Rotten to the Aux Cord

Today I want to write about something a little different. I'd like to interweave one of my personal convenience crisis with a business observation I noticed because of it. If we're Facebook friends you know I've recently fallen into a trap set by Apple to get me to give them more of my money.

I begrudgingly upgraded my iPhone because after 5 years of tender love, the software was starting to get wonky because, well, Apple makes it do that so you have to buy a new phone. That's fine guys... So anyways, I upgraded my phone one generation through my carrier to avoid giving Apple any money and because I, like many millennials, can't afford a new $900 phone.

I got my new phone and was ready to move forward with my life, until I looked at the headphone jack. The craft MFers at Apple had "evolved" (*cough sabotaged cough*) the new generation of phone to have no headphone jack, but instead, to have the headphones plug into the charging port with a newly shaped insert.

For the not so tech savvy like me, this basically means all of the headphones I own do not work for my phone, and the new headphones for the new phone don't fit any of my other Apple products, namely my Mac.

I don't listen to music in my headphones very frequently. It's usually just when I'm studying or at work. But guess what folks, my laptop and my work computer use the old headphone jack that has existed since literally forever. My phone, where I keep all of my music, doesn't.

I was left with two choices. I could either carry two pairs of headphones with me at all times forever, or I could buy a pair of Airpods (wireless headphones from the aforementioned evil Apple). Well, being stubborn, broke, and forgetful, I went with option three. I downloaded Spotify.

Spotify is a big competitor for Apple. It is one of the few places you can listen to virtually any music you want, any time, for free. There are paid versions of Spotify, but their cost pales in comparison to paying $1.29 per song or even to Apple Music, which is Apple's way of competing with Spotify.

Since I have a deep hatred for Apple I happily downloaded Spotify onto all of my computers. For free. It took under a minute and I didn't have to go to a sterile Apple store where the preppy ripoff of the Geek Squad judged me for my older tech and aversion to giving them all of my money, a blood sacrifice, and my first born.

Apple's obsession with milking customers of every possible cent they have sent me running into the arms of their competition. Their "cool" and "state of the art" technology upgrades basically played Cyrano to my blooming love story with Spotify.

Needless to say Apple's strategy failed on me, an educated millennial with disposable income, AKA the kind of customer they'd sacrifice a goat to have.

Maybe it's just me and my old-fashioned business ideals, but I love watching a shady empire fail.