Searching for an icon

Radio Canada, the French language service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), recently released a 5 CD box set, 75ans 75chansons (75 years 75 songs) to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the CBC.

Each disc represents a specific period and is identified with an icon.

• 1936-1960 with a wind-up gramophone
• 1960-1970 with what looks like a 12" LP
• 1970-1980 with a compact cassette
• 1980-2000 with a CD
• 2000-2011 with what looks like an iPod

I find it interesting that for the first and last CDs the icon chosen is a playback device, not a storage medium. (Although I think that you could argue that the iPod is both a playback device and a storage medium.)

But this raises the question, is there a better icon for a digital music file than an iPod? I'm sure Apple will not complain, but consumers are increasingly listening to music on smartphones and Apple sells more iPhones than iPods.

I talked about this before with Adobe's use of a a drawing of a 3.5" diskette as the icon for saving a file. If consumers don't understand your icon, they will have no idea how to use your product. Will all of the icons on the Radio Canada box set mean something to the average consumer under 30? Probably not.