Apple announces it will stop selling the iPod touch – the latest ipod which remained in the range which was still on sale – while supplies last. It’s the end of an era, but also the integration of the technologies that made the device enter the mythology of Apple: music has always been part of the company’s DNA – and today more than ever – the ecosystem feeds on it, with music being an important part that reaches, for example, the recent iPhone 13, HomePod mini, Apple Watch Series 7 and the rest of the product line.
The iPod story is already part of our wanderings by technology: Many people discovered the brand after the iPod served as a particular “Trojan horse” that caused them to learn more about the rest of the products
One of them is music. The invitation to journalists of the time It was already clear that Apple’s next big thing after the hugely successful iMac G3 was going to be something different. “Hint: It’s not a Mac”succinctly said this post for an event that is still remembered as an exemplary presentation, well explained and with more emotional charge than the iPhone – maybe that’s why it’s so important in so many ways.
iPods were delivered to the press with 20 CDs chosen by Steve Jobs
The event unfolded as we all know: Jobs spoke very clearly about why they chose music as the next area of development for their new product, and talked a bit about the panorama that existed in the MP3 player market
But here, what mattered least was the device: the most important thing is that it be able to store 1000 songs – something absolutely unheard of at the time – with very careful quality in a product designed down to the smallest detail.
At the end of the presentation, Steve Jobs informed the press that Apple had prepared 250 iPods ready to be taken home for testing (then they should return them). However, the world of music was very different from today: there was no buy music online even on iTunes
Therefore, the company had to deliver a device with songs “torn” from its original support, and for that, bought 20 CDs per journalist he gave with the test iPod. In this way, the journalist and Apple did not “pirate” music and could use the iPod with the music that the company had previously prepared in each device.
This story is not well known, but a few years ago I told it in the first person Nobuyuki Hayashi, a Japanese freelance journalist invited to the event. Thanks to its history, we know today what these 20 Carefully Chosen CDs by Steve Jobs and the original iPod team to be included in early press prototypes:
As you can see, a very varied compilation with music for almost all tastes and prepared to test the musical capabilities of this new product called iPod. In case you find it more comfortable to add this curious compilation to your library, I have created a playlist on Apple Music with all (except Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash” album which is not available on Apple Music and can only be purchased on iTunes):