Quantity vs. Quality with the iPod Generation

I've noticed a common theme with iPod owners, and people who store music on any portable, digital player. There seems to be a preoccupation with the amount of songs they can fit on these things. I haven't heard anything in regards to song quality, recording quality, or audio fidelity... What I've heard is, "I have 300 hours of music on this thing."

What I find amusing is the amount of time some people spend "organizing" their music. I've done some myself, and what I've found is, unless you do a lot of driving, partying, working out, or housework, all that organizing time takes more time than just popping in a CD.

The main thing I've noticed though, is that the single is more important than ever. People aren't really putting entire albums on the iPods. They are, but their playlists only include the band's popular songs. Music has always been about the hit single: think "Beethoven's 9th" - why do we all know that one song when he did many more than that? But now, artists really need to rely on one hit single to get their name out there.

The funny thing I'm also noticing is people are listening to most music on headphones or car stereos. These albums are mixed in million dollar environments but the end result is compressed to an MP3 or what-have-you, and listened to on speakers the size of a tic-tac.

Anyway, the main theme seems to be quantity over quality. People tend to brag about all the different music they listen to and how many artists are on their iPod. It seems to lessen the value of music, but maybe that's fine. Most songs are crap anyway!

Imagine if songs were like paintings - you could only hear them in museums or only one person could own them. In order to hear them you'd have to visit the museum or buy one for $250,000. In order to have 1000 songs on an iPod, you'd have to be a billionaire. Then I'd be impressed!