Technology as sweet music from Apple

If you’re a musician – amateur musician, whatever

– you know there’s this intangible moment when

something you’re playing just sounds right.

For those who aren’t musicians, I’ll translate:

Think of your favorite song. Now think of your favorite little

part of that song. You know the chorus where it all comestogether

and you feel like they just couldn’t have written it any

better?

That’s the feeling I got at Macworld Expo last week in San

Francisco, when Apple Computer made announcements that looked like

technology, but felt like art – and they felt that way

because Apple is successfully using technology to fundamentally

change our relationship with music.

Three music announcements stood out:

–The 4-gigabyte iPod mini holds 1,000 songs and is the

size of a half-inch stack of business cards. At $249 and 3.6 ounces

it is $50 cheaper and 36 percent lighter than the 15GB iPod music

player.

–Billboard Hot 100 annual charts are embedded in the

iTunes Music Store. You can now browse and buy the most popular

songs from every year since 1946.

–GarageBand ($49 in the iLife `04 bundle, arriving Jan.

16) is a piece of software that lets musicians use computers to

manipulate music in novel ways.

OK, so take a step back for a minute. You see what’s

happening here? Apple is making it easier to find music, carry it

and create it.

iPod mini

The announcement that got the most attention, and the one that

probably will have the biggest short-term impact, is the iPod mini,

which arrives next month. It apparently uses the same 1-inch hard

drive that the Creative Nomad Muvo 2 4GB used. Lots of people at

the show were disappointed that Apple is charging $249 for it, but

Apple has to charge that much to make a decent profit.

Much of charm of the iPod mini is that it’s as small as a

cell phone _ and don’t underestimate that feature.

Though the iPod mini comes with an armband, I predict that

we’ll quickly see accessories that allow people to wear them

as necklaces or on shoulder straps, the same as we’ve seen

with cell phones.

These things will become fashion statements, and people will buy

them to match their outfits. For fashion-conscious men and women

who don’t like carrying bulky technology on their hips or in

their pockets, the wearable and attractive iPod mini is a home run.

It’s also a further embarrassment to Sony, which has no

excuse for not doing this first.

What’s the effect on the rest of the industry? If and when

the iPod mini catches on – look for it to have a big showing

during the “Dads & Grads” gadget season in May and

June – others will push for more fashionable small music

players and phones. To compete with Apple, which has the strongest

brand in the category, others will have to charge $200 or less.

Billboard Charts

This New Year’s Eve, my friends and I played a fun game

– call up old Billboard music charts on the Internet, and see

who could sing the most lines from last decade’s hits.

Another part of the game was, see how many of the top 10 songs of

1984 you could guess.

This is an Internet-based game, because who has a list of old

chart-toppers sitting around? We had so much fun that we might have

bought a dozen or so songs right then, just for nostalgia’s

sake.

Apple just made it easier with the iTunes Music Store, which is

very good at giving people excuses to buy more music. (Apple chief

executive Steve Jobs said last Tuesday during his keynote speech

that the store’s best customer has spent $29,500 there so

far.) The online store now includes a “charts” section,

which has the Billboard Hot 100 and is supposed to get more charts

soon. The “charts” feature was either buggy or

extremely popular Tuesday night, because it wasn’t working on

my Mac.

I think it’s only a matter of time before a music store

gets a database of song lyrics, so that if you can’t remember

who did that song with the line, “here’s your

ticket/hear the drummer get wicked” you can type it in and

find out.

GarageBand

My favorite announcement at Macworld, though, was a program

called GarageBand. As I left, I thought it was the greatest thing

since word processing. I took piano lessons from first grade until

seventh, wrote maybe 50 songs on acoustic guitar during college,

and played in a garage band called “Face the Dog” a few

years back – so I’m clearly biased.

I’ve since calmed down a bit, and I might have to put this

into better perspective.

First and foremost, GarageBand is a tool for composers and

entertainers, not just musicians. It could turn out to have an

effect similar to that of the original Minimoog, the first compact

synthesizer that was affordable for hobbyists – or the

turntable, which became the defining instrument of hip hop

music.

GarageBand is more an instrument than it is a piece of software.

It lets people either record themselves playing traditional

instruments, or mix together dance-type songs using prerecorded

sounds.

The GarageBand breakthrough is that it makes it easier for

people who imagine amazing sounds – but can’t play an

instrument – to get those sounds recorded.

The iPod mini and Billboard Charts have an immediate impact, but

GarageBand has the potential to leave a legacy. If Apple can show

GarageBand’s potential to the hip-hop generation, 2004 might

be remembered as the year that the company’s “Rip, Mix,

Burn” strategy morphed into “Dream, Mix,

Burn.”

Jon Fortt
Knight Rider Newspapers (KRT)

Related Posts:

1. The Woods make progressive music
2. Indie music speaks out
3. Medieval music arrives via Academy of St. Giles
4. Dock your pack with new iPod technology
5. Hear these sweet summer sounds