A few things happened.

People in the music industry had been moping for some time, arguing that illegal online music trading and CD piracy would put them out of business. The culture of portable, downloaded digital music has gone mainstream. A bunch of so-called visionaries (prophets?) have surfaced to tell us how things will be in the future. Companies have tried creating viable alternatives to the free swapping services. And I’m finally ready to accept some of the changes that will most certainly come to the music industry in the next few years.

Courtesy of Bob Lefsetz - one of the prophets who I actually think is original - today I watched a cool little video about Apple’s new releases, including iTunes and the new iPod. It’s great to see the Apple people fervently working to make their products competitive. In fact, I even liked the iPod.

Now, I’m going to warn you that I tend to be mean concerning Apple. I’ve actually used Macs in the past, and think they’re fine. But does Apple need me to defend them? No. So there’s no need to be nice, agreed?

The great thing about addressing some of my concerns regarding Apple’s product line is that I get to cover alot of current events in the industry. So here go a few posts with a long list of facts, and some insane criticism of the industry and the direction in which it’s heading.