man, my first iPod was a silver mini that my parents got me for Christmas through a grocery store points program and my current one is a 7th gen nano that I've been using daily to listen to audiobooks to fall asleep since like 2014. if I have to go back to a janky-ass mp3 player I will but I just want another iPod mini tbh tbqh https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/05/the-music-lives-on/
coincidentally I think getting the iPod is how I started listening to English music? I was pretty much exclusively into anime/jpop downloaded directly from webrings of fansites and lovingly burned onto CDs up till then, but 2004 was the Limewire/Yousendit era (for me, I know Limewire was 2000) and 2003 is when I started using Livejournal and meeting people who shared music, and having more than 700mbs meant I could throw a bunch of unknown music on my iPod and still have access to old favs.
@phire don't worry it only gets more horrifying from here
@cadey yeah tbh it wasn't great shakes in 2003 either
thinking about technology-mediated consumption is neat (when it's not horrific)