iPod and iTunes

iPod_157x250.jpg

Libraries

Click on a link below to display the contents of a digital audio library. Some libraries are large; the output is not pagenated. Each link displays a library exported from iTunes in XML format. I wrote this page to teach myself how to handle XML in PHP, not because I think anybody cares what's in my iPod/iTunes libraries.

Library Date
Steve's iPod 12/15/20
Bari's iPod 11/23/11
Classical 2/11/23
Earplay 3/05/23
Indian 2/05/23
Nonclassical 2/01/23
Opera 5/17/20
Spoken word 5/17/20

History

My kids gave me a 160GB iPod Classic in December 2007, and I gave Bari an 8GB Nano at about the same time. A colleague who cares as much about audio quality as I do soon convinced me that disk space was plentiful and cheap (and rapidly getting more plentiful and cheaper), so it made little sense to use lossy digitization. Since then, I rip CDs under iTunes using lossless compression (thanks, Richard!). If space is an issue for a specific device (e.g., an iPod), I later extract a lower bitrate lossy version from the lossless version; that can eat up substantial computer time, but there's no shortage of that in my household.

As my lossless library grew to over 100 GB, iTunes became increasingly balky and backup became increasingly time-consuming. I split the lossless library into six genre-based components: classical, Earplay, Indian, nonclassical, opera, and spoken word. My iPod contains tracks from all genres. I still have lots of unripped CDs, but recently my ripping has slowed to a crawl. As of 2/2016, I have about 200 GB of lossless digital audio, using about 100 GB of space on my iPod at slightly lower audio quality.

My original iPod Classic died in April 2015. In its infinite wisdom, Apple had stopped selling iPod Classics by then. After much head-scratching, I ended up springing for a new iPod Classic (though not from Apple, obviously) to replace it; pricey, but I'm addicted to the large disk capacity. I hope this replacement outlives me!

The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

Lessons learned

The Cloud

As I update this page in 2020, the digital world has moved on. All my files live in my Dropbox now, a simple audio page using the iTunes database lets me play my audio directly from the cloud, and AirPlay lets me cast audio from my cell phone or laptop to a high-quality audio system in our living room, bedroom, playroom, or cabin. My venerable iPod remains useful for situations where the cloud is unavailable (car trip, airplane, dental appointment), but I'm using it less. And Apple has deep-sixed the venerable iTunes, replacing it with the Music app.