I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the varied and complicated management and methods involved in listening to my music. So I've decided to simplify until some brilliant mind out there removes the obstacles for me.
These are my peeves:
- Management and storage of CDs
- Management and storage of mp3s
- Management of music files amongst multiple mp3 players (in my case, an iPod nano, iPod shuffle and iPhone)
- Management of mp3s amongst multiple laptops
- Having amassed (and continually pruned) over two decades a large and beloved music collection across different formats: mp3, CD, vinyl (and yeah, I still have some cassette tapes)
- Having my car stereo stolen for the second time
I know, boo hoo, poor me - really this is a great "problem" to have. I totally realize that. But come on, someone's got to be working on building a better musical mousetrap?
I'll admit I'm still bitter about having my car stereo and about 20 of my favorite CDs stolen recently. So now I can't listen to anything in my car. Lately I only use my iPod when I'm running, and I've been listening to audio books or podcasts on it, not music. This means I'm usually listening to music while I'm on my laptop at work all day, but the last thing I want to do (or should do) is bog down my work laptop with a ton of mp3 files. To top this all off, I've completely lost track of what exactly's ripped to my personal laptop, my work laptop, my old dying laptop that I don't use anymore and my external hard drive. Say I want to listen to Patty Griffin's Living With Ghosts. I know I have it on CD, but where? I seem to remember ripping it a long time ago, but to which laptop? Could it be on my Shuffle or my Nano? I have no idea!
Whatever amount of music I have digitized, it's probably not even 10% of the 1000+ CDs I own. Just looking at my CDs stresses me out -- after three cross-country moves, I've whittled them down, discarded and sold and given away, shucked the keepers of their jewel cases and made a valiant attempt at alphabetizing them before double-stuffing them into cases designed hold 100 or 200 CDs each. Looking at my seven bulging CD cases, I have a vague recollection of what year I started each case, which might give me an indication of where to start looking for a certain album, although more often than not I end up rummaging through two or three of the cases before I locate the CD I had in mind. And then what, I pop the CD into my laptop so it can whirr and/or overheat?
I used to say that I cared about owning physical CDs and I was one of those people who thought downloading a record online didn't give the full experience. I still do believe that, and I really do care about artwork and lyrics and I comb through the thank yous on every album made by someone I know (and can attest that being thanked in a record is one of the best feelings ever). And some artwork needs to be experienced in person, like the art on the last Menomena CD. I even lug around from city to city, apartment to apartment, probably 300 CDs I keep in their jewel cases for some sort of sentimental reason. But at this point, if I never see another CD again, I think I could live with that.
And the thought of ripping my entire music collection, disc by disc, onto...some machine large and expensive enough to fit all of it...makes me want to hork.
So I'm simplifying. For now I will only use four methods to listen to music:
- Subscription to a music service which has at least 80% of the old, new and indie music I'm interested in hearing. Lacking a stronger alternative, the $12.99 a month I send to Rhapsody suits me fine.
- Vinyl albums on my portable record player.
- Clicking a link online to download or stream.
- Live performance.
Yes, I realize these methods don't solve my problems. I can't download any music from Rhapsody to my iPod, but I'm OK with that for now. They have almost everything I ever want to listen to and can cater to my tastes, whims and curiosity. From Aloha to Phil Collins to Robyn (only because Anil asked me to) to Rahsaan Roland Kirk to the new Gnarls Barkley - Rhapsody's got almost every artist or album that occurs to me during any given day. And of all the things I'd like to listen to on occasion, 80% of it is stuff I don't feel the need to own forever.
And I'm not set up to rip vinyl to my iPod or laptop either, but I don't really want to. These days most savvy indie labels give you a code or coupon to digitally download for free the vinyl album you purchased (genius!) But I like the whole process of listening to records. There's something strangely calming and satisfying to me about looking through my long shelf of albums, tilting my head to read the titles on their skinny spines, plucking one out, gingerly shucking it from its cardboard shell and paper or plastic inner sleeve, leaning over to lay down the needle in just the right spot, and later taking the time to flip between sides A and B. It's like the slow food movement: Slow music?
So that's it. I've gone to extremes. To cut down on the crazy.
I really don't mean to whine about all the great music there is to listen to. I'm lucky. I'm grateful. Who's complaining about the burden of too many choices? Not me! But I'll admit I worry about music because it matters so much to me.
When a very kind soul offered someday to rip all of my CDs to a central server that I could access from any computer, it gave me a little pang in my heart. Simple, logical, convenient access to my music sounds positively romantic.