, but far more storage

559
00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:14,719
Speaker 1: than the standard models that were on the market, and

560
00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:19,160
Speaker 1: it kept the size of the device relatively small. One

561
00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:22,120
Speaker 1: drawback was that when the Lyrah booted up, it had

562
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 1: to read the full contents stored on the card, kind

563
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:28,279
Speaker 1: of like how your computer when it's booting up and

564
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:30,880
Speaker 1: it's trying to load the desktop, it has to read

565
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:33,440
Speaker 1: all the different things that are associated with the desktop

566
00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 1: before it can fully load. So the only way it

567
00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:39,120
Speaker 1: could present a menu of all the songs stored on

568
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 1: the device was to go through all the contents first. Now,

569
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 1: the more you stored on it, the longer that boot

570
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:48,560
Speaker 1: time lasted. If you had more than half of your

571
00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:51,400
Speaker 1: device full and you had five twelve megabytes of storage,

572
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:53,640
Speaker 1: you'd be waiting longer than a minute just for the

573
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:56,880
Speaker 1: thing to boot up properly. So it wasn't the most

574
00:34:57,160 --> 00:35:01,560
Speaker 1: convenient compared to some other devices. Now, that entire line

575
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:04,080
Speaker 1: of our c A products would persist and evolve, with

576
00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:08,319
Speaker 1: later models adding more functionality and more storage. Meanwhile, in

577
00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 1: two thousand, Sony joined the game by launching a device

578
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:14,600
Speaker 1: that sort of looked like a pen. It was called

579
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:18,880
Speaker 1: the Sony Viio m C P ten Music Clip, And

580
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:22,160
Speaker 1: boy doesn't that just roll off the tongue? I love

581
00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:25,319
Speaker 1: these MP three players that all have letter and number

582
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:28,600
Speaker 1: of designations instead of just a quipping name that I

583
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:31,960
Speaker 1: can rattle off, Sony Vio m c P ten music clip.

584
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:33,919
Speaker 1: We'll just call the music clip from here on out.

585
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,880
Speaker 1: It was a sixty four megabyte digital music player, so

586
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: their entry level was a little higher than the previous

587
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:41,680
Speaker 1: models that had come out over the last couple of years.

588
00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:47,480
Speaker 1: It costs three dollars. And here's another big difference. Unlike

589
00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 1: the other players I've talked about, this wasn't actually an

590
00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:53,960
Speaker 1: MP three player. It didn't play m P three files

591
00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:58,400
Speaker 1: at all. Why because in a very Sony fashion, it

592
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:01,840
Speaker 1: would play music files in the A track three format.

593
00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:04,960
Speaker 1: That's a t R a C three format. That's a

594
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:10,640
Speaker 1: format that was created by drum Roll Sony. So you

595
00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:15,719
Speaker 1: can use included software to transcode files from MP three

596
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,120
Speaker 1: to A track three. But the whole process took a

597
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,480
Speaker 1: really long time. It was very clunky, and they paired

598
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 1: it with a poorly designed program designed to move files

599
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 1: from a computer to the player. Right, you would still

600
00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:33,920
Speaker 1: download files onto your PC or rip music from a

601
00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:37,759
Speaker 1: CD onto your PC. Then you would have to transfer

602
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:42,000
Speaker 1: from the PC to your MP three player in this case,

603
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:44,120
Speaker 1: you would also have to transcode into a track three

604
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:47,279
Speaker 1: if it wasn't already in that format. It was very

605
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,640
Speaker 1: frustrating experience and it a lot of customers were upset

606
00:36:50,719 --> 00:36:53,160
Speaker 1: that it wasn't really an MP three player despite the

607
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:55,600
Speaker 1: fact that MP three would appear on the box because

608
00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:59,160
Speaker 1: of that transcoding program. I mean, the transcoding program was included,

609
00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:03,480
Speaker 1: so why not say MP three on the box. Uh. Ultimately,

610
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 1: the the device did not get a lot of traction.

611
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:11,120
Speaker 1: It did not do very well in the marketplace. Also

612
00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:14,400
Speaker 1: that same year, in two thousand, i Omega, which created

613
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:17,840
Speaker 1: ZIP discs, launched an MP three player called the Hip

614
00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:21,239
Speaker 1: Zip and it had a forty megabyte storage capacity and

615
00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:24,400
Speaker 1: use a scaled down version of the magnetic disc storage

616
00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:27,799
Speaker 1: that they used for ZIP discs. But at this point

617
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,400
Speaker 1: the market was starting to get a bit crowded. There's

618
00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 1: some confusion going on in the marketplace. A lot of

619
00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:36,520
Speaker 1: companies were launching MP three players at different storage capacities

620
00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:40,120
Speaker 1: for different prices, and the experience could be remarkably different

621
00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:44,040
Speaker 1: depending upon which device you chose and which software package

622
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 1: came along with it. So that you can manage your

623
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:51,879
Speaker 1: music database and load up your device. Keep in mind,

624
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:55,719
Speaker 1: this is a time where these devices didn't have WiFi connectivity.

625
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:58,920
Speaker 1: You had to physically attach them to a computer in

626
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:02,520
Speaker 1: order to move music over onto them. Customers were starting

627
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,760
Speaker 1: to get a bit frustrated because it was a confusing time,

628
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:09,319
Speaker 1: and it turned out that having a bigger storage drive

629
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:12,600
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily the killer feature because some products were just

630
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:15,080
Speaker 1: too frustrating to use. It didn't matter that you could

631
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:18,280
Speaker 1: store more music on them. The the process of getting

632
00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:21,840
Speaker 1: music moved to the device was so irritating that a

633
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 1: lot of people just didn't like them. But in two

634
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:28,680
Speaker 1: thousand one, product launch that changed the game completely. Now,

635
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:31,600
Speaker 1: before I talk about that, let's take another quick break

636
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:42,279
Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. Okay, I mentioned before the break

637
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:45,120
Speaker 1: that we had a groundbreaking product launch in two thousand one.

638
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 1: I am, of course talking about the Intel Pocket Concert.

639
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:53,920
Speaker 1: It's like i'man the iPod. But the Intel Pocket Concert

640
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,160
Speaker 1: did launch in two thousand one, and it was pretty cool.

641
00:38:57,200 --> 00:38:59,400
Speaker 1: It had a hundred twenty eight megabytes of storage. It

642
00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 1: cost a hundred dollars this amount of storage, and that

643
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:06,040
Speaker 1: price point was really attractive. It actually met with some

644
00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:09,560
Speaker 1: success in the market, but it didn't last very long,

645
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:12,440
Speaker 1: not because of problems with the device, not because people

646
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:16,759
Speaker 1: didn't like it, but because Intel reorganized in two thousand one,

647
00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 1: and in that reorg they shut down at their home

648
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:24,560
Speaker 1: electronics division, and the Pocket concert fell into the home

649
00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:28,240
Speaker 1: electronics category. So it was a casualty of a reorgan

650
00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:30,719
Speaker 1: It didn't have anything to do with the market acceptance

651
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:34,560
Speaker 1: of the MP three player. Just think if Intel had

652
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 1: kept it, maybe the story would be very different. No,

653
00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:41,000
Speaker 1: the one that actually launched in two thousand one that

654
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 1: changed everything was the iPod. Now, it didn't change everything

655
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:50,920
Speaker 1: right away when it first launched, it was too limited

656
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:54,239
Speaker 1: to do that. Apple was not the powerhouse in two

657
00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:57,319
Speaker 1: thousand one that it would become just a few years later.

658
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:01,240
Speaker 1: It was still recovering from a very a tumultuous period

659
00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:04,080
Speaker 1: in the company history. It had gone through a lot

660
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:08,680
Speaker 1: of turbulence in the nineties. Co founder Steve Jobs had

661
00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:14,320
Speaker 1: returned to Apple in after essentially being exiled for several years.

662
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:17,120
Speaker 1: If you remember, Steve Jobs was kind of forced out

663
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:20,360
Speaker 1: of Apple, effectively forced. He was essentially put to the

664
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:25,040
Speaker 1: side until he stepped away because he wasn't in charge

665
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:29,040
Speaker 1: of anything anymore. Then Apple was on the verge of

666
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:34,040
Speaker 1: bankruptcy after a series of terrible business decisions and strategies

667
00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:38,400
Speaker 1: and jobs. Came back in as an interim CEO until

668
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:40,760
Speaker 1: he was starting to turn the company around and became

669
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:43,759
Speaker 1: the actual CEO, and he was working really hard to

670
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:46,640
Speaker 1: make the company healthy again. And the two thousand one

671
00:40:46,719 --> 00:40:49,120
Speaker 1: launch of the iPod was one of the first really

672
00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:51,799
Speaker 1: big moves Apple made to assert itself and become a

673
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:56,440
Speaker 1: leader in computing and electronics markets. So, the very first

674
00:40:56,520 --> 00:41:00,520
Speaker 1: generation of iPods had a large led screen. They had

675
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:03,840
Speaker 1: the classic scroll wheel. You put your thumb on the

676
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:06,680
Speaker 1: wheel and spin it around in order to navigate the

677
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:11,200
Speaker 1: various lists of songs. A scroll wheel in that first

678
00:41:11,239 --> 00:41:15,239
Speaker 1: generation was surrounded by the control buttons like play and

679
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:18,719
Speaker 1: pause and the wine and fast forward, and so the

680
00:41:18,719 --> 00:41:22,040
Speaker 1: device had a pretty simple and fairly aesthetic design, kind

681
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:25,480
Speaker 1: of clunky compared to today's technology, but less clunky than

682
00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:28,000
Speaker 1: a lot of the competitors that were out there. It

683
00:41:28,080 --> 00:41:31,000
Speaker 1: also had five gigabytes of storage space, and it cost

684
00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:35,279
Speaker 1: four hundred dollars when it launched. Also, it was aimed

685
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:40,200
Speaker 1: at a niche market because the only compatible computer you

686
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:43,880
Speaker 1: could use with the first generation iPod was a Mac.

687
00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:48,400
Speaker 1: It wasn't compatible with Windows based PCs just MAX. The

688
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:52,480
Speaker 1: original iPods were running. Uh, they were rather compatible with

689
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 1: MAX that we're running a brand new software package called iTunes. Now.

690
00:41:56,200 --> 00:42:00,520
Speaker 1: At that time, iTunes was just a management soft are right.

691
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:04,040
Speaker 1: It was meant to help you manage your your music files,

692
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:07,160
Speaker 1: but you had to get the music files from somewhere

693
00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:11,880
Speaker 1: else at that point. Now, because of those limitations, the

694
00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:15,919
Speaker 1: iPod didn't immediately dominate the MP three player space. What's more,

695
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:19,840
Speaker 1: other companies were starting to introduce innovations into devices, and

696
00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:22,200
Speaker 1: that wasn't an effort to set them apart from all

697
00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:25,759
Speaker 1: the other competitors out there. In two thousand two, Arcs

698
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:30,440
Speaker 1: began to market a product called the Jukebox Multimedia jukeboxes

699
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:35,600
Speaker 1: in here anyway. The Jukebox Multimedia could play audio and video,

700
00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:39,200
Speaker 1: as the name would suggest, and they had two different versions.

701
00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:42,080
Speaker 1: They had a ten gigabyte and a twenty gigabyte version.

702
00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 1: The basic ten gigabyte version went on sale for four

703
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:49,320
Speaker 1: hundred dollars, so same price as the first generation iveod,

704
00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:51,480
Speaker 1: but this one could show video and it had more

705
00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:56,160
Speaker 1: storage space. Creative Labs would launch an MP three player

706
00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:59,840
Speaker 1: called the move oh m u v O, which was

707
00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:02,960
Speaker 1: a small, simple MP three player that used a single

708
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:06,160
Speaker 1: triple A battery and had a battery life of twelve hours,

709
00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 1: which was pretty impressive, and that came in uh both

710
00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:13,960
Speaker 1: sixty four megabyte and eight megabyte options. It was less

711
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:16,360
Speaker 1: expensive than a lot of the other players, and it

712
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:19,920
Speaker 1: was fairly popular at the time because people were starting

713
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:22,080
Speaker 1: to really get into this idea of the MP three.

714
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 1: A year later, other gadgets started to join the list,

715
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,399
Speaker 1: including Sony's next attempt at getting into the MP three game.

716
00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:35,760
Speaker 1: It was another catchy model, The NW Dash MS seven

717
00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:39,720
Speaker 1: zero D rolls off the tongue. I could just imagine

718
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:44,200
Speaker 1: kids writing to Santa, Dear Santa, please get me the

719
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:47,359
Speaker 1: n W Dash MS seven zero D, and then they

720
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:50,440
Speaker 1: probably end up with some completely unrelated electronic device because

721
00:43:50,719 --> 00:43:54,360
Speaker 1: the parents couldn't read they were I'm sorry, Santa couldn't

722
00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:57,200
Speaker 1: read the words properly, and then ended up buying I

723
00:43:57,239 --> 00:44:01,000
Speaker 1: don't know, a hair dryer or something. By the way,

724
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:04,279
Speaker 1: that device looks really weird. You want to look up

725
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:06,879
Speaker 1: an image of this, so one more dying for those

726
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:08,400
Speaker 1: of you who want to look up the image. The

727
00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:12,719
Speaker 1: NW MS seven zero d because I don't think I

728
00:44:12,719 --> 00:44:15,279
Speaker 1: can really describe it properly. So here here goes. This

729
00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:19,080
Speaker 1: is just a a wild attempt, but I don't really

730
00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:21,960
Speaker 1: think it's going to help you that much. Imagine something

731
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:25,640
Speaker 1: that looks like an old fashioned electric razor, and then

732
00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:29,600
Speaker 1: imagine a cylinder protruding from either side of one end

733
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:33,040
Speaker 1: of that electric razor. And then you have that MP

734
00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:35,160
Speaker 1: three player from Sony. And it was actually a pretty

735
00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 1: small player. So the had a weird shape, but it

736
00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:41,279
Speaker 1: really wasn't that big. It could hold two d fifty

737
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:44,680
Speaker 1: six megabytes of music, plus it had an additional dwight

738
00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 1: megabytes storage thanks to a memory card. This one launched

739
00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:50,560
Speaker 1: at three hundred dollars and I actually kind of dig

740
00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:53,760
Speaker 1: the design of this one. It used flash based memory,

741
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:56,520
Speaker 1: and so a lot of people like this one, specifically

742
00:44:56,600 --> 00:44:59,720
Speaker 1: if they wanted to do exercise. Because flash based memory,

743
00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:02,840
Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about skipping with any physical

744
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:05,359
Speaker 1: hard drive like a magnetic storage drive. You've actually got

745
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:09,080
Speaker 1: a physical disc that spins, and if you jostle it around,

746
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:13,080
Speaker 1: it can cause the device to skip. So those early

747
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:15,360
Speaker 1: MP three players, a lot of them, the ones that

748
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:18,919
Speaker 1: had those disk drive based storage systems. They weren't great

749
00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:21,080
Speaker 1: if you wanted to go jogging or do heavy duty

750
00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:24,600
Speaker 1: exercise because they could skip around. These other flash based

751
00:45:24,600 --> 00:45:29,160
Speaker 1: ones didn't have that problem. Creative continued its push into

752
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:31,399
Speaker 1: the MP three market by launching a line of MP

753
00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:34,880
Speaker 1: three players called Zen and the Zen line could play

754
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:37,800
Speaker 1: not just MP three files, but also w m A files,

755
00:45:37,800 --> 00:45:40,840
Speaker 1: and some could also handle wave files and later others

756
00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:44,920
Speaker 1: as types of files as well. Creative built management software

757
00:45:45,040 --> 00:45:48,760
Speaker 1: called Creative Media Source, which allowed users to synchronize devices

758
00:45:48,760 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 1: to music stored on a computer and meant that, you know,

759
00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:54,759
Speaker 1: if you added more music to your PC and then

760
00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:57,799
Speaker 1: you hooked up your device to the PC, it would

761
00:45:57,840 --> 00:46:02,080
Speaker 1: automatically pull over new songs into your device. You didn't

762
00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:03,920
Speaker 1: have to do it manually. You didn't have to go

763
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:05,520
Speaker 1: in and say all right, I want this one. You

764
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:08,319
Speaker 1: could do that, but you didn't have to. So if

765
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:11,480
Speaker 1: you added new music to your computer, it would automatically

766
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:14,120
Speaker 1: poured it over to your Zen every time you would

767
00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:17,640
Speaker 1: plug it in. And my first MP three player was

768
00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:21,120
Speaker 1: a Creative Zen Touch that actually launched in two thousand four.

769
00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:23,719
Speaker 1: At the time I chose the Creative Zen Touch, I

770
00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:25,239
Speaker 1: don't think I got it in two thousand four. I

771
00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:27,680
Speaker 1: think I got it later, so I got I got

772
00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:29,640
Speaker 1: it for less. It was a later model, it was

773
00:46:29,719 --> 00:46:32,879
Speaker 1: less expensive, but I chose that one because I owned

774
00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:36,239
Speaker 1: a PC. I didn't own a MAC, and I could

775
00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:39,040
Speaker 1: at that time get a version of iTunes for the PC.

776
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:41,839
Speaker 1: But iTunes for the PC and those days did not

777
00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:44,920
Speaker 1: work very well. It was a kind of a monster

778
00:46:45,120 --> 00:46:48,200
Speaker 1: on Windows. It was not a piece of software I

779
00:46:48,280 --> 00:46:51,600
Speaker 1: particularly cared for. Back in those days. It worked much

780
00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:53,520
Speaker 1: better on a Mac than it would on a PC,

781
00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:57,920
Speaker 1: and as a result, I felt discouraged from using iTunes

782
00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:00,360
Speaker 1: and decided to go with the creative Zeno much and

783
00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:04,439
Speaker 1: use their media source software instead. Now, the zen Touch

784
00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:07,080
Speaker 1: was a pretty solid brick of a device, but I

785
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 1: like the interface. It had a touch sensitive vertical bar

786
00:47:10,440 --> 00:47:13,720
Speaker 1: instead of a scroll wheel, and you use the vertical

787
00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:17,319
Speaker 1: bar to scroll through your music selection. I held onto

788
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:20,640
Speaker 1: that thing for longer than I probably should have, just

789
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:23,719
Speaker 1: because I maintained that it was better to have a

790
00:47:23,719 --> 00:47:27,200
Speaker 1: dedicated device to play music than to use my phone

791
00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:30,640
Speaker 1: to play music. If you guys are long time listeners

792
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:33,000
Speaker 1: of tech stuff, and you listened way back in the

793
00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:35,840
Speaker 1: day when Chris Palette was co host of Tech Stuff.

794
00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:39,040
Speaker 1: You heard me talk about this, how I preferred having

795
00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:42,400
Speaker 1: a dedicated device for my music so I didn't have

796
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:46,120
Speaker 1: to gum up the memory on my phone to hold

797
00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:48,920
Speaker 1: all my music collection. And these days I do what

798
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:51,200
Speaker 1: the majority of people out there are doing. I use

799
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:54,400
Speaker 1: streaming services to access music. I have some stuff download

800
00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:56,640
Speaker 1: to my phone, but mostly I'm streaming it. So now

801
00:47:56,760 --> 00:47:59,880
Speaker 1: I don't have a dedicated music player, all right. But

802
00:48:00,080 --> 00:48:03,400
Speaker 1: jumping back to two thousand three, Apple would continue with

803
00:48:03,400 --> 00:48:07,680
Speaker 1: its iPod line. It launched a fifteen gigabyte iPod, and

804
00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:09,799
Speaker 1: then later on in two thousand three, it launched a

805
00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:14,120
Speaker 1: forty gigabyte iPod. But the biggest news was that iTunes

806
00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:18,480
Speaker 1: graduated from a music management software program to a full

807
00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:23,359
Speaker 1: fledged music store interface. That meant that in two thousand three,

808
00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:26,520
Speaker 1: you could purchase music through Apple and then transfer it

809
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:31,320
Speaker 1: to your handy dandy iPod just directly. This was brilliant,

810
00:48:31,400 --> 00:48:34,800
Speaker 1: you know, having your your ability to shop, your ability

811
00:48:34,840 --> 00:48:37,200
Speaker 1: to manage your playlist, and your ability to sink it

812
00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:42,880
Speaker 1: with your device all in one software package. However, Apple

813
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:47,160
Speaker 1: was also implementing a digital Rights Management strategy DRM that

814
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:52,160
Speaker 1: really irritated consumers. The forty gigabyte third generation iPod is

815
00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:54,320
Speaker 1: the one that I always think about when I imagine

816
00:48:54,360 --> 00:48:57,040
Speaker 1: an iPod. That's the vision I have in my head.

817
00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:02,200
Speaker 1: They changed the control slightly so they still had the

818
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:05,759
Speaker 1: LED screen at the top. Beneath that, they put the

819
00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:09,520
Speaker 1: control buttons arranged in a horizontal line below the LED

820
00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:13,560
Speaker 1: screen so they were no longer around the circumference of

821
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:16,880
Speaker 1: the scroll wheel, and below the control buttons was the

822
00:49:17,320 --> 00:49:20,359
Speaker 1: scroll click wheel. Uh. This one launched at a four

823
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:24,360
Speaker 1: hundred dollar price point. By two thousand four, color screens

824
00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:26,080
Speaker 1: started to become a feature in some of the high

825
00:49:26,160 --> 00:49:30,320
Speaker 1: end m P three players. Creative launched the Zen Media Center.

826
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:32,560
Speaker 1: That one had a color screen and ran on the

827
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:36,759
Speaker 1: Windows Mobile operating system. It could store forty gigabytes music.

828
00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:41,520
Speaker 1: It cost five hundred dollars. Meanwhile, I Rivers H three

829
00:49:41,560 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 1: hundred series packed a color screen and a much smaller

830
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:48,000
Speaker 1: form factor, and it also included an FM radio, so

831
00:49:48,040 --> 00:49:50,239
Speaker 1: you could buy a twenty gigabyte I River h three

832
00:49:50,440 --> 00:49:54,480
Speaker 1: D two hifty dollars. Apple followed suit by launching an

833
00:49:54,480 --> 00:49:57,920
Speaker 1: iPod with a color screen and a sixty gigabyte storage capacity,

834
00:49:58,000 --> 00:50:01,120
Speaker 1: costing three nine dollar. So now you've got lots of

835
00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:05,120
Speaker 1: different players trying to get the edge by adding in

836
00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:08,440
Speaker 1: these other features. But it was that music store that

837
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:11,400
Speaker 1: really gave Apple the edge. By pairing a store system

838
00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:14,239
Speaker 1: with the management software for an iPod, Apple created a

839
00:50:14,239 --> 00:50:17,040
Speaker 1: new way for consumers to buy music, and since Apple

840
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:20,720
Speaker 1: got a cut of the sales, it became an immensely

841
00:50:20,920 --> 00:50:24,399
Speaker 1: profitable strategy for the company. It really propelled Apple into

842
00:50:24,400 --> 00:50:27,080
Speaker 1: new heights, and Apple was also making a name for

843
00:50:27,120 --> 00:50:30,319
Speaker 1: the quality of its products. People really liked the quality,

844
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:33,960
Speaker 1: they liked the experience, particularly if they owned a Mac.

845
00:50:34,560 --> 00:50:36,200
Speaker 1: If you were like me and you owned a PC,

846
00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:39,120
Speaker 1: you were still complaining about the fact that iTunes was

847
00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:43,000
Speaker 1: not great on Windows. People began to trust the Apple

848
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:45,640
Speaker 1: brand more and the iPod would start to make its

849
00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:48,160
Speaker 1: mark in other ways as well. Because the popular term

850
00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:52,040
Speaker 1: for what I do is called podcasting, that was a

851
00:50:52,080 --> 00:50:55,359
Speaker 1: lot to the brand name iPod. Now some folks prefer

852
00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:59,080
Speaker 1: to use less branded terms like netcasts, and there's nothing

853
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:02,040
Speaker 1: wrong in that, but I would argue podcast remains the

854
00:51:02,040 --> 00:51:05,040
Speaker 1: popular generic term for what I do, and that's thanks

855
00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:07,640
Speaker 1: to Apple for making the iPod and taking MP three

856
00:51:07,640 --> 00:51:13,000
Speaker 1: players mainstream. Now Apple did that not just by concentrating

857
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:15,720
Speaker 1: on the iPod line, but also by launching other brands

858
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:18,640
Speaker 1: that catered to specific markets. So you had the iPod

859
00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:23,120
Speaker 1: Shuffle for example. This was a simplified, stripped down MP

860
00:51:23,239 --> 00:51:27,600
Speaker 1: three player. It had no display, It automatically would shuffle playlists,

861
00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:30,880
Speaker 1: had basic controls that allowed you to skip or replay

862
00:51:30,920 --> 00:51:34,080
Speaker 1: songs and adjust the volume, and that simplification meant that

863
00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:36,160
Speaker 1: the Shuffle could be sold for much less money than

864
00:51:36,200 --> 00:51:40,040
Speaker 1: other MP three players, and the standard one gigabyte model

865
00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:43,360
Speaker 1: was priced at a hundred fifty dollars and two thousand five,

866
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:45,960
Speaker 1: other companies were still trying to get into the game.

867
00:51:46,080 --> 00:51:49,839
Speaker 1: Dell launched the DJ Diddy in two thousand five, which

868
00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:52,239
Speaker 1: had a small display, had an FM radio, and five

869
00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:55,520
Speaker 1: twelve megabytes of storage space. So it was lagging behind

870
00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:58,240
Speaker 1: a lot of the other players, and by then iPod

871
00:51:58,320 --> 00:52:00,920
Speaker 1: was beginning to define the market it and newcomers were

872
00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:03,279
Speaker 1: having a harder time gaining any traction, so by two

873
00:52:03,280 --> 00:52:06,560
Speaker 1: thousand six, Dell would abandon the Diddy Diddy Dumb Diddy do.

874
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:11,480
Speaker 1: In two thousand six, Microsoft tried to challenge Apple for

875
00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:15,240
Speaker 1: that heavyweight championship and MP three players, and they launched

876
00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:19,040
Speaker 1: the zooon. Do you guys remember the zoom? Do you

877
00:52:19,080 --> 00:52:22,400
Speaker 1: guys remember what they called sharing on the zoom, Like

878
00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:25,040
Speaker 1: if you had a song and someone else had a

879
00:52:25,120 --> 00:52:28,399
Speaker 1: zoom and you could share one zoom song to another zoom.

880
00:52:28,400 --> 00:52:32,640
Speaker 1: Do you remember Dylan Dylan shaking his head. It was

881
00:52:32,680 --> 00:52:37,040
Speaker 1: called squirting. If you wanted to squirt your song, Dylan

882
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:41,480
Speaker 1: is a let's say that there's some disbelief in Dylan's reaction,

883
00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:43,440
Speaker 1: but no, that is in fact what they called it.

884
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:46,040
Speaker 1: It was a method of being able to say that

885
00:52:46,120 --> 00:52:49,520
Speaker 1: I bought a song, I could share it temporarily with you, Dylan,

886
00:52:49,560 --> 00:52:52,480
Speaker 1: if you had your zoom, just by squirting it right

887
00:52:52,520 --> 00:52:55,680
Speaker 1: over to you. I just squirt that song and then

888
00:52:55,719 --> 00:52:58,319
Speaker 1: you would be able to enjoy the squirted song on

889
00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:00,920
Speaker 1: your zoom. Dylan's give me a thumbs up, and he's, well,

890
00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:05,080
Speaker 1: there's at least one finger pointing towards me. Um. Yeah.

891
00:53:05,200 --> 00:53:08,920
Speaker 1: So a lot of people made fun of that, and

892
00:53:09,760 --> 00:53:13,160
Speaker 1: obviously I'm still doing it today, despite the fact that

893
00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:17,600
Speaker 1: the zoon is no longer a thing spoiler alert. Um.

894
00:53:17,640 --> 00:53:21,600
Speaker 1: But you know, the zoon was an impressive attempt to

895
00:53:21,800 --> 00:53:25,759
Speaker 1: challenge the iPod in many ways, it just it came

896
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:29,760
Speaker 1: a little too late for it to really have a chance.

897
00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:32,359
Speaker 1: It had a color l C D display, and that

898
00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:35,399
Speaker 1: display was gorgeous. I would argue that the original Zoon

899
00:53:35,920 --> 00:53:38,839
Speaker 1: when it came out, its display was better than what

900
00:53:39,080 --> 00:53:43,560
Speaker 1: Apple's iPod line had at that time. It also had

901
00:53:43,560 --> 00:53:46,200
Speaker 1: an FM radio and thirty gigabytes of storage with the

902
00:53:46,239 --> 00:53:49,719
Speaker 1: first model, and like I said, subsequent models would have

903
00:53:49,800 --> 00:53:53,799
Speaker 1: these other features. Microsoft would pair this with a subscription

904
00:53:53,840 --> 00:53:57,000
Speaker 1: based service through the Zoom Stores. The Zoom Store was

905
00:53:57,040 --> 00:53:58,560
Speaker 1: kind of like the iTunes store, but they had a

906
00:53:58,560 --> 00:54:01,640
Speaker 1: different strategy. They said, here's what we want you to do.

907
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:05,680
Speaker 1: You'll pay a subscription fee of fifteen dollars a month,

908
00:54:05,960 --> 00:54:07,960
Speaker 1: and for fifteen dollars a month, you get all the

909
00:54:08,080 --> 00:54:13,000
Speaker 1: music you can download. Now, that actually sounds fairly reasonable today,

910
00:54:13,600 --> 00:54:19,439
Speaker 1: a lot of streaming music services depend upon a subscription base. Right,

911
00:54:19,960 --> 00:54:22,239
Speaker 1: you might not pay the subscription base, but then you're

912
00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:26,359
Speaker 1: getting lots of ads instead of just an ad free experience.

913
00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:30,000
Speaker 1: But then if you if you opt in to a

914
00:54:30,040 --> 00:54:33,560
Speaker 1: subscription service, then you don't have ads. Well, imagine this.

915
00:54:33,640 --> 00:54:35,560
Speaker 1: Imagine that you pay fifteen dollars a month but you

916
00:54:35,640 --> 00:54:41,160
Speaker 1: can download as much music as you like, putting aside

917
00:54:41,239 --> 00:54:45,360
Speaker 1: things like data caps which obviously and and broadband speeds,

918
00:54:45,360 --> 00:54:47,560
Speaker 1: which obviously makes an impact on how much you can

919
00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:50,239
Speaker 1: take advantage of this. This is the sort of thing

920
00:54:50,239 --> 00:54:54,200
Speaker 1: I would jump on in a second today because you

921
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:56,480
Speaker 1: wouldn't just have access to music, you would actually get

922
00:54:56,480 --> 00:55:00,160
Speaker 1: to download those tracks, which means if the service ever

923
00:55:00,200 --> 00:55:02,440
Speaker 1: were to go belly up, you could still listen to

924
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:06,400
Speaker 1: your favorite tunes right like, if the service goes away

925
00:55:07,160 --> 00:55:09,360
Speaker 1: and the service was how you were listening to music,

926
00:55:09,440 --> 00:55:11,640
Speaker 1: you have to find a different service that may or

927
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:14,680
Speaker 1: may not have access to the same labels that you

928
00:55:14,760 --> 00:55:17,000
Speaker 1: were used to. This would be a way for you

929
00:55:17,040 --> 00:55:19,880
Speaker 1: to actually hold on to those music files and be

930
00:55:19,920 --> 00:55:23,360
Speaker 1: able to listen to them even if the infrastructure went away.

931
00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:26,440
Speaker 1: But the whole idea came a little bit too early,

932
00:55:26,680 --> 00:55:29,080
Speaker 1: I think, and Microsoft's attempts to market the Zoo never

933
00:55:29,160 --> 00:55:33,759
Speaker 1: really captured a large section of the market, and two

934
00:55:33,760 --> 00:55:37,880
Speaker 1: thousand seven, Apple introduced two products that changed the game again.

935
00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:41,400
Speaker 1: First was the iPod Touch, which moved nearly all the

936
00:55:41,440 --> 00:55:44,640
Speaker 1: controls for the device onto a touch screen interface, which

937
00:55:44,680 --> 00:55:46,960
Speaker 1: meant that most of the face of the gadget was

938
00:55:47,000 --> 00:55:50,719
Speaker 1: a screen and it allowed for really impressive video playback capabilities.

939
00:55:51,040 --> 00:55:54,840
Speaker 1: The base model was sixteen gigabytes and it cost about

940
00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:58,200
Speaker 1: four hundred dollars. But they also introduced another product that

941
00:55:58,480 --> 00:56:02,680
Speaker 1: really disrupted thing, and that was the first iPhone that

942
00:56:03,000 --> 00:56:07,520
Speaker 1: came out in two thousand seven, and Steve Jobs when

943
00:56:07,520 --> 00:56:10,120
Speaker 1: he introduced it, talked about the fact that it was

944
00:56:10,160 --> 00:56:13,439
Speaker 1: a computer, a phone, and an MP three player all

945
00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:16,719
Speaker 1: in one and had the capability of acting as an

946
00:56:16,800 --> 00:56:19,319
Speaker 1: MP three player, and it really spelled doom for a

947
00:56:19,320 --> 00:56:22,600
Speaker 1: lot of standalone MP three devices. That smartphones became more

948
00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:25,759
Speaker 1: popular and started to have larger amounts of storage, and

949
00:56:25,880 --> 00:56:31,400
Speaker 1: the price wasn't ridiculously expensive or was sometimes supplemented depending

950
00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:35,280
Speaker 1: upon what service provider you were using and where you lived.

951
00:56:36,719 --> 00:56:39,520
Speaker 1: People started seeing fewer reasons to purchase a dedicated MP

952
00:56:39,600 --> 00:56:43,800
Speaker 1: three player, and the company that had dominated the market

953
00:56:44,120 --> 00:56:48,760
Speaker 1: stood poised to kill that market. But that market didn't

954
00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:52,760
Speaker 1: totally die. There's still plenty of dedicated MP three players

955
00:56:52,760 --> 00:56:54,480
Speaker 1: out there, and there are a lot of reasons to

956
00:56:54,520 --> 00:56:57,120
Speaker 1: buy one. You might want to pair an MP three

957
00:56:57,120 --> 00:57:00,120
Speaker 1: player with your car, for example, and just have it

958
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:03,000
Speaker 1: be like an enormous mix tape for road trips, and

959
00:57:03,040 --> 00:57:06,560
Speaker 1: that way you don't have to wear down your phone's battery.

960
00:57:06,680 --> 00:57:09,279
Speaker 1: Or you might want a simple MP three player that

961
00:57:09,360 --> 00:57:12,160
Speaker 1: you can wear while you're exercising, which removes the need

962
00:57:12,200 --> 00:57:15,239
Speaker 1: to carry a bulky and expensive smartphone as you jog

963
00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:17,600
Speaker 1: or hit the gym. But a lot of people are

964
00:57:17,600 --> 00:57:20,320
Speaker 1: moving away from those dedicated devices and relying more heavily

965
00:57:20,400 --> 00:57:23,120
Speaker 1: on their multipurpose smartphones, so they act as a phone,

966
00:57:23,160 --> 00:57:28,480
Speaker 1: a computer, and NB three player, among other things. Now

967
00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:31,560
Speaker 1: the NP three players history has a few more stories.

968
00:57:31,720 --> 00:57:34,760
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to just end with the iPod Touch.

969
00:57:35,160 --> 00:57:39,400
Speaker 1: That same year, Samsung launched the yp dash P two

970
00:57:39,560 --> 00:57:43,000
Speaker 1: MP three player, another fantastic name, but this was a

971
00:57:43,040 --> 00:57:46,240
Speaker 1: really pretty device. It had a touch screen interface, came

972
00:57:46,240 --> 00:57:48,400
Speaker 1: out the same year's iPod Touch. A lot of people

973
00:57:48,400 --> 00:57:50,520
Speaker 1: at the time thought it was a superior device to

974
00:57:50,560 --> 00:57:53,760
Speaker 1: the iPod Touch. Not everybody, but a lot of people did.

975
00:57:53,880 --> 00:57:56,480
Speaker 1: It had Bluetooth capabilities, which meant that you could pair

976
00:57:56,560 --> 00:57:58,160
Speaker 1: it with a phone, and you could even use it

977
00:57:58,200 --> 00:58:01,880
Speaker 1: to answer calls that were coming in from the paired phone.

978
00:58:03,600 --> 00:58:06,160
Speaker 1: We also saw in two thousand seven a smaller Zoom

979
00:58:06,440 --> 00:58:09,640
Speaker 1: and a third generation iPod Nano. Didn't really talk about

980
00:58:09,680 --> 00:58:11,920
Speaker 1: the introduction of the nano, but the Nano was yet

981
00:58:11,960 --> 00:58:17,040
Speaker 1: another very small uh I iPod or m P three player,

982
00:58:17,160 --> 00:58:20,600
Speaker 1: meant for you know, easy on the go use. And

983
00:58:20,760 --> 00:58:24,240
Speaker 1: the iPod Nano that came out in the third generation

984
00:58:24,280 --> 00:58:27,760
Speaker 1: also had a color video screen, so you can watch

985
00:58:27,840 --> 00:58:30,120
Speaker 1: really tiny video on your nano if you wanted to.

986
00:58:30,240 --> 00:58:32,840
Speaker 1: For some reason, in two thousand and eight, we saw

987
00:58:32,880 --> 00:58:37,080
Speaker 1: the sand Disc Sands of Fuse debut, also the Sony

988
00:58:37,120 --> 00:58:40,320
Speaker 1: E series Walkman. These were both devices that when a

989
00:58:40,360 --> 00:58:42,960
Speaker 1: totally different route. They were aiming at the budget market

990
00:58:43,200 --> 00:58:45,760
Speaker 1: for folks who were unwilling or unable to shell out

991
00:58:45,760 --> 00:58:48,840
Speaker 1: the big bucks for something like an iPod Touch or

992
00:58:48,880 --> 00:58:51,400
Speaker 1: even an iPod Classic, which was still around at that point.

993
00:58:52,600 --> 00:58:57,800
Speaker 1: These cost about seventy five much less expensive than these counterparts.

994
00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:00,400
Speaker 1: On the other end of the spectrum where the iPod

995
00:59:00,400 --> 00:59:03,600
Speaker 1: and Zoom models that included WiFi connectivity, which turned them

996
00:59:03,600 --> 00:59:08,440
Speaker 1: into something approaching a smartphone, but without the cellular connectivity.

997
00:59:09,160 --> 00:59:11,040
Speaker 1: This is kind of how it went for the following

998
00:59:11,120 --> 00:59:14,840
Speaker 1: years until I think something else I should mention in

999
00:59:14,880 --> 00:59:17,720
Speaker 1: the history of MP three players, and that's the year

1000
00:59:17,760 --> 00:59:21,680
Speaker 1: two thousand fourteen. That was the year that Apple quietly

1001
00:59:22,280 --> 00:59:26,960
Speaker 1: killed off the iPod Classic. The iPod Classic lasted thirteen

1002
00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:30,600
Speaker 1: years two thousand one to two thousand fourteen, but in

1003
00:59:30,640 --> 00:59:33,360
Speaker 1: two thousand fourteen you could not any longer by the

1004
00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:36,880
Speaker 1: standalone MP three player with that classic form from Apple.

1005
00:59:37,520 --> 00:59:39,640
Speaker 1: And as I said, there's still MP three players out there.

1006
00:59:39,640 --> 00:59:42,240
Speaker 1: If you go to any store or you go on

1007
00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:44,440
Speaker 1: Amazon or anything like that and you do a search

1008
00:59:44,480 --> 00:59:47,200
Speaker 1: for it, you'll find tons of them, but they are

1009
00:59:47,200 --> 00:59:50,960
Speaker 1: a much smaller niche market, and they're generally aimed at

1010
00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:56,000
Speaker 1: things like the the exercise crowd or stuff along those lines,

1011
00:59:56,040 --> 01:00:00,400
Speaker 1: as opposed to people who are more used to using

1012
01:00:00,440 --> 01:00:04,680
Speaker 1: their devices just to stream music online. But I'm curious

1013
01:00:04,720 --> 01:00:07,439
Speaker 1: to hear from you guys. Did you own an MP

1014
01:00:07,520 --> 01:00:09,920
Speaker 1: three player and what was your first MP three player?

1015
01:00:10,600 --> 01:00:13,360
Speaker 1: And also what eight songs would you include on your

1016
01:00:13,600 --> 01:00:16,120
Speaker 1: MP man if you had one? You can let me

1017
01:00:16,160 --> 01:00:18,680
Speaker 1: know by sending me an email. You can just use

1018
01:00:18,680 --> 01:00:22,440
Speaker 1: the address text stuff at how stuff works dot com.

1019
01:00:22,480 --> 01:00:24,880
Speaker 1: You can also give me a shout on Facebook or Twitter.

1020
01:00:25,320 --> 01:00:28,080
Speaker 1: The handle you can use is text stuff hs W

1021
01:00:29,040 --> 01:00:31,640
Speaker 1: as the handle that you use to contact me not

1022
01:00:31,800 --> 01:00:35,040
Speaker 1: you use personally, you use your own handle. That's just

1023
01:00:35,080 --> 01:00:39,360
Speaker 1: the one I use for the show. Anyway, I'll talk

1024
01:00:39,360 --> 01:00:47,960
Speaker 1: to you again. Release soon for more on this and

1025
01:00:48,000 --> 01:00:50,560
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot

1026
01:00:50,560 --> 01:01:00,520
Speaker 1: com