Picture Credit score: tinyPod
A rising variety of individuals, particularly Gen Z, want to transfer away from streaming providers, and Apple’s previous iPod units are having a resurgence.
Individuals are shopping for up Apple’s retired tech prefer it’s going out of favor—once more—as an rising variety of music listeners lengthy for a break from streaming providers and smartphones. Particularly amongst youthful generations, the rising curiosity in basic iPods is a part of a broader digital burnout development spurring a return to offline units and hobbies.
Apple discontinued the iPod product line in 2022, however Google Traits knowledge reveals that searches for the unique iPod and iPod Nano spiked final yr: eBay searches for traditional iPods jumped by 25% and iPod Nano by 20% between January and October 2025, in comparison with the identical interval in 2024.
A part of the curiosity stems from the truth that older tech tends to be “single-purpose,” in response to laptop science professor Cal Newport, the writer of “Digital Minimalism.” Smartphones bundle music, immediate messages, social feeds, information, video games, and extra, which makes it “almost inconceivable to manage your expertise use with any consistency,” stated Newport. “All you are able to do with an iPod, for instance, is hearken to music.”
“The act of enjoying my music, with the only goal of listening to music—no advertisements, no apps, no distractions—makes my mind really feel brand-new once more,” stated Shaughnessy Barker, a Gen Z-er who began utilizing an iPod Traditional over the winter vacation season after looking out eBay and Fb Market.
“Typically, I simply wish to exit, take a stroll, and I wish to hearken to music, however I don’t essentially need 20 notifications,” stated Katherine Esters, who “grew up with the rise and fall of iPods.” She just lately bought an iPod Traditional for $100 on Fb Market, which she says she listens to when she’s “making an attempt to cleanse myself of being on my telephone.”
In some circumstances, it’s not in regards to the previous tech itself, however capturing what that tech represents: reclaiming your time from a digital setting. This could even be completed by repurposing present tech; for instance, tinyPod turns your present Apple Watch right into a bodily scrollable iPod-like machine, whereas nonetheless retaining the performance of the Apple Watch.
However for a lot of, particularly younger individuals who grew up within the age of “algorithmic ease,” it’s about embracing extra hands-on experiences, tapping into so-called “friction-maxxing”—that’s, increase a tolerance for “inconvenience”—and even discovering some type of enlightenment or enjoyment in it.
For others, it’s much less a couple of digital cleanse and extra about making an attempt to bypass telephone bans at college, in accordance to The New York Instances. And there’s no signal of music streaming fading away anytime quickly; Luminate knowledge exhibits U.S. on-demand audio streaming reached 1.4 trillion tune streams in 2025, up from 1.3 trillion the yr prior.
