My music in someone else’s hands…
My friend Paul is getting married in a couple of weeks. He thought it would be a good idea to take an iPod away on his honeymoon; and his wife to be very kindly agreed to buy it for him.
However, Paul has no PC at home at the moment; which obviously leaves him with a slight problem. He can get the iPod, but how can he fill it with music?
So, he calls me, and asks, very politely, if he can have all my music on his iPod as an interim measure before sorting his own stuff out. I say yes, as long as he agrees to buy the iPod through my Amazon associate link, thus earning me slightly less than £20.
He agreed, and last night he came round with his new empty 4th gen iPod in hand. It took a couple of hours to get it all working, but eventually he left with my entire music collection in his hands.
Putting the legal issues of this to one side for the moment (well, forever actually because I’ll deny it all in court) it’s weird to think that there is now a carbon copy of me out there.
There’s an episode of Friends where someone steals Monica’s credit card, and by following her spending Monica finds out that the thief is having much more fun being her than she ever has done.
This is one of my worries: that Paul actually likes my music more than I do. That he listens to all the things I’ve never quite got round to listening to. He finds old stuff that I didn’t even know I had. In other words my music actually makes him much cooler than it’s ever made me.
Then there is the problem that they listen to the wrong stuff: all the Justin Timberlake etc that’s there to keep my better half happy and they think that’s actually me.
AT the moment, however, they seem happy to have it. I’ve sent them some recommended listening. And it’s good to know that someone else might benefit from the endless hours ripping that went into that collection.
In fact, as wedding presents go, it’s considerably more exciting than dinner plates and cutlery.