Day: May 10, 2010
NY Times Apple Plug
In Mobile Age, Sound Quality Takes Step Back
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By JOSEPH PLAMBECK
With the ease of loading music onto an iPod, a generation of fans has been happily trading fidelity for portability.
Share your thoughts.
There are other compressed file players besides Apple's. Mr. Plambeck assumes everyone uses an iPod ("a generation," wow). Is this what Steve Jobs' advertising buys?
Tom Moody
May 9th, 2010
11:21 pm(Not approved by comment moderator)
The editors are more to blame for this shameless plug than the writer. The subheading shortens (compresses) Plambeck's sentence: "In one way, the music business has been the victim of its own technological success: the ease of loading songs onto a computer or an iPod has meant that a generation of fans has happily traded fidelity for portability and convenience." The word "iPod" gets one of the Times' pseudo-links to a page with more info about the product. The word "computer" could have also gotten a link but no. People already know what a computer is but they may need to know more about the iPod.
Update: "iPod" gets a link; "Apple iPod" gets a link. Three mentions of the iTunes store (but no links). No link in the article (or mention of) Zune, the Walkman mp3 player, or other companies' mp3 players. RIAA gets a link. For balance, there are links to two audio nerd sites. One nerd is described as "a professed audiophile." Uh oh, that sounds bad. The iPod links take you to a Times "product page," which tells you the "top-rated" mp3 players: all made by Apple.
Update 2: Plambeck's article attracted 184 comments. Most commenters offered their opinion of whether compression hurt music or not. I only skimmed so am not sure if anyone else was offended by the advertorial nature of the story or if it was all dumb pseudo-controversy for suckers.