ABOUT THE SPEAKER
David Pogue - Technology columnist
David Pogue is the personal technology columnist for the New York Times and a tech correspondent for CBS News. He's also one of the world's bestselling how-to authors, with titles in the For Dummies series and his own line of "Missing Manual" books.

Why you should listen

Which cell phone to choose? What software to buy? Are camera-binoculars a necessity or novelty? As release cycles shorten and ever-shrinking gadgets hit the market with dizzying speed, it's harder and harder to know what's worth the investment. A tireless explorer of everyday technology, David Pogue investigates all the options so we don't have to.

After happily weathering installation nightmares, customer service hiccups, and an overwhelming crush of backups, upgrades and downloads, Pogue reports back with his recommendations via his many columns, TV appearances and how-to books. And he does it all with relatable insight, humor and an unsinkable sense of pun, er, fun. All that, and he sings, too.

More profile about the speaker
David Pogue | Speaker | TED.com
TED2007

David Pogue: The music wars

Filmed:
680,744 views

New York Times tech columnist David Pogue performs a satirical mini-medley about iTunes and the downloading wars, borrowing a few notes from Sonny and Cher and the Village People.
- Technology columnist
David Pogue is the personal technology columnist for the New York Times and a tech correspondent for CBS News. He's also one of the world's bestselling how-to authors, with titles in the For Dummies series and his own line of "Missing Manual" books. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

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Ladies and gentlemen,
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the history of music and television on the Internet
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in three minutes.
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A TED medley --
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a TEDley.
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♫ It's nine o' clock on a Saturday ♫
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♫ The record store's closed for the night ♫
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♫ So I fire up the old iTunes music store ♫
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♫ And soon I am feelin' all right ♫
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♫ I know Steve Jobs can find me a melody ♫
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♫ With one dollar pricing that rocks ♫
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♫ I can type in the track and get album names back ♫
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♫ While still in my PJs and socks ♫
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♫ Sell us a song, you're the music man ♫
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♫ My iPod's still got 10 gigs to go ♫
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♫ Yes, we might prefer more compatibility ♫
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♫ But Steve likes to run the whole show ♫
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♫ I heard "Desperate Housewives" was great last night ♫
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♫ But I had a bad piece of cod ♫
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♫ As I threw up my meal, I thought, "It's no big deal" ♫
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♫ I'll watch it tonight on my 'Pod ♫
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♫ And now all of the networks are joining in ♫
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♫ Two bucks a show without ads ♫
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♫ It's a business those guys always wanted to try ♫
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♫ But only Steve Jobs had the 'nads ♫
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♫ They say we're young, don't watch TV ♫
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♫ They say the Internet is all we see ♫
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♫ But that's not true; they've got it wrong ♫
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♫ See, all our shows are just two minutes long ♫
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♫ Hey ♫
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♫ I got YouTube ♫
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♫ I got YouTube ♫
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And now, ladies and gentlemen,
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a tribute to the Recording Industry Association of America --
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the RIAA!
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♫ Young man, you were surfin' along ♫
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♫ And then, young man, you downloaded a song ♫
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♫ And then, dumb man, copied it to your 'Pod ♫
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♫ Then a phone call came to tell you ... ♫
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♫ You've just been sued by the R-I-A-A ♫
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♫ You've just been screwed by the R-I-A-A ♫
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♫ Their attorneys say you committed a crime ♫
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♫ And there'd better not be a next time ♫
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♫ They've lost their minds at the R-I-A-A ♫
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♫ Justice is blind at the R-I-A-A ♫
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♫ You're depriving the bands ♫
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♫ You are learning to steal ♫
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♫ You can't do whatever you feel ♫
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♫ CD sales have dropped every year ♫
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♫ They're not greedy, they're just quaking with fear ♫
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♫ Yes indeedy, what if their end is near ♫
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♫ And we download all our music ♫
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♫ Yeah, that would piss off the R-I-A-A ♫
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♫ No plastic discs from the R-I-A-A ♫
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♫ What a way to make friends ♫
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♫ It's a plan that can't fail ♫
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♫ All your customers off to jail ♫
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♫ Who'll be next for the R-I-A-A? ♫
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♫ What else is vexing the R-I-A-A? ♫
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♫ Maybe whistling a tune ♫
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♫ Maybe humming along ♫
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♫ Maybe mocking 'em in a song ♫
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
David Pogue - Technology columnist
David Pogue is the personal technology columnist for the New York Times and a tech correspondent for CBS News. He's also one of the world's bestselling how-to authors, with titles in the For Dummies series and his own line of "Missing Manual" books.

Why you should listen

Which cell phone to choose? What software to buy? Are camera-binoculars a necessity or novelty? As release cycles shorten and ever-shrinking gadgets hit the market with dizzying speed, it's harder and harder to know what's worth the investment. A tireless explorer of everyday technology, David Pogue investigates all the options so we don't have to.

After happily weathering installation nightmares, customer service hiccups, and an overwhelming crush of backups, upgrades and downloads, Pogue reports back with his recommendations via his many columns, TV appearances and how-to books. And he does it all with relatable insight, humor and an unsinkable sense of pun, er, fun. All that, and he sings, too.

More profile about the speaker
David Pogue | Speaker | TED.com