The Ocala Star-Banner has an interesting story involving an 'iPod exchange,' where two of their reporters decided to swap iPod shuffles for a few days to get a taste for each others' musical interests. The key to their experiment, at least in their eyes, is the fact that they specifically used shuffles, so neither could scan through the library on the iPod or even tell what songs they were listening to; it was literally more about the experience of what music the iPod would serve up, rather than skimming through a simple list of artists and songs with which one could pass a musical judgement.
I'll save the dramatic results for your own reading, but the concept is an interesting one: in a world where we increasingly are keeping more and more - or perhaps the entirety -of our music libraries in our pocket, what would happen if you temporarily traded your collection with a friend, co-worker or that guy you just can't meet eye-to-eye with on [insert band here]? Could you gain a musical appreciation for your iPod exchangee? Or would you scratch them off your listening party list forever?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-25-2007 @ 3:24PM
Ari said...
I've been doing this for a while. It all started when this friend of a friend (mutual friend) of mine was complaining that she was sick of her music on her iPod... I said "here... take mine for a bit" (we goto school together so it's not like she would steal it) so we traded and from that we became good friends.
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5-25-2007 @ 3:35PM
Jason said...
This is the last place I ever expected to see anything about Ocala, FL.
That said, it sounds like a fun experiment. Kind of like a $79 mixtape or something. I'm sure it's been done before, but that would probably make a great gift for a friend.
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5-25-2007 @ 5:34PM
Mark said...
The Star-Banner is my hometown paper. Didn't think they had iPods in Ocala yet.
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5-25-2007 @ 7:30PM
gm said...
I borrowed my wife's iPod once. Once. My ears bled for a week afterward. Did you know Air Supply is still together? Me neither.
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5-27-2007 @ 11:46AM
Zeke said...
I've done this, too - it's a really interesting way to get to know someone, both to hear stuff that you wouldn't normally pick out, and to find out that you share in common that you wouldn't have realized otherwise.
I think it's called "podjacking" (which has also been named for hijacking a podcast)
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5-27-2007 @ 3:53PM
JA said...
Of all the places one would expect to hear of a tech story, the Star Banner would not be one. I am with Mark, I thought iPods had yet to arrive in "Slow-cala".
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5-28-2007 @ 10:35AM
Daniel Waters said...
The Guardian over here ran a similar article last year - four artists swapped iPods and had to guess whose they had. Good read. :)
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1678424,00.html
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