Headphones have superpowers.
They turn crowded walkways into personal paths of rhythm and harmony. They produce Miles Davis digitally remastered in a private concert on the way to class. They are the only things I have in common with most women at ASU.
They make me invisible.
Like sunglasses, which hide my eyes from interpersonal contact, headphones cover my ears from exterior noise pollution and bring me into the private comfort of my personalized playlist.
Most people wear the original style of headphones -- with the small, gray earpieces that make for a sleek, not-as-recognizable look. Others wear bulky, metallic-ear-warmer headphones that pump out surround sound quality and rid the listener of exterior noise pollution. I wear the bulky kind because they make for a supercool look.
My headphones get their superpowers from one of the most potent sources in the technology world: my digital audio player.
I dropped $250 for my player (not including the headphones), but it was worth it.
Instead of taking a bite out of the Apple like most purchasers, I opted to spend my cash on a Samsung, Napster-affiliated player. With two free months of Napster service and a $50 price break, the Samsung (eerily similar to the iPod) is more compatible with my PC and wholly cost-effective as well.
Like other owners of products such as the iPod and similar MP3 and WMA digital music players, I am reaping the benefits of life with a soundtrack. I have a 20GB hard drive on my player, which means I have about a 10,000 song capacity. I've downloaded maybe 2,000 songs -- my entire collection thus far.
The greatest advantage (besides the superpowers) that a digital audio player provides is it can serve as a backup source for all of my CDs. Granted, burning music is a painstaking adventure because I first have to rip each song file onto my computer before I transfer the music to my player. But each CD only takes about five minutes to rip and an additional minute to transfer onto the player, so the process is well worth the rewards of a portable music collection.
And if I want to download songs directly from the Internet, I can pay for them individually through Napster, or I can illegally download them from a person-to-person file-sharing site.
I would pay for each download if the price wasn't so high, but 99 cents for a song that is often streamed and not CD quality is far too expensive. I refuse to allow the record industry to gouge me like they have my entire life.
iTunes rips off the consumer just as tapes and CDs always have, and competing service providers such as Napster aren't much better. Napster is trying to compete, though, unveiling a new plan that would allow the consumer to download an unlimited amount of songs for the monthly service fee of $15.95.
The ads for the service were released during the Super Bowl, but Napster is unlikely to garner much of Apple's control over the digital audio player market. According to sales, Apple iPods account for nearly 70 percent of the entire digital music player industry.
The players, like the headphones, come in all different shapes and sizes, ranging from the size of a battery (without a screen) to a small book, with an LCD touch screen that can play video and audio.
They really are super.
I walk around campus knowing I'm plugged into my powers with a swing in my step and a glimmer in my eye. Life seems easier and the sun a little brighter with music filling my ears. I'm invisible to the world because I can only see it.
My ears are plugged. Are yours?
Ty Thompson is a journalism sophomore. If you want to share music collections, reach him at Tyler.W.Thompson@asu.edu.
