Apple Musicini

I have spent much of the weekend playing with my iPod. I wish I had known what I know now, back when I started my iPod adventure.

I would have ensured any tracks and albums it did not recognise had their details properly entered. I would have ticked the compilation box for all those CD's with the work of more than one artist. I would have removed references to disc numbers from the title of albums so that multi disc albums sat comfortably in one slot rather than several. I now have just under 70gb of music on my iPod - nearly enough to listen to continuously for a month with no repeats... Except there would be quite a few because tracks appear in more than one place a lot of the time - compilation albums....

Sorting out my music retrospectively takes time.

I learnt that you can only sync from one computer without losing everything. So I bought a hard drive and moved all my music on to that. Now, as long as I have plenty of time, I can sync from any pc I like. It also saves me from having all that music on my pc or my laptop (not sure my laptop could actually contain it all).

but not all the music made it's way on to the hard drive so I had to wade through and find which files I had missed. I had added much music since the last time I had synced so it is taking quite a while. I have also been sorting out playlists, because the music collection is so vast now, finding similar tracks can be tricky....

I knew when I bought my iPod Classic that I would not fill it (at least, not this year) but that I needed that size.... the idea is that all these CD's will find their way in to boxes and move out of the way (if we get the attic boarded, they can go up there). Can you imagine what it was like trying to find a single CD amongst all of them? Finding a single song can sometimes be tricky but I can sort and search now!

I thought that I would start downloading music rather than being wasteful and buying CDs. This is not to be anytime soon. Buying CDs is very much cheaper than downloading music. I know they justify this by saying it is a licence for five copies but I don't want five copies. I would use up one of my licences no doubt just getting the file where I wanted it to be! I remember a friend telling me they lost all their music just by changing their computer over the years.....

I hate the thought of losing my music collection - if something happened to my hard drive... *shudder* but at least I can always go back to the beginning if anything happens and download all my CDs again. OK so it took me weeks.... But I can do it if I have to.

I have come to resent and admire apple in equal measures. They have secured their future for sure.... Would I buy another iPod? Not sure. I had to buy an iPod and a hard drive to not clog up my pc, I believe other music thingies allow you to move the music in both directions. How much easier is that? I understand why Apple set things up the way they did, they were very creative. They make millions...

I sit here and plot what gaps in my music collection I am going to plug with the help of Amazon. I am in love with music... And looking at what I like best, maybe I should have been a punk! I remember as a kid being in a town square with my Mum and staring at the punks with awe and amazement, I loved their multi-colour mohicans. My Mum would very quickly tell me to stop staring....

Oops.. I was supposed to dye my hair blue this weekend.... The purple is fading and the bleach streaks will soon show their true orangey colour.