iPod vs. The Algorithm

1,000 songs in your pocket.

That was the original promise of the iPod.
Today, it’s 100 million songs in your pocket thanks to Spotify.

But somewhere between owning our music and streaming everything, something changed.

The iPod asked a simple question: What do you love? Modern platforms ask: How do we keep you here? From Netflix recommendations to endless feeds on TikTok and YouTube, our media diets are increasingly shaped by systems designed for retention, not risk.

But there’s room for both.

The goal isn’t to escape modern tech. It’s to use it deliberately. To take back just a little control. To pick the movie that might suck. To build and curate your own library of songs.

Thanks for watching!