Twenty years ago this weekend, Apple launched the original, iconic iPod. Six years later, I was gifted my first and only version of the device: a third-generation iPod Nano, fit with a square screen, a click wheel and an engraving on the back: "Sofia Barrett, Happy 11th Birthday."

By that time, the iPod line had begun its long decline from relevance. Apple had already introduced the iPhone, which would become the centerpiece of its ecosystem of products, and catapult it toward being the most valuable tech company in the world. But for the next five years — a key part of my teenage life — the iPod helped shape my relationship with music and technology.

If the iPod was a gateway for many customers into Apple's hardware and software products, it was also an early gateway for me into a type of consumption that we take for granted online: a seemingly limitless amount of content, available the moment you want it at the tap of a button, often for less than it cost in the analog era. (Though, as a teenager with no job, I still asked my parents for their credit cards to buy songs like "Fergalicious" and "Hot N Cold" for $1.29 apiece.)

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