Communicatheo

Idioma Original

I Like Music. Photo by RossinaBossioB (Flickr) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossinabossio/204333689/

iPod, Walkman and the Muses: a trio that delivers continuous surprises

There exists a good and attractive origin to the concept of the voice or “music”: according to the fantastic but in this case a bit disorganized effort of Wikipedia it is “the art of the muses”, the goddesses or nymphs, depending on the period. They are the beings who inspire the fountains of art. Between them is this coherent combination of sounds and silences. Currently and with a modern perspective it is accepted in general that music is a cultural product that is attributed to ancient Greece. That which is cultural is something belonging under current canons. It is well marked in the beginning of the Prolegomenon, by its author, Doctor Gilberto Giménez, on discussing the multiple uses of the term “culture”. But apart from the inspiration of the muses, if one goes to distinct sources of specialists it can be interpreted as a cultural product, contextualized in its manifestations that in a consistent form are expressed as a process of communication between sources and receptors.

From this vision it would be possible to see music as a language that is perhaps more complex for being vocal and/or instrumental or electronic that searches to stimulate with aims or without purpose an individual’s process of perception. This concept flourishes in each moment, but it is important to point out that at the end they circumscribe it in a disputable form unique to our species. If it is accepted that it is specific to the human race the most debatable is to assign it an origin and boundaries. To assign the creation of music to the Ancient Greeks in spite of how magical the idea sounds, the muses without time who affect aesthetics and creation, is no more than a narration that feigns common sense. I would say yes to the muses, no to the Ancient Greeks. I believe that this judgment that I present has low possibilities for error in spite of the respect that the Greco-roman culture inspires in me as one of the key steps in our western history.

But apart from the inspiration of the muses, if one goes to distinct sources of specialists it can be interpreted as a cultural product, contextualized in its manifestations that in a consistent form are expressed as a process of communication between sources and receptors.

It would be interesting to know the scientific perspective of anthropologists and historians, but in order not to search too much I am left with a text, which I use from a good book at hand, specifically from the already mentioned Prolegomenon, where Dr. Giménez states: “In effect, the history of science proves to us that philosophy and common sense have been the main providers of the majority of the concepts that circulate in the field of social science and that, even after having been reconstructed and reformulated for the theory, frequently they are unable to totally free themselves from their historical connotations and even their politics of origin”. The same common sense leads me to believe that an industry that moves billions of dollars would be able to finance a study similar to the one that Dr. Umberto Eco carried out in his investigation which was published in the book Perfect Language. I think it would simplify, it would clean up and it would renovate the understanding of the history of music as language, and where the ignorant hypothesis that casts away my common sense is that rhythm, harmony and melody, although they were rustic and were not written or carved into stones, tablets or papyrus, they have no boundaries, from well before the Ancient Greeks.

To our first thousand niche readers on communicatheo.com I would like to give a vision of marketing and communication theory, from a news story that was in the top ranking spots of lainformación.com and that was covered, by the entire media of the communication industry, in general, with notes on the writer of origin for the story: one of the colossuses of the digital audio player industry. One of the two key companies of this concentrated world.

iPod Family: The iPod family with, from the left to the right : the shuffle 3g, the nano 4G, the classic. Image by Kyro - http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:IPod_family.png

Perhaps it is a world not thought of by the muses, or maybe it is, where two colossuses of the digital audio player industry once again found themselves with renewed spirit to dispute the preference of users, consumption and the millions of dollars in sales derived from its management. In this case the news was based on the information of a consultant that picked up the Nikkei newspaper. I would imagine that a store audit pointed out that in the Japanese market, the Sony Walkman, after four years, surpassed the Apple iPod in sales. We are talking about a news story about millions of US dollars with which I would want to start this piece, such as it was in the top ranked spots of lainformación.com. It is the titanic fight of two colossuses in the digital audio player industry: Sony Walkman and Apple iPod.

Sony Walkman Family: Members of the Sony Walkman line of products. Photo by Marc Zimmermann - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sony_Walkman_WM-2.jpg

The news piece included the opinion of Kazaharu Miura, an analyst from Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd. to Bloomberg: Sony has won buyers by releasing cheap and good quality products”, and he adds “But really one cannot assure that Sony will compete with Apple until it no longer surpasses it in the United States and Europe”. I can say from observation that Apple is diversifying its products in niche segments in its principle markets by launching the iPhone, which is also an efficient digital audio player and will present new models during this month of September and that this mix could have a bearing on maintaining the leadership of the large data that it possesses in the global market for audio players.

From another point of view these two audio players have interesting origins, Walkman is derived from a leading electronics company and iPod was born of a company whose cradle is computation. A clear phenomenon of technological convergence in niche markets, that by luck has generated a complex and growing situation of competition, that until now, and for many years, has gained for the company whose face in the world is a bitten apple, an enterprising and charismatic innovator: Steve Jobs, who has guided it, perhaps with the magic of the muses and the tree of knowledge, towards success.

But really one cannot assure that Sony will compete with Apple until it no longer surpasses it in the United States and Europe.

Independent of the tactical moves of each company, the iPod which was launched into the market in October 2001has maintained its leadership; perhaps in part because of the constant innovation it presents it users. It has accumulated five generations in eight years and derivative products. It was a product that skimmed the market well: a high price in the beginning and limited to Mac. Now it is more open and popular, a cycle that sees a constant drop in prices and initiated the opening and incorporation of  iTunes, its channel of digital sales, in 2003. Today 30G audio players have arrived, if it is not a blunder, it will quickly be surpassed by a digital store with millions of songs, programs, TV series and hundreds of movies. I do not doubt that the muses have found an efficient way to spread music throughout the world: popularizing the iPod and commercializing music at a very low cost.

An integrated instrument of communication that brings us to reaffirm that the future is unknown but that we can try to build what we dream.

For those who are most demanding innovation is based on a fight for the niche of the highest income through the iPhone and its digital AppStore that between 2007 and 2008 alone accelerated sales ten times over rewarding the integration of a portable music device with a high quality mobile phone. An integrated instrument of communication that brings us to reaffirm that the future is unknown but that we can try to build what we dream. We await new innovations so that market values will decrease and this art of the muses will become a little bit more popular.

—————————————-

Volunteer translation by Patrick Blakemore

Patrick Blakemore has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Spanish and a Minor in Art and Design from Grand Valley State University. He specializes in Art and Literary translations from Spanish to English. Patrick currently lives in Ann Arbor Michigan and is beginning a career as a freelance translator. If you would like to contact him for translation work, please write to pblake03@sbcglobal.net

—————————————-