Tech: Web-Enabled iPod?

Show of hands: How many of you have an iPod? Some other MP3 player? MP3 capable phone? MP3 capable PDA? Have at least seen someone in public walking around wearing those ubiqitous while headphones?

My point in asking is to illustrate that which we did not think possible even a mere five years ago. Who would have thought that we'd consider MP3 (or in the case of Apple's iTunes software, MP4) the standard way to organize our music and take it with us wherever we go? And yet, here we are, and most of us either have a player. Certainly nearly all of us at least knows someone who does have an iPod (or similar).

So, in five years, what will we consider "normal" for our audio consumption patterns? Well, here's one probable trend that will take us closer to that day.

From today's Radio and Internet Newsletter, an interesting bit of speculation. Apple dominates the MP3 player market, and what they do affects most other player manufacturers. So when you read something like this, you know that a new development - affecting a lot of our audience, and also offering us some great opportunities - is just around the corner.

Even if the idea has no real merit today, it will likely end up being true in the coming year.

Wi-Fi Bluetooth iPods sound like the ultimate in convergence fantasy for a wide variety of tech industries. But for RAIN readers, talk of such a player could signal Internet radio capabilities for the world's most popular portable digital media player.

Picture this: When you turn on your iPod, an "Internet Radio" menu would appear, where you could browse through your favorite stations' streams from your iPod's display. This would realize so much of Net radio's portability potential, and in a very mainstream way. Pair that with the hottest personal player going, and what follows should be absolutely huge.

I find this all very interesting. For those of us in the audio business, it means a lot of new ways to deliver our programming. And ways to reach new listeners.

There's a world of new listeners out there! How will they want their audio?