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Music For the Road
Written on Monday, August 01, 2005 by That's Camping
Article Categories: Equipment • Miscellaneous
For the last few months, I have been thinking a lot about portable music and the best way to bring preferred music on the road.
Let's talk portable music players, precisely the Apple iPod, my personal favorite
There are many choices and styles of iPod
- The small affordable Apple iPod shuffle
is an inexpensive way to get started if you only want to bring a few select songs with you. The $99 version holds approximately 120 songs. The iPod shuffle is quite small, about the size of a pack of gum. The only drawback to the iPod Shuffle is that there is no display screen so you will not view the song information.
- Then there is the Apple iPod mini (I love pink)
- We own the Apple 20 GB iPod
- it was a Christmas present from Mike this year. Since I have hundreds of CDs, this one is perfect for me, as it holds up to 5000 songs. I am not even half way through my collection, and I already have over 3000 songs saved. It also can be used as a portable hard drive storage for computer files, photos, etc. It is expensive but actually no more expensive than most other portable music players with the same sized hard drive. Apple now offers iPods with color displays!
Then there are the iPod accessories. I could go on for days. 'Nuf said hehee
iPod and iTunes
I am being honest when I say that I adore my iPod and the iTunes software. Even if you don't own an iPod, the iTunes software can organize your music collection extremely well. There are versions for both Mac and Windows platforms. And did I mention it is free!
As I mentioned before, I am in the process of moving my vast CD collection into my iPod using the iTunes software. Using my PC, I import all or a selection of songs from a CD. All songs saved in iTunes can be sorted by Artist, Album, Song, Genre, or other categories. Then I connect my iPod, and it updates the songs and playlists.
Did I mention playlists? That is the best part of iTunes. You can create playlists featuring your favorite artists, albums, songs, genres.
iTunes Music Store
It is a snap to purchase .99 songs from the iTunes Music Store. Again, you don't necessarily need an iPod to purchase or listen to music in iTunes. All you need is the free iTunes software. More later on how the iTunes store compares to other Music stores.
With the newest version of iTunes 4.9, you can now subscribe to your favorite podcasts. What are podcasts? Podcasts are mini radio programs on almost every conceivable topic. iTunes keeps your podcast subscriptions and downloads organized.
Every Tuesday, at the iTunes music shop, there are at least two free song downloads. I have found some interesting songs this way. I also have a minor addiction to purchasing one or two songs to go along with my free downloads. I love the iTunes store. Virtually every song I was ever looking for can be found there. And it is so much better than plunking down $12 for a whole CD that only has one or two good songs. This way, you just buy a single song and save yourself $11. Yes, whole albums can be purchased at iTunes, but I honestly don't think I will ever find the need for that.
My iTunes iMix
Take a peek at My Personal iTunes iMix
- it's a sampling of a few of my favorites songs from each of my favorite genres. Yeah, my tastes are very different depending on how I feel each day! In order to view my iMix, you must have iTunes software.
Important Note: Music on the iPod cannot be easily imported back into your computer/iTunes. Once your music is organized, it is very important to back up your data on CD or DVD. iTunes includes a back-up utility to create "data" backup of all your files, which allows easy import into a new computer with iTunes. iTunes allows 5 separate computers to share access to purchased music.
iTunes Compared to Other Music Stores
How does iTunes compare to other music stores like Walmart and Napster? Personally, I have tried Wal-Mart-Music Downloads and it works very well. *Note: I always use the Original Service link, not their download software.* Songs can be purchased for 88 cents per song. Unfortunately, the purchase licenses must be saved with the song files, or the song will not play. I made the mistake of deleting a bunch of licenses when I reinstalled Windows XP a few months ago, and the MP3 files were useless. Thankfully, I burned backup copies of all the songs to CD, so I could access them that way.
As for Napster, I have not signed up for their music service, and probably never will. Their main campaign is their Napster Membership plans for downloading as many songs as you like for a monthly fee of $10 to $15. What they don't tell you (except in the fine print) is that you must maintain the membership in order to keep playing the songs.Yes, you can purchase songs outright for 99 cents, but I rather just go to iTunes for that.
Napster only offers 1 million songs; Walmart offers 600,000 songs; and iTunes store offers 1.5 + million songs!
In their native format, Walmart and Napster purchased song files are not compatible with iTunes software. Songs must be burned to CD before importing to iTunes, but all song information (ie Artist, Title, Year, etc) is lost. This is the reason I stopped purchasing songs from Walmart. It was too much of a hassle just to save 11 cents per song.
In conclusion, we don't have to drag a box of 10+ CDs with us when we travel now; the iPod and iTunes has given us the freedom to carry ALL our favorite songs with us in a small highly portable music player. I highly recommend the iPod music player and iTunes software and music store.
Article Categories: Equipment • Miscellaneous
Comments
The comment area is open for approximately one year after the article date.
OH I love my iPod too! I use it for music mostly. Funny, I didn’t realize that it could be used for podcasting. That’s Camping? What about a camping podcast?
Posted by SN on 08/03/05Hello SN!
Hmm, a camping podcast…the idea has crossed my mind, so ya never know!
Posted by That's Camping on 08/03/05
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