How Musicians Are Using the iPod In Their Professional Lives

Artists tend to have a love-hate relationship with digital music. Some artists like Alanis Morissette have embraced the digital music revolution. But others like Metallica have come out strongly against it, even taking downloaders to court. This new gadget from Apple seems to have the power to either resurrect or destroy the music industry. So what happens when a professional musician gets their hands on an iPod?

iPod: Making Artists & Consumers Happy

Unlike Napster, the iTunes Store has changed the digital music landscape. Consumers now have a reasonably priced and easy way to legally get digital music. With the introduction of the iTunes Store, almost everyone is happy. The artists now can make money and the consumers have instant access to a wide variety of quality music that continues to grow everyday.

How The iPod Is Helping Professional Musicians Make Music

People worldwide have made the iPod an everyday object in their daily lives, including professional musicians. Artists like SubPop records’ Jimmy Lavalle have even found ways to make the iPod an integral part of the composition and studio recording process.

My iPod is with me from the moment a song is born. When I’m inspired, I’ll sit down and work out a few ideas in my home studio. As soon as I cut a few rough mixes, I’ll transfer them to my iPod and live with them for awhile while I decide what should be changed the next time.

By transferring his rough cuts into iTunes, Jimmy also avoids confusion.

I used to burn a couple CD a day of rough mixes I was working on. Of course I never could find a pen to label them. As a result hundreds of unlabeled CDs littered my car and living room. What a waste.

iTunes has fixed this problem for Jimmy. All songs imported into iTunes are date stamped. Figuring out which version of a song he’s listening to and if it was from last week or last month, now takes a few seconds rather than hours.

What About You?

What about you? Are you a professional musician? Are you using the iPod to help with your sound writing, recording or performance? Will the iPod destroy the music industry or give it new life? Please let us know and drop a comment below.

iPod with iMac Photo via Mike Dougherty