What ever next?!

I just came across this article (registration requried) on the NY Times in their technology section, which I read everyday and think is excellent.

The article is about the new phenomenon whereby a new facet of the "iPod economy" has emerged. Firstly, I didnt realise there was an iPod economy, but I also didnt realise jobs were growing in this economy. Seemingly, new businesses are being set up to load peoples' music collections onto their iPods. Hot shot lawyers dont have time to rip CD's, so college students get paid to rip these CD's while doing other stuff, like surfing online or playing the Xbox.

Feed My Pod is the example given in the article, but there are probably loads of them out there. A quick search for "iPod Loading" on Google throws up iRip, LoadPod and another article on it. According to the article, most of these "businesses" are just small time operations and are usually just one person doing it for friends, instead of large operations.

I'd be curious to know if people are actually selling their iPod music collection to transfer on to other peoples iPods? This new thing involves the customers actually owning the CDs. I imagine it does. If not, I should start it!

I just wonder, where will the iPod's influence end? Its already created a whole sub-culture and now its own little economy. Who thought a small white box could be so powerful?