The Many Eras of Music User Interfaces

After 30 years of success, the Sony Walkman is no longer going to be in production--that is, until the last batch produced six months ago sells out worldwide.

There's been lots of coverage of this momentous...er...moment in music technology history. From a blog post on the Guardian's website, titled RIP Walkman: Good Bye After 30 Years, to an article on 3News from New Zealand, The End of An Era: The Walkman is No More. Much of the coverage I've seen discusses how the Walkman was once the height of music technology, how it pretty much led up to today's iPods and other mp3 players, and includes some sort of nostalgic reminiscence by the author (particularly the case with blog posts).

My own nostalgia brings me back to the mid to late 80s, on a trip to Pittsburgh. My parents decided to splurge on a Sony Walkman and two cassettes of the latest American music, one Prince's Purple Rain and the other Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. I did manage to get my hands on the Walkman >:o)

photo borrowed from here

I really hated the Prince cassette (and have hated the artist ever since, really), but loved Bruce's hit song and most of the remainder of the cassette as well.

Alas, as we were nearing the end of our trip, I accidentally lost one of the two, little lever knobs (see image on right, lower-right hand side of the Walkman--same color and everyhting) that helped regulate the right and left headphone volume. I hid that from my mom as best as I could or else risked a good spanking. The damn knob fell in the luxury sedan we had leased during our trip and blended into the gray carpeting entirely so that I was unable to locate it before we left to go back home (Mexico at the time).

In 1989 I proudly began collecting cassettes (mostly singles) for some of my favorite current songs and artists from stores such as Coconuts and Musicland--stores which are now completely obliterated from the retailing map. I remember my disappointment, time and time again, upon purchasing a cassette (then unwrapping it and popping it in) realizing that my favorite artist's or group's other songs were not consistent with the single that had so enamored me (hooked) into buying their cassette. Bait and switch!

Back then, shelling out over $20 for cassettes was painful! Even more painful when CDs came out in '89-'90 which cost much more. Many years and portable cassette players later, my cassette collection numbered over 90. Yet I had begun leaving that behind for CDs. When I finished college in '98 I hadn't looked at my cassettes in a couple of years. I had begun my CD collection via a Best Buy gift card birthday gift from my dad, and was now pondering my next steps into adulthood.

Borders had begun popping up everywhere, and so did the ability to preview CDs before purchase. World music at the tip of your fingers.That was quite a novelty, the being able to preview and purchase only those CDs that truly appealed to you. You could even discover new artists without having to purchase a costly CD first. Previewing prior to purchasing was a game changer.

So were online music sites like mp3.com and so many others I can't even remember. Each with their own dedicated music player. This was before Real, Windows MediaPlayer, and QuickTime became the standards or rather, more universal.

Now a days, kids (and others) have it so much easier, because they don't have to shell out for an entire CD or cassette (or LP, yes I even had some of those in the early days) of a favorite artist, only to discover most of the songs are not as interesting as expected. They can just pop into iTunes (or Amazon) and preview a song or two, or more, and then pay 99 cents for a single tune or around $9.99 for a full album of songs. Now that's what I call convenience! You can even get codes on Tuesdays for free, new songs at Starbucks if you use iTunes. You can get suggestions for artists and songs you might like based on intelligent data mining too. How about 'em apples? They do the thinking for ya now.

photo borrowed from here

I got my first mp3 player back in '99, another gift from dad. It was a Diamond Rio player which was as big as a pack of cards, and weighed about twice as much. There were parallel port cables, and with later models, USB cables to help connect and sync to proprietary players and interfaces on the computer.

They gradually improved the sleekness of the product until there were push buttons rather than metal and switches on the front. This is around the time when iPods came out. I then graduated to a USB mp3 player just around the time when USB memory sticks began entering the market, seemingly from nowhere. What a concept that was! Just plug in your player to the USB port of your computer, no need for cables!

When the iPod craze began in late '99 and early '00s I wondered what the big bru-haha was, since mp3 players had been around for a while, and for much cheaper prices! And yet those little apple goodies began a major social revolution. It was a fashion statement (I called them the white wire zombies or hoards), it set the standard in portability, and began the user interface simplification movement that we now see in many technologies ranging from operating systems (Windows Vista, 7) to phones (Droid, iPhone).

We've come a long way baby, and I'll love to see (and hear!) where we head to next.