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Music anytime, anywhere

The latest gadgets enable you to tune in to music whether you are at a bus stop, travelling in a car or working in an office

HER COMPANION Music non-stop on FM radio

Iswarya Lakshmi's daily commute to college and back is no longer boring as she has her MP3 player for company. M. Palani's FM radio helps him keep cool as he plies his autorickshaw through the city. Savitha Rao takes refuge in her discman to beat stress at the BPO where she works. V. Senthil turns to the CD player in his car to escape the daily routine. Most people are now tuning into music while on the move.

Software professionals, college students, drivers, bank employees ... people from all walks of life are taking to these gadgets like never before. From the "big box" (read radio) to the sleek ipod, from vinyl records to the CD player, technology has sure changed the way we listen to music. For Palani, who has to deal with the maddening traffic, music is a balm.

Adds Iswarya, "There are days when I've had a tough time at college, and the traffic and travel just add to my woes. Tuning in to my favourite song helps me relax." According to Antony, who handles sales at the Vivek's outlet in Spencer's, the demand for ipods, MP3 players and mobile phones with FM radio is on the rise. Adds Satish Babu, managing director of mobile phone retailer Univercell, "The growing competition among companies has led to a drop in the prices of mobile phones with FM radio, making them more affordable."

Clear sound

Affordability is not the only factor that is boosting sales of these products. Says Yousouf Sidique of Bayshore Records, which sells MP3 players, "The clarity that an ipod or an MP3 player provides is much more than a cassette player does. Moreover, they are user friendly and have more storage capacity."

Joshua Martin, an engineering student, says there is much more to choose from today, both in terms of features and models. It is this variety that people are making the most of. All these gadgets differ substantially in their storage capacity.

The inbuilt capacity can range anywhere between 64 MB and 2 GB. While the former can store approximately 15 songs, the latter can accommodate around 600. Joshua's ipod nano has a 4 GB capacity — he has already stored around 700 songs on it.

With FM stations mushrooming, there has been a rise in the demand for transistors.

While Yousouf complains that the popularity of the FM channels has resulted in a 25 per cent reduction in the sale of audio systems, he says the 45 per cent rise in transistor sales has helped him cope.

Tuning into an FM station on her cell phone has made college student Sujitha's evening walks "more enjoyable." She says "peer pressure" is also responsible for a lot of people buying such products. Antony says 80 per cent of cell phone buyers want those that have either the FM radio or the MP3 player or both.

Another segment making a beeline for the latest gadgets are those pioneers of music on the move — car owners. Antony says most CD systems have a lot of added features to offer. Apart from FM and MP3, many systems are ipod compatible too. Senthil points out that in a CD player, the quality of music is definitely much better than a cassette player. He adds that unlike in a cassette player, you can skip or repeat a track in a jiffy in a CD player. Besides, you can store more songs on a CD. One reason why Rachna Rao and her family opted for a CD player when they bought a car the second time around.

At the other end of the spectrum, autodriver Raja sold his audio system and opted for an FM player a year ago. He explains that installing an audio system along with the speakers can easily cost Rs.1,000.

This is excluding the amount spent on purchasing cassettes. An FM player today, says Yousuf, can cost as little as Rs.140. What's more, it comes with inbuilt speakers.

Also available nowadays are cell phones with a memory card option. So now all that is required is to plug the memory card into the computer in order to download songs. It is this blend of affordability and versatility that has popularised gadgets such as the CD, MP3, FM players and the ipod.

A few years ago, music for people like Savita and Sujitha was restricted to the audio system at home, but not anymore. Whether at bus stops, cars, traffic signals or offices, this breed of technology has penetrated into people's lives in more ways than one. The sound of music is here, there and everywhere.

NANDHINI SHANMUGHAM

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