Making the leap to an iPod

I've never owned an iPod, until Katie bought me one this week for my birthday. Don't get me wrong - I've owned mp3 players for the past 5-10 years - mostly Creative Zen media players. I carry my music with me everywhere. But I'd resisted owning an iPod because iTunes does not offer a subscription service. I've been waiting for another company to design a device to rival the iPod, allowing me to purchase a great device and access the Napster To Go subscription library (unlimited downloads to your mp3 player for a small montly fee). Napster To Go has been great for my teaching, since I've been able to download any recording and play them for my students, without having to go out and buy the CD. This is great for teaching jazz tunes, when you want your student to hear ten different versions of "Autumn Leaves" (all of them classics) without having to seek out and purchase ten different CDs. This is where iTunes falls behind, and why I hope it will one day be a subscription service. When that happens, music listening will explode, as people will be able to access millions of recordings for a small monthly fee. That, in my opinion, is the future.

For now, I am going through the wonderful journey of populating my new iPod with my music library. I've been collecting CDs for over 20 years. Since I am a musician by profession, my guess is that my collection is larger than that of the average person - though maybe not as impressive as many music enthusiasts. So far I've loaded about 75 CDs onto my device and I'm just scratching the surface of its memory capabilities. This is a good thing, since I have several hundred more to add.

I find myself rediscovering music. Things I've not listened to in ages. And I'm finding misplaced CDs. The treasure of this morning was discovering Michael Brecker's "Pilgrimage" inside the case for the Debussy and Ravel String Quartets. I've been looking for that CD for over a year! As I type this, I am loading Ornette Coleman's Pulitzer Prize winning CD "Sound Grammar". Next up, Glenn Gould's recording of Bach's "Goldberg Variations" - the 1955 recording. As a music lover, this is downright exciting.

Of course, the newness of the whole deal will pass - but I will, for the very first time, have nearly my entire CD collection in the palm of my hand. This is very cool. I highly recommend it.