Nate Heinrich, head of John Deere’s Precision Ag Product Marketing and Innovation department, appreciates the throwback music medium of CDs. 

Heinrich was the first speaker of 2019 for the Technology Association of Iowa’s TechBrew series, which invites audiences in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids to get to know corporate leaders of Iowa tech companies. For the uninitiated, TAI asks the TechBrew guest to choose music for the morning, and typically presents them with a vinyl album of their band of choice. 

After treating attendees at the Jan. 11 TAI TechBrew to Thievery Corporation’s 2002 album “The Richest Man in Babylon,” TAI Director Brian Waller handed Heinrich a CD copy of the album apologetically — no vinyl to be found for “Babylon.”

“I still bring my CD player when I go to work out at the gym. It’s cool,” Heinrich said. 

“That’s what you want from your John Deere innovation guy,” Waller noted. 

It could be worse — I hear cassettes are coming back in style …