When the original iPod first came out 10 years ago, the concept didn't seem novel to those who had already hopped on the MP3 player bandwagon. What was new—aside from its deep integration with Apple's music store—was the physical design. The minimalist layout, the screen with playlists, the easy-access buttons—and oh, the scroll wheel! These were all elements that made up a signature Apple design.
The iPod in all of its manifestations has now been part of our lives for a decade now, and it has become clear that the world fancies its design. Whether in its original form or in a shrunken downand slightly manipulated format, the influence of the original iPod has remained part of American pop culture for a decade. Everywhere you look, there are iPods—iPod shuffles attached to people at the gym, iPod touches and every generation of nano being fiddled with on the subway, iPod classics, and iPhones being toted on airplanes.
How did the iPod's original design morph over time? Let's look back.
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Eventually, the most successful music companies may not be the ones that create, play, or sell music. Rather, they may be the ones to collect the most music data. In this race, Somerville, Massachusetts-based the Echo Nest is ahead. It's an ever-growing, easily searchable database (called the Musical Brain) of every possible data point for more than 30 million songs--and it's not for you, or any consumer. "We put it all in the hands of the people who create the new ways that we discover and interact with music," says CEO Jim Lucchese. Right now, that means 7,000-plus app developers, plus some heavy names like MTV. These folks create platforms to sell music, and the Echo Nest takes a cut. Below, a sampling of the services and how versatile music data can be.
