Mid-Year's Resolution...
I've had my 80 gig iPod for about 6 months now, and I've spent a good portion of that time using the shuffle feature. It's retarded. It likes to play Billy Joel as every third song. Granted, I have a *lot* of Billy Joel, but still: It was making me annoyed with him, and that shouldn't happen. Additionally, the shuffle seems to constantly avoid certain tracks of any given artist. I've also noticed myself lately getting sick of my music collection, despite having about 800 artists from many genres of music.
I started thinking about the things I miss about CDs. The big thing was that I was less likly to skip tracks when I was listening to an album. This isn't so when you're on shuffle. And I think we all know that skipping is exponential, so to speak: Once you start, you tend to do it more and more. Additionally, I miss albums because they're arranged in a way that the songs compliment each other much more.
So I've decided that my Mid-Year's resolution is to not only nix the shuffle feature on my iPod, but to commit to albums again. That meant going through my music and nixing a lot of singles that do me no good. So last night, I did just that. I deleted my entire library from Songbird (You're welcome). I went into the directory and started deleting a lot of old MP3s that I had before I really knew what I liked. Lots of late 90's alternative rock crap. I've gone from 850 or so artists down to about 600, and I don't really miss any of them. Additionally, I noticed that several artists (that I knew were supposed to be good) I did not have full albums for. Despite liking them, I deleted several mish-mashed of their songs, keeping only albums and a few singles. The Decemberists were one such group, as was Radiohead. I went over to Amazon and bought a few new albums, including The Decemberists' The Crane Wife. OMG, I always knew I liked a few of their songs, but what a difference! The entire albumn is amazing. Listening to this album was the perfect proof of my point: Listening to a complete album made me appreciate a band in a way I never had before. I plan on trying this next with Radiohead, a band I've never been able to appreciate in the past. (BTW, I also bought The Kooks Album, as well as Holst's The Planets for $3!)
I know people like to steal their music, but I can't emphasize how addicted I am to Amazon's MP3 store! I get full albums on the cheap, at super high quality, and without any DRM bullshit. Not to mention avoiding Bit Torrent means I'm not risking lawsuits from The Man.
I'm excited for this new leaf in my musical habits. I'm thinking this is one Mid-year's resolution that's going to make a permanent difference.
I started thinking about the things I miss about CDs. The big thing was that I was less likly to skip tracks when I was listening to an album. This isn't so when you're on shuffle. And I think we all know that skipping is exponential, so to speak: Once you start, you tend to do it more and more. Additionally, I miss albums because they're arranged in a way that the songs compliment each other much more.
So I've decided that my Mid-Year's resolution is to not only nix the shuffle feature on my iPod, but to commit to albums again. That meant going through my music and nixing a lot of singles that do me no good. So last night, I did just that. I deleted my entire library from Songbird (You're welcome). I went into the directory and started deleting a lot of old MP3s that I had before I really knew what I liked. Lots of late 90's alternative rock crap. I've gone from 850 or so artists down to about 600, and I don't really miss any of them. Additionally, I noticed that several artists (that I knew were supposed to be good) I did not have full albums for. Despite liking them, I deleted several mish-mashed of their songs, keeping only albums and a few singles. The Decemberists were one such group, as was Radiohead. I went over to Amazon and bought a few new albums, including The Decemberists' The Crane Wife. OMG, I always knew I liked a few of their songs, but what a difference! The entire albumn is amazing. Listening to this album was the perfect proof of my point: Listening to a complete album made me appreciate a band in a way I never had before. I plan on trying this next with Radiohead, a band I've never been able to appreciate in the past. (BTW, I also bought The Kooks Album, as well as Holst's The Planets for $3!)
I know people like to steal their music, but I can't emphasize how addicted I am to Amazon's MP3 store! I get full albums on the cheap, at super high quality, and without any DRM bullshit. Not to mention avoiding Bit Torrent means I'm not risking lawsuits from The Man.
I'm excited for this new leaf in my musical habits. I'm thinking this is one Mid-year's resolution that's going to make a permanent difference.