A good story transcends boundaries, breaks barriers, and opens doors.
Technology democratized music by making everything available.
This week while reading tweets from #TED, I came across this quote from Michael Tilson Thomas it made me think about how much better listening to music has become over the years. For decades people picked a genre of music they liked from classical to rock to hip hop, and they were really stuck with it. Since you had to go out and buy each album in a genre. Then iTunes came along and totally disrupted the industry. Today it has been changed again.
For months now I have used just three apps to listen to music, Spotify, Pandora, and TuneIn Radio. Each serves a distinct purpose, Spotify for when I know what I want to listen to, Pandora when I know a style of music I want to listen to and TuneIn for when I want to listen to the radio. Most importantly though is these services do not limit me to the music I own, they allow me to explore and discover any form of music I want to.
On any typical day I will likely listen to several hours of music but each task in my day has a different soundtrack. Before these technologies existed to cover my musical cornocopia I would need to spend hundreds of dollars. Today access to music is easy. I wake up in the morning to music from a concert like Dave Matthews or Jason Mraz. The energy a live concert recording provides as you wake up is amazing. While at work I am listening to indie rock on either Pandora or I am listenign to KEXP Seattle via Tune In. When I hit the treadmill I like to listen to several playlists on Spotify, none of which I created instead I found them through friends and friends of friends. When I am at home in the evening while reading or writing I tend to listen to more indie music, movie soundtracks or classical music all from Spotify.
I know many people dislike these services for a few reasons, first people like to own there music. For a long time I was in that camp, but finally the technology progressed to a point where ownership is a waste. I rather have unlimited access to anything I choose at any time then have to decide if I like something then buy it. You know how many albums I own that I listened to once and never played again. The second criticism is that some artists are delaying releasing there albums on these services (i.e. Coldplay), that is definetely an issue today but as the technology progresses this will be a thing of the past.
Apple revolutionized the way we bought music with the introduction of the iPod and iTunes. Today the industry is once again being forced to change.
(Disclaimer: I also use the LivePhish app to listen to Phish concerts.)
Source: twitter.com
Education should give everyone the opportunity to succeed, but the ultimate responsibility (and raw ability) comes down to the student.
It’s great. It’s a pencil, it’s a pen, it’s a notebook. I can’t tell you how many times I see people show me their children. It’s the wallet with the family pictures in it. It is so accessible and easy.
Steve used to say to me, ‘Hey Jonny, here’s a dopey idea,’ And sometimes they were. Sometimes they were truly dreadful. But sometimes they took the air from the room and they left us both completely silent. Bold, crazy, magnificent ideas or quieter ones, which in their simplicity were utterly profound.
Source: allthingsd.com
