Apple Celebrates 25 Years of the iPod with a Virtual Comeback. The Real Thing Is Still Dead

Apple has found an unusual way to celebrate the iPod’s 25th anniversary: make people visit a broken webpage. Steve Jobs introduced the original $399, 5GB player on October 23, 2001, promising 1,000 songs in your pocket. Twenty-five years later, Cupertino’s tribute to one of its most influential products is a virtual iPod tucked inside an Apple Music “Page Not Found” screen. Do the folks at Apple have nothing better to do? Perhaps, but I hate to admit that this is rather clever.

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A Working iPod, Hidden Where Nothing Should Work

Visit music.apple.com/404 in a web browser and a first-generation iPod appears with the invitation, “Give this a spin instead.” The monochrome display, menus, separate playback buttons, and scroll wheel have been recreated, right down to the familiar scrolling behavior. To be precise, the 2001 original had a physically rotating scroll wheel; the integrated Click Wheel didn’t arrive until the fourth generation in 2004.

There are 1,029 songs to explore, with selections from the iPod era, including Daft Punk, Coldplay, and U2. You can navigate playlists, adjust shuffle and repeat settings, and listen to previews lasting roughly 30 or 90 seconds, but you cannot play complete albums or load your own music. No Apple Music subscription is required. The other surprise is Brick, the classic Breakout-style game, hidden under Settings → About. Then hold the center button to unlock it. Somebody in Cupertino clearly had fun building this.

Cute Easter Egg. But Why Not Build a Real Music Player?

What makes this special isn’t sound quality or functionality; it’s the obsessive recreation of an interface that made a massive digital music library feel manageable. The iPod didn’t invent portable audio, but its combination of storage, navigation, and music management helped transform listening habits. This little browser toy recalls a period when choosing an album felt more deliberate than surrendering to whatever an algorithm decided you’d tolerate during lunch.

Apple retired the iPod line in 2022, but the dedicated digital audio player certainly didn’t die with it. Astell&Kern, FiiO, Sony, Cayin, iBasso, and HiBy sell actual portable music players with modern DACs, headphone amplification, local-file playback, and, on many models, hi-res streaming support. Some cost a small fortune; others don’t. We’ve even covered the Fosi Audio DAP Neo, an $80 player that embraces the original iPod’s simplicity while letting you listen to entire songs. Imagine that.

Bring Back the iMod Instead

My nostalgia runs a little deeper. About twenty years ago, I reviewed Vinnie Rossi’s Red Wine Audio iMod, a $200 modification that bypassed parts of the iPod’s analog output circuitry so it could serve as a more serious source for a headphone amplifier or hi-fi system. Rossi understood something Apple never made a priority: the iPod was a terrific interface attached to a music player whose analog output could be improved.

I’d rather see Vinnie bring back the iMod than watch Apple congratulate itself for turning a dead link into a museum exhibit. Still, credit where it’s due: the virtual iPod is free, charming, and worth five minutes of your Sunday. Just don’t call it a comeback. The real music players are being made by everyone else.

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