Playlists from the Long Tail

The depth and breadth of the music the iPod is capable of putting at one's fingertips is revolutionary, and this year, the rest of the world caught on. Yes, there have been and are available other MP3 players with more features, but let's face it: none of the others has achieved a market penetration on par with the iPod, or been nearly as successful at convincing You that you need to have your entire music collection close at hand. There are those that dismiss out of hand the very notion of having a vast collection of music to enjoy whenever and where ever. (They are usually the ones without any form of MP3 player, let alone one of the overpriced offerings from Apple.) I discount their opinions at the appropriate rate, and I pitty them their unwillingness to evolve. I mean, where would we be if the monkeys hadn't started messing around with the sticks? The proper uses of tools can help us grow, and among the many thus far discovered with respect to the iPod, my current favorite is the Long Tail Playlist. It's funny how the use of this tool helped me to travel back in time!

One of the most difficult things I've encountered since I got my shiny new iPod involves the construction of a Playlist. At first, the similarity between the initial playlists was comically tragic, particularly given the amount of music I have loaded on the device. Some even had the same first three songs in the same order! What's the point? Perhaps, once the number and variety of playlists has developed can one allow oneself to do such a thing. Probably not. The solution? iTunes, obviously. (Or p2p for those less encombered by, shall we say,... Nevermind.)

I had discovered the "crack" in Apples plans for the consumer. (Any coincidence this thing is 'as white as snow'? Just asking. I rediscovered songs I had not listened to since before my college days, let alone during them! I reconstituted mix tapes I used to loop for hours at a time. I downloaded songs from one hit wonders (even the ones I was never crazy about). I went LOOKING for stuff to download. Then I started looking at the receipts. Yeah... I better introduce some discipline to this process. So I set myself a max number of downloads per session. (If I get up and move away from the computer to have diner, then come back afterwards, that counts as TWO sessions, n'est-ce pas?) If you've read down this far, you know exactly what I'm talking about: iTunes is crack for the iPod. Who's yer daddy?

One of the benefits to come out of this, as I said, is the reaquaintance with music long forgotten or no longer on hand or only available on a cassette tape. One of the gems I 'rediscovered' for myself was the British duo known as Curve. I have yet to let a day go by when my Curve Acious playlist is not pumping through my 'buds. In fact, later I will do a post on Curve and other music I've pulled from the Long Tail thanks to my willingness to evolve and get an iPod. -- Shot out to the monkeys! Holla back!