Why people in their teens and 20s are rejecting streaming music and collecting vintage iPods

So it’s a mistake to assume all of Generation Z is wedded to streaming services. As Yuuiko sees it: “with an iPod, your music is in your hand. Not in some abstract cloud, kept and controlled by a robot you pay.” Many in the community want to keep their audio-playing functions separate from their phones, saying they prefer to relax and disconnect from the world while listening to their tunes.

The vogue for iPods is further explained by teens’ and twentysomethings’ fixation on Y2K fashion - and by the wider renaissance of ‘legacy’ media. For Joe Hughes, a 21-year-old university student from Manchester, a collection of 26 iPods sits nicely alongside his vinyl records, cassettes, and CDs. He tells Dazed that he’s not “anti-streaming”, but he prefers to own his media.

There are many possible reasons why Gen Z have become not just iPod fans, but collectors too. Lots of them remember envying their parents’ music-players, and can now cheaply acquire second-hand models or just inherit them. 20-year-old Santiago Rivera from Guadalajara, Mexico, has a model that his father bought in 2001 – supposedly the first iPod purchase in his hometown.