This is mostly a hardware story. Remember the old Sony Walkman? Pop a cassette tape into the player, put on your headphones, and you could take your music with you! The first Walkman was released in 1980, and it was revolutionary, mostly in a good way, but also in a way that would negatively affect social interaction, we soon discovered as many bought and used them constantly. Described by International Research Center for Japanese Studies Professor Zhuhai Hosokawa as The Walkman effect, donning your headphones allowed you to essentially climb into a bubble and avoid interaction with those around you, much like wearing sunglasses help you avoid eye contact with others. I had a friend that would overcome this by using a double plug outlet, which made it possible for two people to listen to the same music.

Despite its social impact, sales of these portable music devices rose and then remained stable throughout the eighties and nineties. In that second decade, compact discs were fully integrated, and so you began finding cassettes on the bargain racks at your local record store. Digital music was overcoming analog music.

In 1998, a software developer named Bill Kincaid released a digital music software package called SoundJam MP. The software allowed you to download digital cd files into a music database, and then be able to play them on your computer.

Steve Jobs quickly noticed Soundjam MP, and Apple soon acquired the software and renamed it iTunes. They brought Kincaid and two colleagues over to Apple to continue its development, and in January 2001, iTunes was released. Not only could you burn your CDs to iTunes, but you could also download digital media into the database. Jobs, of course, had more up his sleeve, and the true revolution began in October 2001 when he released the first Apple portable music device, the iPod. That same day, the Analog Sony Walkman was obsolete. The iPod allowed users to download digital music from iTunes, and it also started a new form of media, soon after called Podcasts, where music, radio programming, and other audio-only content could be downloaded to iTunes and then transferred to the iPod.

The first iPod was elegant and intuitive in its design. It was the size of a deck of cards, had a small LCD screen and a mechanical wheel that allowed you to scroll through your library. Audio quality was excellent. I bought mine in early 2002, and my Walkman got thrown in a box, never to be used again. Over the rest of the decade, new models came out every year, getting more powerful, with more storage and increased battery life. My last iPod was a fourth-generation Shuffle, which is the size of a postal stamp, easily slipped in your pocket at the gym.

All good things come to an end. With the release of the revolutionary iPhone in 2007, it was only a matter of time before the iPod was finished. As the iPhone became more capable and powerful, you simply did not need the iPod anymore. What kept the iPod alive was the iPod Touch, that had Wi-Fi capability that allowed you to download tens of thousands of apps. Parents could get their kids a unit that looked like an iPhone but did not have the mobile capability and the costs associated with a mobile phone.

In July of 2017, Apple killed the iPod, with the exception of a new version of the Touch with a new processor and a camera. It's just as well. I have not used an iPod in several years now, relying completely on my phone for music. The advent of streaming services, which gave users incredible power in selecting music that they want to listen to, was best suited for use on the phone. My iPods have joined the Walkman in a box, and thanks to our digital hardware today, we are more addicted to our screens and socially isolated by them than ever before—we need to work on that.

This month's playlist would be a good one to play through your phone, enough to get you to Winchester and back. Download the Spotify App, and give it a listen. While you're at it, give me a "like" on Spotify. You can listen to the music here: https://tinyurl.com/ybpywmmu

Steve Chase lives in Unison and tries not to play the music too loud.