No More iPod Mondays? Should It Be MP3 Mondays?
02.09.07 - 04:17pm
iPod Mondays used to be a night where iPod lovers could come and flaunt their iPod’s, in all their glory, as well as play their musical tastes in a downtown bar called the Lift in Des Moines, Iowa.The night was extremely popular and even went on the Lift’s podcast as well their website, promoting the iPod and songs played through the iPod. iPod Monday was started almost exactly two years ago, back then bar owner, Clint Curtis, claims that he sent Apple inquiries as to whether calling it iPod Monday was okay, he received no reply, so he assumed it was okay.
Apple has finally chosen to reply in an e-mail from Peter Alcorn putting an end to the night. In the e-mail, Alcorn states “With respect to the podcast and associated site, iPod Monday, Apple has determined that your product name, which incorporates the word ‘iPod,’ violates Apple’s trademark guidelines … Please choose a name for your product that is consistent with Apple’s guidelines (that does not include iPod or any other Apple trademark or variation thereon).”
While Alcorn did not specify to end the night only to change the name, Curtis has decided to end the night anyway and I agree with him after all he is not selling a music player and naming it the iPod, he is promoting the iPod and it’s music, with a promotional description.
After doing a little research, I’m not so sure this is one Apple should take on - in just a short time of researching on the net only, I found so many bars and nightclubs that promote iPod Nights, iPod Dj Nights, and iPod Jukebox Nights I finally simply had to stop as this article would take days if I went through all the information. This is not just in the U.S. this is all over the world! I would imagine Europe (who always seems to be a little ahead of us in trends has hundreds of iPod nights), such as the Playlist in London, which even has iPod DJ as their website name, specifically www.ipod-dj.com. Their whole concept of their club is built around the iPod and iPod DJ’s.
iPod Nights seem to have started in clubs as early as 2002 when APT, one of New York’s exclusive bars hosted their iPod Nights. In 2005, in the Seattle PI a story was written on MP3 and iPod Dj’s saying “All you need to do is show up at a club or bar advertising an MP3 or iPod night, plug in your gizmo and press play.” That was in 2005, there must be 100’s of clubs and bars that have an iPod night.
The 21st Amendment Bar in San Fransico holds an iPod Night, every Wednesday, and was listed in a New York Times article’s on the rising popularity of iPod Nights. The iPod Jukebox is held every Wednesday at Cafe Saint-Ex, in Washington DC. I also found articles written by the Washington Post.com and a recent article in CNN.com in which it talks about iPod evenings at Gate 54, in D.C., in the “Where to go out” section. (If you would like to, you can go to the iPod Jukebox Night on February 14th put on by Crickewood Massive.)
My point is this - why in the world would Apple insist iPod Mondays be renamed, unless they’re planning on disallowing all the bars and nightclubs across the whole world to stop promoting their music player. The Lift is not a sleezy it is a bar home to mostly young professionals, features local artwork and is even smoke free (huge for Des Moines, where no smoke free laws are currently present). A lot of the bars I saw, were extremely upscale and a sure tourist draw, especially when named in articles written by such well read and world known magazines and web sites such as the NY Times and CNN.com. Does Apple really want to shut down all that free advertising and do they really want all the bars and night clubs to start calling their nights for digital music, MP3 nights?
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