The day that music died.
Some people will think of the gramophone or vinyl as the first real music player while others will suggest that tapes or CD walkmans revolutionised the music industry.
However, if you were heavily into music in the mid-noughties, an iPod was a must. You didn't have to carry around a selection of discs on your travels and there was no hassle of scratching and damaging a CD while changing them in the walkman.
The thought of being able to upload something on to this small device and that it would hold numerous CDs worth of songs was baffling but we did not question it, we just let it be.
Bono was the poster boy for the brand new music device and up until lately, his silhouette was still being used on the artist symbol in all of Apple's music products.
The first time this JOE writer ever came across the iPod was circa 2004/'05.
Vertigo had just been released by U2 and the rip-roaring chorus of "Hello, Hello... Ola" followed by the constant ending of 'Yeahs' was danced to by the band and a girl both of which had this little music player in their hand with the earphones plugged in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vflb4nBhb9M
Clip via absolutCommunication
Everyone at school wanted an iPod, even if you only had one CD. It was the cool new accessory to have but nobody could have foreseen the massive impact it would have on the music industry.
Well, 16 years since it was first launched on the market, Apple has decided to finally pull the plug on its iPod Nano and Shuffle products.
The iPod touch is still alive in some form. Apple offers a Touch with 32GB of storage, it's not a real iPod but instead, an iPhone-lite.
Therefore, 28 July marks the end of Apple's era of standalone music players.
You may be reading this article on your smartphone and wondering to yourself 'why should I care about this, can't I get all my music on this thing anyway?' and you'd be completely right to think that.
Cast your mind back though and remember just how happy you were when you tore that iPod box apart on Christmas Day, your birthday or maybe it just even a normal day.
Remember how exciting it was to upload all your music on to it for the first time? The sound was so good and loud that even the oldest of songs seemed fresh.
Like a passport or a phone, your iPod might be sitting idle in a drawer somewhere at this moment in time.
If you do know of its whereabouts, take it out and give it a blast today, for old times sake.
