20 years of recollections of listening to the iPod


As a tech journo, I love it when people share their experiences of tech with me. It’s so much more interesting than a review someone is being paid to write or a marketing blurb. So in celebration of the iPod ‘s 20th birthday, I reached out to a bunch of folks I know to hear their stories. Just friends, some journos, and a former PR for Apple

A catalyst for new music

I remember loading my trusty oldiPod up with all my favorite music before traveling around Europe back in 2008 (i was 22). About a month into a nine-month trip, my iPod stopped working & it felt like the biggest disaster ever!

Fortunately for me, I visited the Apple store in London and used some highly persuasive language (threatening to buy an Iriver and never supporting Apple again.) This resulted in a free replacement even though I was two months out of warranty, and I still have it to this day.

Because I had lost all my music, I ended up collecting music from lots of different people I met traveling for the next eight months. I got so much cool stuff I had never heard of that for literally years I was discovering cool music (13th-floor elevators, Death cab for cutie, Broken Social Scene, the list goes on) by picking something random on my iPod.

— Kate Walker