For a while I'd been wondering how to get the perfect mix of tunes onto my iPod for driving.
The playlist I'd been using for almost a year was done by simply having iTunes automagically shove everything genre'd as "alternative" into a playlist and manually adding a few favorites to it. This was pretty okay, as it featured all my stuff by REM, The Clash, Alice In Chains, Beck, No Doubt, and whatnot, plus a few selected rock standards.
Ultimately, though, it left a lot of songs for which I'd just hit the skip button, so I decided to get all mathematical...
My total library had twenty-seven-hundred-and-something songs, of which ~700 were on my "car" playlist. If I went through the whole collection and picked no more than one song in four, I'd be good to go.
So I sat down and laboriously scrolled through my entire iTunes library and manually picked the 25% that were favorites, be it the Linkin Park song I'd just downloaded from iTunes or the Bad Company tune I used to play on my '67 Dodge's 8-Track on roadtrips two decades ago.
Only, whoops! This turned out to be somewhat more than 4GB of music, since most of the "alternative" songs were three-minute ditties, while my hand-selected favorites contained things like the fourth movement of Beethoven's 9th, which clocks in at considerably longer than that. So back I went to the playlist, trimming again, and trying to get it down under 4GB indicated...
You can see what happens next: When I tried to copy the new playlist to the iPod, it curtly informed me that I'd neglected to account for system overhead, and my 4GB of music wouldn't fit on my 4GB iPod Nano. And so occurred a third round of culling...
The upside, though, is that there's not a song on my car stereo now that I don't really like. Oh, sure, I may still hit the skip button, but it's because I'm not in the mood for the proffered tune, not because I don't like it...
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19 comments:
I use Pandora instead. It learns my taste and finds stuff for me to listen to. Don't like a song? Thumb it down, and Pandora learns.
I paid the $36 a year for the service because I chew through the free 40 hours in 2 weeks easily. And since it's an iPhone app, it moves with me when I'm in the car.
Even with 8gigs of space, I found myself tiring of the same songs. Then again, I like techno / electronica, so one would think the oomph-oomph-oomph would get tiring after a song or two as it is ;)
Okay, streaming Pandora in the car is the only compelling reason I have ever heard of to own a smartphone.
Hmmm.
I've got an 80gig iPod, so it hasn't really been a problem for me... the bigger challenge is finding that one song I'm in the mood for at any given moment.
I only bought a pseudoPod (Sony) because I couldn't fit an LP record player in my pocket... or my sweet collection of prog rock, funk, and jazz on vinyl.
And yeah, it doesn't take too many concept albums or 25 minute songs to fill 4GB.
Got any Wagner or Strauss for your Z3?
Tends to run long, but good. Soothing, in a make-the-hippy-cringe kind of way, music.
What I do is actually use the star ratings.
I rate the music, and then you can just build a "smart playlist" from "Songs rated 4 or 5 stars".
Metadata is a good thing, when you take the time to set it up.
Ancient Woodsman,
The only music of good taste on my current playlist is by Holst and Ludwig Van. :o
Holst's "The Planets" brings the rock. "Jupiter" is a heavy metal beast of a classical piece.
Tam,
Another approach is to use a Smart Playlist, and set a rule that draws from your "Car" list, but limits it to 3.7GB, or whatever it needs. It will pull 3.7gb or thereabouts randomly from the specified group, and so you get a bit of turnover....
Richard
"The upside, though, is that there's not a song on my car stereo now that I don't really like."
Nice, but that would be a downside for me also. Lots of stuff I didn't like or didn't know I liked until it grew on me. Plus, you never want to get in a rut...even if it's a pretty good and comfy rut.
That intuitive thing Robb spoke of would bring in new material with a common vibe, but how would it make the leap that an old guy like me who still thinks the 60's and 70's produced the last real music* would come to really appreciate some of what my kids have exposed me to in the three decades hence? Besides, I can barely function the voicemail on my cell and don't like the idea of my phone being smarter than me, even if it is.
So I think I'll just choose my own Poison...or rather it will choose me.
AT
*speaking of which, your mention of your rusty '79 280ZX recently not only jolted the memory of mine that I bought new at 25 but caused me to rummage for the 12-cassette case that matched the car's interior and that still contains the dozen laboriously home-recorded from LP TDK tapes that were my music of that particular year of my youth. Cruising the boulevards of Palm Beach County in that Z-car, feeling and living the tunes, free as a bird, money to burn, with a little illicit behavior involved...well, I wouldn't go back, but mighty good times they were, and mighty good memories they are. So thanks, Tam.
You have good taste in music. Enjoy!
@Lab Rat: Streaming radio in the car is just about worth the cost of the smartphone plan by itself. I've been doing that since, um, '05 or so?
Then you add an internet in your pocket (latest androids have flash - for better or worse). Plus, the damn things are getting cheaper every day for a "new" contract.
Downside - the upkeep is a bit pricy; and you have TVTropes In. Your. Pocket. Plus, you get to relive the browser wars, the OS wars, and a couple of othe rHoly Wars, all at the same time.
WV: nommu - well, yes, you have icanhazcheesburger.com in there too. Mighty crowded pocket this is getting
Just get a new ipod Tam, They're smaller and shinier now with higher capacity.
Zune. 120GB. Just saying...
Oh yeah, and I'm a recent convert to the joy of playlists. Used to make 'em on the computer all the time but for some reason when I got the zune I just ingnored the feature till just a few weeks ago for the sake of workout music. This way, my workout soungs are ONLY to be played then. (They lose their power when you play them a lot while sitting around. =P
If you would like more “music of good taste,” I suggest Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony, my favorite for driving. Caution though, the fourth movement is seriously inducive of throttle creep.
Sheesh, here I am so damn pleased with my 6 disc in-dash changer.
One tip to fit more on your iPod -- if any of your music files are >128kbps, iTunes will automatically downsample them to 128kbps AAC when it copies them to your iPod. So you can keep your 256kbps VBR MP3's in your computer's library, but for on-the-go you can carry twice as many songs for given space. (It's not like you can do any serious critical listening in the car anyway, and 128kbps AAC is really quite good, probably comparable to 160kbps-192kbps MP3.) It's an option on the iPod screen in iTunes. Unfortunately, you can't make it retro-active -- you've got to delete the high-bitrate songs from the iPod first, then re-copy them to apply the conversion.
As apparently the only other person left with a 4GB player - and it's a freaking Sony MP3 Walkman, fercryingoutloud - I loaded the beastie up with 760 songs that would be rated with lots of stars, were I inclined to rate things with stars, and once in a while I'll replace a couple of them with new arrivals. It was nerve-wracking at first, but the really hard work is now over and done with.
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