As the Blue Oyster Cult sang, "Don't fear the reaper," one should not fear the new digital music world, namely MP3s. You've made the transition from LPs to 8-Tracks to Cassettes to Compact Discs so it should be a piece of cake to now make the switch to MP3s. MP3s are not just for hipsters, audiophilers and young people with digital music players. And you don't have to be a Gen Xer or Y-gen to take on the new technology, which is simply a new format to audio files on a CD - a much smaller file. The MP3 is simply an audio file and an MP3 player is simply a micro-computer that stores the audio files for playback. It can hold as many of songs as its file size (e.g. 256 megabytes vs. 60 gigabytes) will allow, possibly up to thousand upon thousands of songs. Think of it as your own portable jukebox. You too can uplug. With an MP3 player you can leave your CDs behind. If you've already copied (the techno term for this is ripped) your CD music to MP3 then you can even pack up your compact discs away in the garage or attic. Take your MP3 player with you in the car, on a walk, to the gym; you're no longer tied down - you're now free to move about the cabin. You can also can take control. With an MP3 player you can manage your music collection by creating playlists, which allows the user to sort music by artist, genre, etc. Feeling like a little country? Set your MP3 to play all country music in order by artist or at random. You're in charge. Burned out on music? Most MP3 players today on the market will play audio books and podcasts, which are recordings made specifically for MP3 playback. Take a break from Kelly Clarkson and listen to Stephen King's new book, Cell. Some players even come with video and image features allowing the user to watch short videos or browse through one's photo collection. The possibilities are almost endless, to still from the popular cliche. And forget about damaging your cassette tapes or scratching your favorite CD or LP. MP3s are digital files and will last forever, as long as you don't delete them. And MP3s are cheaper to purchase, typically, than CDs and you have the option of buying one song at a time versus an entire album, and it will only set you back a dollar a song on average. And if already own the song on CD then you can simply convert the song over to MP3. It only makes perfect sense to take the plunge and go digital with an MP3 player. |
