ON THE RECORD:Happy 10th birthday to the iPod. It's a decade this week since the late Steve Jobs introduced the iPod to the world and disrupted the music business forever.
There may have been a lot of initial scepticism and scorn around the notion that anyone would pay $399 for the 1,000 song-capacity MP3 player, but few knew what was around the corner.
Of course, there were other MP3 players before (and after) the iPod, but what the iPod had that others lacked was brilliant ease of use and gorgeous design.
When you placed the Zune and iRiver of the time alongside the iPod, the rivals looked clunky and awkward.
More than 50 million sales within the first four years showed that the public were going with the Apple product rather than alternative players. Add in the success of the iTunes music store and the company were rapidly making out like bandits from their investment in the music business. The record labels who had done the deals with Jobs could only look on with awe, envy and frustration.
Now, 10 years on, people are still buying iPods (more than 42 million sales of various models in the last year), but Apple have their eye on other sectors. When it comes to portable products, it’s the iPhone and iPad that lead the way, with the iPod line now concentrating on smaller, slimmer, cheaper products than the original player. No doubt, as we’ve seen with the Sony Walkman, a time will come when Apple discontinue the iPod as they deem that there is no further demand for it.
But it’s worth recalling just how seismic Apple’s move into the music business was. As many obituaries of Steve Jobs noted, he and Apple did change the business forever.
And it started with that landmark, iconic little white box.
NEW MUSIC
OF MONSTERS MEN
One of the homegrown acts who stood tall at this month's Airwaves festival in Iceland, Of Monsters Men are gaining a lot of love for their My Head Is An Animaldebut album. One for those who dig anthemic folky pop tunes with oodles of charm and energy.
Facebook.com/ ofmonstersandmen
BURROWS
From Waterford, Burrows is the work of Kate Glavey, previously seen in Hollering Pines. Burrows is of a different stripe, as forthcoming debut album In Wintershows. Its wash of haunting, cinematic atmospherics is perfectly matched to the season.
Burrowsinwinter.
bandcamp.com
COME ON LIVE LONG
The magnificent Elephants and Timefrom the Dublin band's current EP Menderattracted us to their impressive, full-bodied widescreen sound. For a band only together a year, Come On Live Longare already exuding considerable confidence.
Breakingtunes.com/comeonlivelong
NOW PLAYING
Girl Band Twelves(Self release)
This is 90 seconds of delirious, well turned-out punk rock venom and hardcore frenzy from Dublin’s most promising act.
Azari III Azari III(Loose Lips) Debut album full of glitterball tunes
for dancing and prancing from the Toronto-based quartet playing Dublin’s Crawdaddy on November 5th.
Phenomenal Handclap Band Following(Tummy Touch) The return of the NYC tribal-disco
collective with a gorgeous taster from January 2012 album Form & Control
Pujol Mayday(453) Jack White-endorsed Nashville garage rocker Daniel Pujol shows he knows a catchy, infectious hook when he hears one.
The War On Drugs Slave Ambient(Secretly Canadian) Vibrant current album from Philadelphia big music seeker Adam Granduciel and his band. Playing Whelan's, Dublin on February 24th.
