digital disruption

Star2, TueSday 12 February 2013 TECHNOLOGY 15

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WHILE helping clear my room, mysister looked at my shelves of musicCDs and asked me to dump them. I

clumsily gave her reasons to keep them butthe reality set in when she asked me whenwas the last time I played a music CD.

It was a total reversal of roles – I havealways been the proponent of all things dig-ital while she has been the one slow to adoptnew technologies.

But she was right. Ever since I could affordan iPod, the only time I touched any of theCDs was to transfer songs to my computer.And I don’t even have to do that now becausewith online services like Spotify, I can findalmost any song I want.

There is no doubt that the consumption ofmusic has changed tremendously over thepast 10 years due to digital technology.

Nevermind MP3 files replacing physicalCDs, these days you can listen to the radiofrom a smartphone, use apps like Shazam toidentify tunes you hear, say, in shopping cen-tres, and make new discoveries via YouTube.Plus, you can also share your favourite trackswith your friends and family through varioussocial networking sites.

Despite digital music’s relatively short his-tory, there have been significant milestones.No doubt, Apple’s iTunes Store played a bigpart. The company just announced that musiclovers have downloaded and purchased over25 billion songs from its store.

This year also marks the 10th anniversaryof the store which has revolutionised themusic industry.

Acknowledging this, Apple’s senior vice-president of Internet software and servicesEddy Cue said: “Averaging over 15,000 songsdownloaded per minute, the iTunes Storeconnects music fans with their favouriteartists … on a scale we never imagined pos-sible.”

More than musicThe iTunes Store has also shaped our con-

sumption of digital media in other areas. Withjust the click of a button, we can all access awhole range of television shows and movies,as well as podcasts.

It is the latter that proves the wide rangingimpact of iTunes. Through its podcast fea-ture, Apple together with some of the mostrenowned universities in the world, launchediTunes University, which is making a signifi-cant impact in the education sector.

In 2009, researchers Dani McKinney,Jennifer Dyck and Elise Luberin published apaper in the Computers and Education jour-nal on their findings that students who tooknotes while listening to a podcast of a lecturescored significantly higher than when doingthe same while listening to an actual lecture.

It is the wonder of digital technology thathas made it possible to diversify the use pod-casts.

Looking back, when Apple first introducedits store, it received quite a bit of criticism for

the way it was impacting traditional businessmodels of the music industry (although, it hassince been hailed as the saviour).

Today, it is arguably the store of choice forpurchasing digital music, especially since latenoughties when Apple removed the DRM(digital rights management) which restrictedthe songs it sold from being played on otherdevices.

In the past couple of decades digital tech-nology has impacted and enriched our lives.As with any progress, it has its share of goodand bad. Still, resisting change is not onlyfutile but sometimes detrimental — one mayfind in a situation where he or she may not beable to catch up.

Much of our penchant for holding on tothe ways of the past is just that – we are justhanging on for the sake of sentimentality.There is always place for that, of course. I’mnot about to send all my CDs for recycling justyet but I’m no longer in denial — I don’t expectto play any music from them any time soon.

The fact is I do not remember the last CDI purchased. And that’s another good thingabout digital technology. As to what was thelast digital music I purchased? iTunes hasmade a record of that for me.

n Niki is a writer, consultant and speakeron media and digital culture. Connect withhim online at www.nikicheong.com or onTwitter via @nikicheong. ReWired will nowrun fortnightly on Tuesdays in Star2. Fortopic suggestions or comments, tweet using#Star2ReWired.

ReWired by niki cheong

Digitaldisruption

Change is the only constant evenwhen it comes to the way you enjoyyour music.

MUSICMILESTONE: aman holds aniPod while hebuys music fromthe iTunes store.The Store, whichmarks its 10thanniversary thisyear, has playeda major part inrevolutionisingthe musicindustry.

CONSUMER efforts to protect personal dataand remain “invisible” online is leading to a“data blackhole” that could adversely impactdigital advertisers, technology research firmOvum said.

The move to seek “new tools that allowthem to remain invisible — untraceable andimpossible to target by data means” willimpact advertisers who rely on that informa-tion to target their audiences, Ovum said.

Surveying consumers in 11 countriesaround the world, the research firm said 68%

of respondents said they would select a “donot track” feature if this was easily available.

Mark Little, a principal analyst at Ovum, saidInternet users were increasingly getting moreaccess to new tools to “monitor, control andsecure their personal data as never before”.

The recent scandal involving privacybreaches by mobile messaging serviceWhatsApp and lingering concerns over datause policies on Facebook and Google areprompting Internet users to be more guarded,Ovum added. — AFP

Internet users seeking more invisibility