tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/ipods-2740/articlesiPods – The Conversation2013-12-13T15:12:36Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212622013-12-13T15:12:36Z2013-12-13T15:12:36ZThe iPod zombies are more switched on than you think<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37486/original/gfwvhthw-1386765441.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A budding romance?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ed Yourdon</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Teenagers get a bad rap for zoning out on their iPods at every given opportunity, but they may not be the unsociable narcissists they are often portrayed as. In fact, they are often skilled users who manage their devices in surprisingly social ways.</p>
<p>Those who take the tube or bus to work will recognise the scene. A bus full of <a href="http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-age-of-egocasting">pod people</a>, white buds plugged into their ears, seemingly oblivious to the outside world. In the street, teenagers and adults alike are cocooned in their sonic enclaves, apparently oblivious to the world around them.</p>
<p>But a study we conducted of 155 first-year students at the University of Edinburgh found a surprising diversity in how such devices were used. When the students recorded how they used their MP3 players on a daily basis, we found they were not only sharing playlists and DJing at parties with them, but managing mental conditions and using them as a defence against harassment.</p>
<h2>Escape pod</h2>
<p>Public debate regularly places the <a href="http://www.michaelzimmer.org/2005/02/23/ipod-people-in-their-own-iworld/">blame for a decline in civic values</a> at the door of “privatising” technologies such as the iPod and the mobile phone. At best, mobile audio devices are said to filter out the noisy city, allowing users to control their own environment on their mundane journey to work. At worst such devices are assumed to completely isolate social beings from one another, turning them into atomised consumers who actively withdraw into their own zones of security. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37253/original/j5cyrgxy-1386596584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37253/original/j5cyrgxy-1386596584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/37253/original/j5cyrgxy-1386596584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37253/original/j5cyrgxy-1386596584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37253/original/j5cyrgxy-1386596584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37253/original/j5cyrgxy-1386596584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37253/original/j5cyrgxy-1386596584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/37253/original/j5cyrgxy-1386596584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The zombies are coming and they’re dressed by J Crew.</span>
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<p>In a 2008 episode of The Simpsons, the citizens of Springfield become so addicted to their gadgets they end up as servants to a new master race of iPods, controlled via the very white ear-buds they so desire.</p>
<p>The little academic research that exists broadly follows the drift of these characterisations. <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Sound_Moves.html?id=5thzQgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">Sound Moves</a>, the most influential study of iPods by <a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/119032">Professor Michael Bull</a>, shows how users’ strategies of withdrawal and control are designed to place them in a bubble of “accompanied solitude”.</p>
<h2>The plural iPod</h2>
<p>Our study, which will be published in the journal <a href="http://www.journals.elsevier.com/poetics/">Poetics</a> in February, suggests otherwise. Less than half of our young people used their iPods as a protective barrier against the city, and the majority were more plural, conscious and circumspect in their uses.</p>
<p>Far from surrendering to a pattern of withdrawal, many users reported how the device forced them to confront the ethics of sharing a communal space with others.</p>
<p>They struggled with the appropriateness of using the device in certain social situations, such as waiting for friends or entering shops. They modified the way they used their devices with a nod to what was actually happening around them. One student confided that she regularly switched her iPod on and off to catch “snatches of conversations, birdsong, even traffic noise”.</p>
<p>The “social” dimension of mobile audio devices rarely catches people’s attention. Yet around a third of users reported that they used their devices to connect with others. Some shared ear-buds with friends while maintaining conversations. Others docked devices into speakers in domestic settings or used the device in social media-based ecologies of sharing, posting links on Facebook to songs they’d just listened to, for instance.</p>
<p>More than one respondent noted how they had formed close and enduring friendships as a result of flicking through the playlists made by strangers at parties. Others said they found out about new music in face-to-face situations where the MP3 player was passed around and playlists discussed.</p>
<h2>Different strokes for different folks</h2>
<p>Even in the relatively homogeneous sample of the study, variations were apparent in how users interacted with their MP3 players, suggesting that our reactions to these devices is more varied than simply plug in, tune out. </p>
<p>Several female students noted that they used their MP3 players to avoid unwanted male attention by pretending to use the device to give off the air of unavailability, even when it was switched off. Variations in use were also dependent on class differences, where cost and taste – including whether users listened to classical or pop music – were reflected in the extent to which devices were actually used.</p>
<p>One student stated that he couldn’t afford an MP3 player and criticised the research as exclusionary, a reminder of basic social inequalities in the ownership of gadgets. Another explained how listening to classical music on his iPod enabled him to keep his hallucinations under control.</p>
<p>Just as the iPod usurped the Walkman in our lives, the smartphone is gradually replacing MP3 players. Now that so many mobiles have the capacity to store all the music we want, we are packing both devices less and less. It will be interesting to see if the way we use these devices continues to change as a result. Music-sharing apps such as <a href="http://soundwave.com/">Soundwave</a>, <a href="http://8tracks.com/">8tracks</a> and <a href="http://soundcloud.com">Soundcloud</a> are becoming popular among young people so the future may well be even more social and even less pod shaped.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21262/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Prior does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teenagers get a bad rap for zoning out on their iPods at every given opportunity, but they may not be the unsociable narcissists they are often portrayed as. In fact, they are often skilled users who manage…Nick Prior, Senior Lecturer and Head of Department, Sociology, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183012013-09-18T23:16:04Z2013-09-18T23:16:04ZE-readers prove easy on the eye for dyslexics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31487/original/5t9fybvw-1379434525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New tech open avenues for dyslexic readers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">thequietlibrary</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Using an e-reader may help some dyslexic students understand what they read more effectively, researchers at Harvard University argue.</p>
<p>In a paper published in the journal <a href="http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075634">PLOS One</a>, the authors found that a group of dyslexic teenagers showed greater reading comprehension when using an iPod e-reader than when asked to read from paper. The e-reader was formatted to display around nine lines of text on the screen at a time, with only two or three words in each line, leaving fewer visual distractions. The authors therefore concluded that this improvement is due to the reduced demands on visual attention when reading from the iPod.</p>
<p>While the dominant theoretical explanation of dyslexia lies in phonological processing, or understanding the sound structure of speech, there is growing evidence that dyslexia is caused by multiple factors. This includes difficulties in visual attention. It seems that some, but not all, dyslexics have difficulties in processing detailed visual information.</p>
<p>In normal reading, there is a sensitive and highly efficient link between eye movements and understanding what we read. People often believe that when we read, our eyes move continuously and gradually, but that is not the case. Eye movements when reading involve a series of short “jumps” or saccades, followed by a brief period of stillness while the brain processes the letters in front of the eyes. The “visual span” is the number of letters that can be processed during the period of stillness, before moving ones eyes again.</p>
<p>Problems in the text, such as typos or unknown words, prompt an almost immediate response, with eyes tracking backwards and forwards to check the surrounding context to help resolve the issue. This shows that we are interpreting what we read word by word, continually updating our understanding.</p>
<p>In skilled reading, this process is so automatic we hardly notice it. However, many dyslexic readers seem to have difficulties, including a shorter visual span and less efficient eye movements. The e-reader means that readers do not need to make these saccades in the same way, and their visual span is less crucial (since the lines of text are so short).</p>
<p>This study shows a significant interaction between visual span and method of reading. Using an iPod improves comprehension in those students with short visual spans, but it reduces comprehension in those with long or good visual spans. This very neatly shows that the visual abilities of the reader is crucial in predicting whether this method will be beneficial or not.</p>
<p>These findings suggest that e-readers may be a useful tool in the support of dyslexic students, since around a third of the students involved showed a better understanding of what they were reading when using an iPod. However, as the authors state, this would only ever be an adjunct to direct teaching and practise in reading in multiple contexts. They tested adolescent students in a specialist school for children with language learning impairments, and it is not clear that the findings can be extrapolated to older or younger readers, or less severely impaired students.</p>
<p>The study also has implications for our wider understanding of dyslexia. Historically, the evidence for the causal role of visual impairments in dyslexia has been mixed.</p>
<p>Some researchers have argued that, because of the close link between cognition and eye movements, the less efficient eye movements of dyslexic students might reflect their reading problems, rather than causing them. If many of the words that a reader encounters are unknown, they are likely to show many regressions, through checks forward and backward, to improve understanding.</p>
<p>However, the study shows this is not the full explanation. Simplifying the layout of text actually improves understanding in a third of these students, indicating that the eye movements themselves are making it harder for the dyslexic students to understand what they read.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/18301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Carroll does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Using an e-reader may help some dyslexic students understand what they read more effectively, researchers at Harvard University argue. In a paper published in the journal PLOS One, the authors found that…Julia Carroll, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/60562012-04-04T20:44:17Z2012-04-04T20:44:17ZSpotify: saviour of the music industry?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9307/original/p5bxdydp-1333511172.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C12%2C978%2C784&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">After success in Europe and the US, subscription-based music streaming service, Spotify is launching in Australia. Could it be a musical saviour?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/capsun</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>International music provider Spotify is preparing for its <a href="http://www.startupsmart.com.au/strategy/spotify-primed-for-australian-launch/201203155689.html">launch into the Australian market</a> later this year. </p>
<p>As a subscription-based streaming service, the success of the Stockholm-based Spotify across Europe and the US has challenged the dominance of Apple’s iTunes in digital music consumption. Spotify is estimated to have three million paying customers, and over ten million using its free service.</p>
<p>Apple and similar retailers such as Nokia, Vodafone, Telstra have until now offered the purchase of individual songs and albums linked to other services or hardware. </p>
<p>For Apple, there was the beauty of the “end to end” model: iTunes music delivered to iPods, iPhones and Macs, completing a healthy circle of consumption and production. Other providers, such as <a href="http://www.last.fm/">Last.fm</a> and <a href="http://www.pandora.com/restricted">the US-restricted Pandora</a> (internet radio libraries not yet available in Australia) are also smart in assisting your song compilations (like this? then you’ll also like this…) through digital processing of your choices.</p>
<p>Overseas streaming services (<a href="http://www.rdio.com/?utm_source=text_AU_adwords&utm_content=Rdio&gclid=CPf0zvWgmq8CFQZNpgodoSnLZw">Rdio</a>, <a href="http://www.rhapsody.com/">Rhapsody</a> and <a href="http://www.pure.com/au/">Pure</a>) operate differently in offering songs through “cloud” services, although “ownership” of songs becomes a problem. </p>
<p>Spotify has some important differences to its existing rivals: it offers a free subscription service with ads (in the UK, £4.99 per month, or A$7.71), or a “premium” service without ads (£9.99 per month).</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=347%2C140%2C1269%2C1853&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9313/original/fpd3kjtk-1333511956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Not everyone is a Spotify fan. Adele is among artists refusing to use the site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
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<p>Part of the business model is obviously to entice fans with the free subscription, and then impressing them with the premium service. With its 2011 decision to restrict the playing of a single track to five plays, and a total of ten hours listening per month, this is certainly a big stick to go premium.</p>
<p>It’s also an admission that the free subscription has its limits in terms of future growth for the company. The major recording companies, who have shareholder stakes in Spotify, were not a fan of the strategy, either.</p>
<p>Musicians have also made their feelings known about Spotify’s returns to composers and publishers. In the UK, it’s estimated that a musician gains £0.0041 per stream. On this scale, plays have to be in the millions to recoup to the artist any serious revenue. </p>
<p>This has led to some well-publicised withdrawals by labels and artists (such as Adele and Coldplay) who claim that it’s not worth the effort, and that it might actually hurt sales in other areas.</p>
<p>Co-founder Daniel Ek has consistently argued that a presence on Spotify, even with very low rates of return, is much better than the bleeding of revenue to illegal downloading companies like Pirate Bay. This is one of the reasons why Napster founder Sean Parker has invested in Spotify, as part of the search for the Holy Grail: a digital music service that satisfies artists, recording companies <em>and</em> consumers.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9316/original/t2w9n6c5-1333513285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">AC/DC refuse to engage with any digital service.</span>
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<p>According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), legal downloading revenues are slowly starting to matter, with a rise in global digital revenue by 8% in 2011, although overall market sales were down. However, this slow shift to meaningful digital returns isn’t just about making it easier for illegal downloaders to become “legit”, or winning them over. It also requires greater transparency from these large aggregators of content about the true nature of their relationships with music publishers, and royalty rates.</p>
<p>This is a company that now has a serious footprint across key territories, but is apparently yet to go into collective profit. Yet for ease of use, the depth of its song library (over 15 million tracks), and application across everyday media, Spotify remains an attractive proposition.</p>
<p>It will be a major contender in the Australian market, particularly as the NBN is fully rolled out. It has also incorporated many of the features of internet radio rivals that link consumer preferences to what’s in the catalogue.</p>
<p>The company is now in discussions with the Australian subsidiaries of the major labels, and the extent to which it captures iconic Australian artists, past and present, in its catalogue will be crucial. AC/DC, for example, refuse to engage with any digital service, streaming or otherwise.</p>
<p>Let’s be clear. The recording companies have consistently failed to comprehend the shift to digital lifestyles, and their longstanding belief in consumer litigation and perpetual resort to copyright law reform has failed (and in many cases had opposite effects to those intended).</p>
<p>It says an awful lot about the music industry that the key IT companies have dominated legal sales mechanisms in providing affordable digital systems and a decent market share. Spotify will continue to be an interesting experiment in an industry that is still not relaxed and comfortable about the new century. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6056/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shane Homan receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>International music provider Spotify is preparing for its launch into the Australian market later this year. As a subscription-based streaming service, the success of the Stockholm-based Spotify across…Shane Homan, Associate Professor, English, Communications and Performance Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.