The comments following the TechCrunch post about the new SanDisk/Yahoo media device quickly hammer home the generational difference in MP3 player usage and music consumption.

In a quote from a Yahoo guy about the device, he brings up the often-heard argument that “..we all know iPods are mostly full of not-paid-for MP3s.”, and then numerous people chime in with “mine are all legal, I ripped them from the CDs I own” argument. It is, however, the first comment in the sequence that makes this whole exchange interesting. Some young whippersnapper (19 years old we learn later in the comments) says “I don’t think you understand youth culture … most of my friends probably only know how to download and add illegal MP3’s as opposed to ripping their CD’s.”, which brought me to the realization that for us old fogies (I’m 34), we get to easily make the “ripped it from CD” argument because back in the day, the only way to acquire new music was to buy the CD/album, and this is the reason we have a box full of them collecting dust in the first place. The younger generation doesn’t have this constraint; it makes more sense for them to download the track than buy the CD and rip it, as those are just extra steps to the final result, which is an MP3 file.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the argument that “All my downloaded music is legal”, it’s always “All my music is legal, because I ripped it from my CD collection”. As we move away from having to buy physical media to obtain new music, we’ll lose the “ripped from CD” argument, and we’ll be forced to deal with the legal versus illegal downloads issue in an even bigger way.

As I read the TechCrunch comment stream, I found it funny that the majority of comments about this “new media” device were made by the old-school crowd, those of us older than, say, 25. It reminded me of the Grumpy Old Man character Dana Carvey played on Saturday Night Live. “That was the way it was, and we liked it! We loved it!” And notice that I just referenced something that only us old folks will remember, to describe something that only us old folks will remember.

Twilight Zone theme plays…..wait, there it is again!