1. Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction Toon van Veelen, Jeroen de Kloet, Piet Bakker & Tom ter Bogt Universiteit van Amsterdam

2. Why researching the iPod? Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction 1.Popularity 2.Forerunner for future developments 3.iPod culture “I love my iPod, everything about it. The feel, the look, everything. Sometimes (no joke) I will just stare at my iPod (…) and daydream, the beautiful white like the clouds look makes me feel so fuzzy inside.”

3. iPod culture iPod parties - iPods around the world - Podcasting Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction

4. iPod cultuur iPod party’s - iPods around the world - Podcasting

5. Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction iPod cultuur iPod party’s - iPods around the world - Podcasting

6. 2. Design Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction Assumption:.. In particular the Apple iPod, and the related digitization of sound change our listening experiences, feeding into our everyday performances of the authentic self... Related to a displacement of authenticity from the CD towards the music player itself..

7. 2. Design Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction RQ: How does the iPod affect: a) patterns of music consumption b) patterns of music use, and c) the perception of music carriers? Comparative research design

8. 3. Sample Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction  On-line Survey, webfora, students  N = 658  Only player of 4Gb or higher, N = 397  iPod: 222 --> 56%  Other: 175 --> 44%  91% male  61% Dutch, 16% American

9. 4a. Music consumption Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction Percentage of device content from different sources Regression analysis* shows: Brand predicts: P2P (other & age) Paid (iPod & income) CD (iPod & stor. cap., age, gender) *variables: brand, gender, income, storage cap., age

10. Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction 4a. Music consumption Open question: Has the use of your digital audio device changed your music buying/download habits? If so, how? 1.No change: ‘No. Still buy CDs and rip to the computer’ (Indian male, 31) 2.Downloading: ‘Since [getting my iPod], I have been more legally responsible and now use iTunes for all my downloads’ (American male, 32) 3.Downloading and buying CDs: ‘It has made me download more music but at the same time, that downloading has made me buy music which I would not have bought if I had not first downloaded it’ (Dutch male, 23) 4.Buying CDs: ‘I'm buying more CDs, to fill in gaps in my collection’ (American male, 48)

11. 4b. Music use Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction Average of 2080 tracks (but SD=1603) and 8 genres The content of my digital audio device reflects the full range of my musical taste

12. 4b. Music use Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction Open question: Has the use of your digital audio device changed your listening habits? If so, how? 1.Discorvery of new music: ‘Yes, I am much more prone to listening to bands I haven’t heard before, and make it a point to listen to something new every day’ (American male, 27) 2.Rediscorvery of old music: ‘…I’m rediscovering song from my past that I otherwise might have never played. Most recent rediscovery is The Boomtown Rats "Nothing Happened Today" from 1979 album The Fine Art of Surfacing. Totally took me back to my junior year of high school’ (American male, 44) 3.Shuffle function: ‘Yes. I now find listening to full CDs restrictive. I understand the music differently’ (British male, 46) 4.Portable library: ‘Yes. It provides a one-device solution to my CD collection. I can easily get access to any album I used to love three or five years ago without messing up my CD stack’ (Canadian male, 28) 5.Skipping & mood management: ‘Now I tend to skip songs which don’t match my mood much more often and faster’ (Dutch female, 25)

13. 4c. Perception of music carrier Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction Table 4: Evaluation of the device on a 7-point semantic scale Scales: 1. Aesthetical 2. Distinctivenes 3. Functional Regression: iPod as strongest predictor

14. 4c. Perception of music carriers Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction

15. 5. Conclusion Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction  iPpod owners download less, buy more online  More music and rediscovery of old music  Beyond album-based listening  iPod is perceived as more aesthetic, more functional and more distinctive  iPod is perceived as more authentic

16. 6. Discussion Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction Authenticity as perpetual desire Authenticity as embodied value Authenticity as cultural capital

17. Authenticity as embodied value Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction ‘ iPod als “the material embodiment of the values and interests of particular social groups or classes” (Wyatt et al., 2000) >> thus: authenticity as embodied value (iPod) and performative appropriation (user)

18. Authenticity as cultural capital Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction >> thus: authenticity as constitutive element of cultural capital iPod as economic capital (status) iPod as cultural capital (design and authenticity)

19. Authenticity as perpetual desire Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction Abbas en de déjà disparu: “the feeling that what is new and unique about the situation is always already gone, and we are left holding a handful of clichés, or a cluster of memories of what has never been.” >> thus: authenticity as perpetual desire

20. 6. Discussie Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction Authenticity as perpetual desire Authenticity as embodied value Authenticity as cultural capital

21. Portable Sounds in the Age of Digital Reproduction Universiteit van Amsterdam THANK YOU! B.J.DEKLOET@UVA.NL