Music, Music, Music

Recorded music was once heard by the public on jukeboxes, and the forerunner of the jukebox was the nickelodian, a player piano (or mechanical band) that performed automatically from paper rolls for the price of a nickel:

Put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon
All I want is having you and music, music, music!
I'd do anything for you, anything you'd want me to
All I want is kissing you and music, music, music!

Closer, my dear come closer
The nicest part of any melody
Is when you're dancing close to me

Put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon
All I want is loving you and music, music, music!

Words and Music by Stephan Weiss and Bernie Baum
Teresa Brewer #1: March 1950

The magic of music on demand cannot be underestimated. Digital recording has made the listener of music into the maker of music. The development of the mp3 file (mpeg stands for moving picture expert group, and the 3 indicates the 3rd layer of a mpeg file, the audio layer), resulted in the explosion of the Internet and made it a phenomenon of popular culture.

The first recording was made in 1877 by Thomas Edison. Our capacity to capture sound for reproduction has transformed our culture and our way of making and listening to music.

Our nickelodeon is the iPod or mp3 player. iTunes is a music file manager that enables you to develop a master library of recordings,categorize them and organize into playlists, to burn CDs, and transform music into different file types such as aiff, wav, or mp3. It also provides access to video and audio podcasts, Internet Radio, and Apple's Music Store which most individual songs can be purchased for $.99. Of course, there are many other types of music file managers available for download on the Internet.

Whatever your choice, the need for a digital music librarian application that is powerful and responsive to individual needs and tastes is an essential program for computers today.