It seems like ages ago, when everyone roamed the streets with Walkman portable tape players. They were huge, sucked up battery power very fast and tended to crank after a few months. But their biggest problem: music could only be transferred to tapes in real-time.
The next era in mobile music entertainment came with the introduction of compact discs. The Walkman evolved to become a Discman – and finally digital music could be brought along for walks, trips in public transportation, or boring math lessons. The big disadvantage of the mobile CD player: they were not thoroughly shock resistant and thus your songs would follow the beat of your steps more so than the beat of the artist.

With the revolution of MP3 formatted songs came also the revolution in mobile music. Tiny MP3 players containing hours and hours of music entertainment changed the way we listen to music on the go. Resistant against shocks and easily stuffed with all the latest sounds at the touch of a button, MP3 players bring mobile listening into the digital age.

One radical product is the iPod player by Apple. The first generation of iPods was introduced on October 23rd 2001. Its 5 gigabyte memory and minimized control-buttons made this petite device one of the most celebrated electronic innovations in years. Everybody had to have one of these stylish and practical companions. In October of 2005 the fifth generation of iPod players was introduced. By now, they can store up to 60 GB of data and thus give a soundtrack for an entire weekend of non-stop listening.