A Requiem for the MP3 player
I remember in late elementary school getting my first MP3 player. It had a very convenient USB attached to it with a small screen to see what song was playing. These were the days of LimeWire and MP3 Rocket when you had to make sure the song you downloaded was the right song and that it didn’t sound awful. The days when you would pray that you would not get any computer virus from that song you just downloaded.
After getting those 100 songs onto my 512mb MP3 player it was great, I could go anywhere and listen to music without needing multiple CD’s or needing to charge it because it took just a single AAA battery.
If you haven’t noticed the MP3 player has evolved over time, the iPod was the next best thing to have, with its huge storage and touch wheel that allowed you to move through the menu with ease. You were even able to watch videos on them!
Sadly even the iPod has become a thing of the past. Now people who have cell phones have no need for an MP3 player or an iPod because that is a part of our cell phones. For some, it is still nice to have that separate device for music but in the age of Spotify, Apple Music and other music streaming services it fails in comparison to the virtually unlimited music supply those services offer to the consumer.
Thank you MP3 players and iPods for the memories, or lack thereof, but sadly you are no longer needed.