Old Job; New Idea

The summer before my senior year of High School, I worked as a lifeguard at a local Country Club.  It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had on the job, plus you got 15 minute breaks every hour for doing absolutely nothing.  It was at this job that I met some friends, as we would just sit and talk in the break room about anything and everything.  It was during these talks that we had the great “CD’s or MP3’s” debate one day.  “CD’s will always be around, because that’s what people buy and it sells the most”, I remember saying.  My friend Charlie responded “Yeah, but I think things will change one day, nothing like that will last forever”.  At the time I thought he was crazy, because that’s how I thought the music business worked; everyone bought CDs.  At this time, I still hadn’t bought an Ipod (it was still the first generation) so I guess I was out of the technological loop.  After that summer I got my first Ipod; but I would still buy CDs and simply rip them to the Ipod, until Christmas rolled around.  I remember getting an Itunes gift card for 50 dollars, and using it all the day after.  I was blown away by how simple and convenient it was to just sit back and wait for the download, and after just a few minutes you were able to listen to the whole album.  I then realized that everyone wanted MP3’s for that very reason; convenience.  Slowly but surely, CD sales dropped and dropped while Itunes sales were at an all time high.  The music industry was changing, and I was blind to realize that fact.  It is kind of a weird story, but I think that is when it all changed for me.  In the last 10 years, the music industry has changed drastically, and big record companies are losing money all day, every day.  The internet has really changed the way people do everything, because it has brought convergence to everything.  Before; a person might have a TV, VCR, Radio, and Video Game system, but now a person has all of that in the palm of their hand.  All you need is internet access, and you can communicate with the world in an instant.  People are able to watch a full movie on their Iphones; instead of going to the movies.  A.O. Scott argues that this might not be the correct way to view a “film”, but in the end it is all about the business; and if people are paying to view it on their Iphones, I doubt the movie companies care one bit.  At the end of the article Scott quotes; “maybe cinema is dead, but it’s a wonderful afterlife”.  I feel that this is a true statement, because people seem to like getting their entertainment in the palm of their hand.  The movie theater has its benefits, however convenience and convergence seem to be major players in the future of media and entertainment