I was hit with a “sudden realization” earlier when adjusting to my new laptop. See, I was in the process of downloading the essentials i.e., Microsoft Office, Google Chrome, and some other things not worth mentioning when I remembered that I needed some music going. Because, you know. why not?
But my epiphany didn’t occur until after I had already installed Spotify onto my desktop and had the new Mumford and Sons song, “I Will Wait” playing. This is what that was:
Wow. I just downloaded Spotify without thinking about my own music. All the mp3’s that I have paid for over the course of my life, starting when I was 8, 9 or 10 years old. I just considered iTunes something uncool, I think, because I wanted Spotify more. What does this mean?
My answer to that question was that it’s truly a new decade. It’s not just Web 2.0, the phrase that was coined well before we had things like Instagram, GetGlue, Pinterest, and arguably even Twitter (depending on when you joined the 140 character world). It’s something more than that, like the next, higher level of Web 2.0, if that makes any sense.
Things like Spotify, Instagram, and the other social networks, apps and things I’m forgetting to add here are more than what we ever imagined 3, 5, and 10 years ago. Mostly because of their free services because at a time when our favorite music artists were fighting over the Napster dilemma, we were all convinced that this was how music was going to be for the rest of time– something that couldn’t be shared without worrying about who would receive the royalties on the copyright content. Fortunately, though, iTunes seemingly solved that dilemma for us. And for quite a long time too, I have to add.
Not anymore, however.
Spotify is this decade’s iTunes, just as iTunes was the 2000’s CD-Rom. It’s revolutionary because it’s always expanding, and always social.
So really, after thinking about this for a lot longer than I should be, I realize that it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I may have found something I value more than iTunes, which was such a big part of my life as a teenager and college student, because I relied on music to get through almost everything. Just like me, I see that with Spotify and iTunes, the technology is always growing and evolving.
Not that I am getting rid of iTunes, though. I still do need my own music– for my workouts, to track my workouts with Nike+, and obviously, for safe keeping when I need them, which I know I always will.
