Saturday, July 17, 2010

Walk a week in another one's ears.

I threw this idea around a couple of weeks ago and there was at least moderate interest.

I was thinking about how much of music do we enjoy because the music is inherently "good" and how much do we like because it is familiar. I went to Lake Powell with a bunch of friends and I didn't listen to much of my music down there. Some of the songs bugged, but I also got into other ones.

It makes you wonder if you walked for a week listening to someone else's music, would you be mostly frustrated? Would you approach it with wonder and discover new HipHop, Country and/or Top40 that you liked? Or would you discover that band that no body has heard of that you liked long before anybody else.

So I am going to do this little social experiment. I want to get a few people together to swap ipods for a week and then talk about the experience. I hope I get some people who have completely different tastes than me (meaning that you don't listen to a LOT of Insane Clown Posse).

Here are the simple rules:

  1. Let me know you want to be in the contest, by making a comment to this post..
  2. I will do a random drawing
  3. Swap ipods (at least 4 Gigs of music please) Either in the mail or I will facilitate at my house.
  4. Listen to the ipod at MINIMUM whenever you are in your car.
  5. NO MUSIC SKIPPING, ride it out. Let it flow through you.
  6. You can listen to playlists, or on random, but you can't just look for familiar artists or bands you have wanted to hear.
  7. Whatever you do DON'T SYNC THE OTHER PERSONS POD TO YOU COMPUTER!
  8. Swap iPods back and blog (or facebook or whatevs about your experience)
  9. Mention your best experience and worst experience with the ipod
I think this is interesting also because of the state of digital music. According to DRM rights you don't actually own that copy of music, I can't lend you an album. I don't even know if this is entirely legal, but I know that it is right.

Okay now,

GET IN MINE EARS!


  1. You assume all risk (all artistic enterprises are inherently risky)

24 comments:

Damian said...

This should be working now

Kim said...

This is such a fantastic idea.

The only thing I'm worried about is the fact that most of the stuff on my ipod is in the "Deeply Embarrassing Music" file. And that most of my playlists are labeled things like "Songs for Laying in Bed and Looking at the Ceiling" or "Songs for When You Really Miss That One Guy Who Turned Out to be a Bit of a Jerk." It's a very personal thing, isn't it, these little devices that store our emotions?

I'm in as long as there's a rule called No Judging Kim Who is a Delicate and Emotional Thing.

Damian said...

Good points, many of my playlists have the names of friends, girlfriends, past longings in them.

Maybe that is a part of the endeavor as well, it is a bit soul-baring to share your playlists.

but so far we only have a couple of takers.

Celestial Soldier said...

The problem is that the music I listen to is not on my iPod. I use my iPod strictly for running and have stuff on there you won't hear me listening to in my car or at home.

Also, I don't know if I could do an entire gadget swap. I'm very protective of my gadgets.

I think to get in someone's ears, they need to make a playlist in iTunes that lists anything they have listened to more than 3 times, that way, we know what they listen to.

Damian said...

Well this isn't going to work for everyone.

If you want in on this you have to be willing to swap gadgets.

Emilie and Branden said...

Dude. I'm in.

Sydney said...

This sounds super cool! I suppose I could turn my lovely little nano over to somebody in return for their iPod. Seems like a fair trade off. I agree with Kim though, some of the stuff is deeply personal and embarassing. I usually don't even let friends LOOK!

I think I'd be willing to do it though, in the name of new music! (hopefully)

Barbaloot said...

I'm the same as Celestial Soldier---the only music on my ipod is my running music. And don't tell, but I don't even know what 4 gigs means...

Still, if you need another person, I'm in. Maybe I'll even upload more of my music onto my ipod just for this. But when I get it back, can I remove the stuff I added so it's just my running playlist again?

Damian said...

So we have 3 or 4 interested in this so far. I was thinking you could drop off the ipod at my house. I will attatch a number, and make a recording of that number. Then the numbers will be drawn from a hat.

This is all a social experiment, you can make of it what you will. bend your rules a little even (but don't tell me"

I think though you should have as much of YOU on the ipod as possible. The exchange will be somewhat anonymous until you return the ipod. Then SURPRISE, guess who likes Justin Timberlake AND bright eyes!

I have to go out of town on Saturday morning. Perhaps we do the exchange when I get back. Maybe I host a little BBQ and people can drop by and pick up whenevs.

Ems said...

oh well, I was going to sign up but then I saw that I'm not even linked on your blog...sad emoticon.

I have awesome playlists.

Meikel said...

great idea, I am in.

Damian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
an illdressed foolishwise said...

this is me signing up!!

Miaken said...

I am IN! Let me know when the swap is...

Damian said...

This is me being stoked!

I hope we get a few people that have musical tastes nothing like mine.

kai said...

Wait, so what's wrong with liking JT and Bright Eyes?

I'm willing to give this a shot, I feel like I should trust most of the people on this list with my collection... which is a social experiment in itself.

Although, I would prefer to share my shuffle instead of my classic.

Damian said...

I think it's amazing that most of us our more concerned about exposing ourselves by merely sharing our music than we are concerned about losing an ipod.

Like I said, I am asking that people share at least 4 Gigabytes of music. The older shuffles only had 1 gig (and the really old ones only had 100 songs). The new shuffles carry 4 gigs.

I happen to have several ipods (because I am a lame gadget nerd) But I am leaving all my playlists on, including the rashly made playlists after a first date and the corporate playlists that I was looking for edit music for and the really really lame ones.

Ems said...

I'm signing up for my friend from work, Melissa (the artist behind my beautiful wedding announcement). She doesn't have a blogger profile, but count her iPod in!

k8 said...

can i still do it if i live far away? i promise i am good at the USPS.

Damian said...

Okay, so this is so I have so far:

Damian
Kim R.
Barbara D.
Jacob S. (maybe?) Celestial Soldier
EmilieNBranden
Sydney
Emily C.
Meikel
Emily F.
Miaken
Kai
Melissa (friend of Ems)
K8E C.

Send me an email (it's in my profile) It will be good to have contact info. I am going to ask that all ipods get to my house by Monday Aug. 2 We can do an Ipod FHE. I BBQ something and I will pull numbers out of a hat (if you can't be there trust that I own several hats) I will then disperse the ipods from there if you can't be there in person. I will label the ipods with a number so they won't get mixed up.

Tasha said...

I want in on this action.

ZT said...

This is Zach Taylor. I have some stuff that is pretty random so hopefully people will enjoy!

Damian said...

Okay folks. I'm going to do the drawing tonight. I will include you if you commented here. I wish I had all of your contact info.

Emilie and Branden said...

Omigosh. I think it's so funny that you wrote "guess who likes JT and BrightEyes!" They are both on my POD!!! I wanna know whose pod I have :)