Music

Think About This: What Is “Portable Music” These Days?

Stay with me on this.  From Evolver:

We have amazing music discovery tools these days — the best, for sure, that humanity has ever had. Artist-based radio stations and the ability to “tag” songs playing around us, even on their own, would be amazing, but of course we have many, many more tools for finding music in the wide world of apps, and on the web. As of this morning, you can hear a crowdsourced playlist bytapping on a pretty picture, for crying out loud.

I spent many years reviewing the first “portable digital music players” for consumers — everything from the first MP3 player to the iPod that eclipsed them all — but now I’m thinking about a different definition of “portable music,” now that music players have followed music from the physical into the purely digital domain (in that players are apps made out of ones and zeroes rather than actual hardware, the same way that songs are ones and zeroes now, rather than plastic discs or magnetic tape).

Here’s a new definition of “portable” music that takes into account the world in which we now live.

Continue reading.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 37945 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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