Diversity in the Workplace: iTunes Shared Music

My office recently finished making the full conversion to OSX. After a long long wait, we are finally up with the times. And although I can now work at work the way i have been working at home for the last 2 years, the conversion has opened my eyes to a great benefit of being on a local network with hundreds of users running OSX. That great side effect to an entire office on OSX is the Shared Music feature in iTunes. All of a sudden what used to be a handful of music libraries (those of us who decided to bring in our own Powerbooks and iBooks and hook into the network) has now ballooned somedays to up to 30 shared music libraries. I suspect that number will increase exponentially in a few weeks time, as more people have a chance to fill their iTunes libraries and join in.

As people start sharing their musical tastes with the rest of the office, I have made some interesting observations. In the beginning you can see people were just excited to have their musical tastes displayed for all to see and listen to�proudly pinning their names to their playlists. But after a few days people started to become more creative with their Shared Names. Sure my iTunes defaulted to Gregory Ng’s Music as my shared name but that was begging to be changed. At first I thought these name changes came out of a need to remain anonymous. But It seems the real explanation is people have started to compete for people linking to their music. I don’t know if this is a sub-conscious need for affirmation in their music tastes, or simply the fact that I work in an advertising agency and, admittedly, we all try to gain attention for ourselves.

Now when I open my Shared Music folder in iTunes it looks like I have opened the iTunes Radio folder. Music advertised as diversely as the people who ripped them. There are libraries hawking themselves as “kick-ass” or “music for a friday afternoon” Or my personal favorite, “Porn Rock for Prom Queens”. They had me at “porn.” Of course the music wasn’t porn music and realistically out of an office of 250+ there might be one or two prom queens in the audience. But it got me to click on and take a gander at the music. I of course got in on the action and started to amass from my personal collection every 80’s Hit pop song I could possibly find. After a few weeks of intense ripping, I have compiled a playlist 752 songs and 1.9 days long, titled, “2 days of music from 20 years ago”.

With the built-in restriction on my iTunes to 5 users connected at one time, something else has happened: demand. Many times, I am unable to connect to my favorites with the dialog box of “Too many users” acknowledging I was just too darn slow in connecting. I have also heard from colleagues that they join in to as many of their favorites first thing in the morning so that during the day when they itching to hear that Phish bootleg (personally, Phish is not high on my list but to each their own), they are already logged in. I know when using the Applescript What Are People Listening 2?, a script that displays for you what people are listening to off of your shared music, that most people hear a few songs, then stop but do not disconnect. Only to listen again. People have been actually asking me if I would disconnect people so they can join in to my 80’s extravaganza. Because I still bring my own Powerbook to work I am thinking about actually duplicating my entire library and copying it into my work computer, creating a mirror site of my 80’s collection and as a result, doubling my users.

Why take the trouble? Honestly, I think I just enjoy providing music for people to hear at work. In advertising, especially on the creative side, music helps the process along. If other people can enjoy my music at the same time I’m enjoying it, why not? In fact, after seeing the popularity of many of the shared music folders (including mine), I found a great, free application that allows you to share your iPod music as well. MusicPublisher works flawlessly in OSX and is a must-have if you have a big collection on your iPod but don’t necessarily want to copy its contents onto your work computer.

I have been very excited to listen to new music these last few weeks. In fact, some music that I have listened to has led me to go and buy the album. Hear that RIAA? Sharing music does lead to sales. All of this would not have been possible without Shared Music. If you are on a network such as mine, no doubt you have been enjoying the diverse musical tastes of your co-workers as well. If you haven’t listened or shared yet, what are you waiting for?