The key surprising feature of the new iPod Shuffle is not its randomness, but its lack of a window showing 'now playing' song info. The product team seems to have decided to go with form over function, figuring the looking-at-the-display element wasn't a key part of the experience for most users.
So this past week i've made an effort not to look at my display, to see how the experience feels. It ain't easy - my mind tends to fill with questions like:
- Is that little noodly no-vocals track Cornershop or the Beta Band?
- Which of the early Replacements album is this song on again?
- Is that the McSleazy Madonna mashup or the Ultra396 one?
- Oh, this is one of those lovable no-hit-wonder garage bands collected on the expanded 4-cd NUGGETS, but which one?
I guess I don't NEED that info, but having it definitely enhances my listening experience. Granted, I guess most folks tend to listen to a limited set of music - viz the recent discussion of how celebrity playlists tend just to be what everyone's already listening to - so maybe they don't have issues like this came up. (Though I bet if for some reason you just bought John Mayer and Maroon 5, and were shuffling between them, you might want to know which track was which. Or, you know, whoever...)
Nobody ever said it was a good strategy just to cater to the needs of serious record collectors, as both indy retail and most of the new digital services are discovering... But is wanting to have all the info just a hardcore-collector trait? Time will tell how users will respond - Apple's usually been happy blazing their own trail for better or worse...
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