ABSTRACT
MP3 is a form of compression; storage and playback that digitizes music. The format enabled people to build music libraries on their computers, while portable MP3 players allowed this library to go mobile. MPMan F10, the fi rst device to utilize the MP3-encoding format, was launched in March 1998 (Smith, 2008). However, it was not until April 2003 when Apple launched the iPod that the market began the massive growth that has made the devices ubiquitous in everyday life. The “Pod” in iPod is inspired in part by the fi lm 2001: A Space Odyssey, and stands for “portable on demand”. Apple’s iPod is currently the most popular portable MP3 player and has been described as the single object which captures the zeitgeist of the fi rst decade of the twenty-fi rst century (Hesseldahl, 2009). In 2006, iPods were rated as more popular than beer amongst college students in
the United States, according to Student Monitor. Beer had only been surpassed in popularity once before, in 1997, by the internet (Zeff, 2007)!
