Tommy Collison

Music is a huge part of my life — as much as computers, without a doubt.

It began in or around 2003 – John had an MP3 player that would, in fairness, be scorned at. It had a memory of 320 MBs (if memory (no pun intended) serves me right), which, in comparison to the 120 GBs (that’s 327,680 MBs) iPods that they have today.

He was selling it so that he could purchase an iPod Nano (which was chubby in those days! and the screen was in black & white!). He set down a cool €100 asking price which I agreed to. Upon asking Dad, he gave me the money but suggested I try haggling. So I did.

9 year old me: How about €90?
John: Nah. €100 or nothing.
9 year old me: Ok so.

As you can see, 9 year old me was one cool customer, and a force not to be reckoned with…

But there it was — my first MP3 player, and I was in awe. Powered by an AA battery, its little pixelated ticker-tape display proudly showed what song you were playing. You controlled it by a little cog wheel and with the volume keys.

Not having a computer (or music tastes) of my own, I promptly handed it back over to him to put some music on it. I only vagually remember what it was he put on – I know some Red Hot Chili Peppers were on it.

Over the next few years, I moved onto an iPod Shuffle (which I bought from Patrick for the slightly-less extortionate price of €30), an iPod Nano (a leaner cousin of John’s one, but not as wafer-thin as the current model) and finally onto the iPhone I have today.

Were your MP3 player beginnings Apple dreams or were they AA powered machines?