It's not the ipods or PC's or CD's; it's the implementation and the control of software. When we were young you turned on the radio and heard good music and lots of it all different and varied. The FM band had phenomenal specs and sounded great. If you wanted to hear it at your leisure you bought a cassette or 8 track recorder and took it off the radio or from your turntable.
Now the corporate cowboys control all the music/radio stations/hardware/code etc. etc. So you hear what a corporate guy wants you to hear on a formatt they think makes the most money.
It's all so regimented and confusing that it isn't even worth it anymore. It's boring and obnoxious to hear the same repetitive music/DJ's/Formatts/etc, and all done on lousy algorithyms. It stifles creativity and kills participation by the people.

Then they tell you well; thats free enterprise and what the heck, the people don't know the difference anyway. Since when does the concept of rigid control of resources equate to freedom? Freedom for the big companies to dictate what we hear and on what formatt at what time of day maybe. No freedom for us; thats for sure.