The Ultimate in Portability Word Count: 457 Summary: When it first became possible to listen to recorded music, the notion of being able to do so on the move probably seemed a little ridiculous Keywords: ipods Article Body: When it first became possible to listen to recorded music, the notion of being able to do so on the move probably seemed a little ridiculous. Though the transition from the type of music appreciation that necessitated the presence of the performers in the same room as the listeners to that which required only a gramophone to enjoy must have been a strange one, music remained, back then, a form of entertainment. And while there is little doubt that the music we listen to today brings us enormous pleasure, it has adopted a new position in our lives. Music is now the accompaniment to our lives, following us from home to office to store. And with the technical innovations of recent years, we can now take it with us to all the places in between. Portable music first became available to the masses with the mass marketing of the cassette tape Walkman. This allowed consumers take their favorite music with them when they went about their daily business, and quickly became a huge success. It is, in fact, the consumer enthusiasm for music in general that has spurred on the technological advancements that have created portable music systems that are better than ever before. And while cassette, and later CD, Walkmans allowed music lovers everywhere to take their tunes wherever they went, listeners were limited to a single tape or CD. The desire for more has now rendered these portable music systems a thing of the past. Next came the Minidisk player, and while this data storage system allowed listeners to carry far more music on one disk, the world of electronics still had more to add. The culmination of their capability, and our limitless desire to hear the tunes we love, any time, anywhere, has come together to create the epitome in music portability – the iPod. The enormous digital data storage system of the iPod allows music lovers to tote their entire music collection with them when they go out into the world. The storage capacity of this miniature music system is great enough to allow you to play your favorite tunes, twenty four hours a day, for well over a month, without repeating a single track. Music lovers are no longer forced to choose which genre they are in the mood for today – you can simply grab your iPod and go, and listen on a whim to any of your favorite artists. The iPod has opened up a whole new world of musical appreciation, as we listen to the songs we love as an accompaniment to our daily lives. Never before has music been so instantaneously available to the people who enjoy it. The iPod really has taken musical entertainment to a whole new level.