iPod users in please

[SeventhSon]

:ROTF:

Whoa! Who said I download pirated music?? Please dont assume anything you want! I have over 300 cd's. I use itunes to import the songs as mp3 and put them on my ipod to listen. I like the "shuffle" concept wherein a mp3 player gives a fair chance to listen to all the songs I have. I download legal paid versions of mp3's. Not one of the songs on my Ipod is illegally downloaded!

Sorry dude. My bad and my apologies for assuming.

[SeventhSon]

$15/month would be an amazing price if they had everything on there. As it stands I would have to spend over $20,000 to get my mp3 collection from something like the itunes store and even more to buy all of the CD's.

Exactly. It'd be a no brainer. I agree with EVERYONE that selection is an issue. You cannot get everything on Rhapsody. I would say either Rhapsody/Napster/iTunes is about as good as you're going to get right now in terms of an online catalog that you can choose from.

But here's an example for me. I have a subscription to Guitar World. I get to listen to the bands that are being hyped in that mag for "free". I don't have to pay 99 cents per track. Or maybe I'm not totally liking what I'm hearing but the last song on the album is killer. I didn't have to pay 9.99 for that privilege.

Another example, Rush's Snakes and Ladders just came out. I can check out the whole album without paying 9.99 on iTunes or buying the actual CD.

[SeventhSon]

It's a neat idea to a point but the whole problem is that, as I understand it, none of the services has anything like complete coverage. Thus I'd probably have to subscribe to multiple services, maintain multiple incompatible hardware & software setups to support them, *and* still be forced to purchase more obscure titles on top of that mess. From $15.95/month it could quickly escalate to more like $50-60/month plus a few hundred per year for new hardware plus my time and effort learning and maintaining all that crap. To me picking up 6-8 new titles/month at a used CD shop seems a *far* better deal and I never have to worry about being locked into a particular service, losing my tunes if I decide I don't like a particular service, etc.

I would say that Rhapsody/Napster/iTunes probably have roughly the same coverage. They are all 3 somewhere in the millions in terms of tracks available. Still it is VERY true that title are missing from all 3 services. So, yes, you would have to buy the occasional CD. But all 3 handle ripped MP3's.

I'd just rather not have to deal with CDs. Did you know that legally if you were to sell or gift your CD to someone, you have to delete your ripped copies from your computer? The nature of copyright law requires that you have a physical copy of the CD to have the ripped version on your computer.

[YetAnotherOne]

Did you know that legally if you were to sell or gift your CD to someone, you have to delete your ripped copies from your computer? The nature of copyright law requires that you have a physical copy of the CD to have the ripped version on your computer.

Odd, I must've slept through that lecture in my copyright law course. Fact is that there still exist unanswered questions regarding the rights of consumers in the US to make non-commercial copies of legally-obtained sound recordings. this article points out some unresolved issues and grey areas.

Beyond the ARHA if you examine the history of copyrights in sound recordings in the US you'll find that they weren't even eligible for copyright protection until the 1976 revisions to the copyright act were passed. I won't swear to it as it's been a while but my recollection is that if you examine the legislative history of the 1976 act you'll find that the recording industry, in order to secure federal copyright protection for sound recordings from Congress, was forced to accept non-commercial copying by consumers as being non-actionable.

Ethically I agree with you, legally ... not so much, at least not yet. But RIAA thanks you for your support.

[shobet]

I hope you all backup your collections!

[Chrisb]

Anyone annoyed, like I am, that all songs on the ipod or any mp3 player dont play at the same volume? I found it very annoying. Like I said, most of my songs are metal and I play them at very high volumes while working out at the gym. it was so annoying when opeth will play at a low volume, then I turn up the volume and inflames will start playing and nearly deafen me I found this cool software called MP3gain. its free and it can add/reduce volume on mp3 without altering the quality.
I connected my Ipod, opened mp3gain, selected ipod_control from windows explorer and let mp3gain loose. It has adjusted the volume on all the songs and its such a relief. What was surprising is that the software did not crash even once on my super-slow office laptop and it adjusted vol on all 2300+ songs in one shot. Now all songs play at the same volume and my work-out at the gym goes on much smoother.
I know, there is a "Sound check" option in Ipod that is supposed to do the same thing, but that sucks ballocks IMO! There is also an option in itunes where you can say "Play all songs at the same volume" but IMO that works only when you are playing songs on itunes and does not affect the iPod. Anyway, thought I'll let you know.

Hate to tell ya dude..Itunes can do that too...I had to do that cause I had the same problem and it would drive me crazy cause I'd be listening to like Therion which is a fairly quiet volume and then like Demonoid or Death would come on which were much better quality rips and it would nearly kill my speakers, I was worried I would blow them out and I had just bought them (for my car). The one nice thing about IPOD is that it has alot more hardware developed for it than 3rd party players. Not many other MP3 players have hardware to connect your player to a TV or reciever to play it through a superior sound system. Being the audio nut that I am thats important to me anyways. Also I don't think any other companies making car stereo headunits are building in third party connectivity, just IPOD. I love mine because it goes direct into my headunit, none of that crappy IPOD car tuner bullshit.

[emperor_black]

Hate to tell ya dude..Itunes can do that too...

Yeah, I know there is an option. You can check the box "Sound Check, play songs at the same volume" and it goes through all the songs and sets the same volume. but somehow that NEVER worked for me on the Ipod. I think it does the changes when you are listening out of itunes and not though the Ipod. I was still hearing some songs louder than others. So, I used to make a note of each song, go into itunes, change the "vol adjustment". I have done these vol adjustments like almost every other day. Drove me crazy! Anyway, I am very very pleased with the mp3gain. Hey, if itunes does it for you, that's cool too!!

[YetAnotherOne]

Score another for Media Monkey, maybe the single best piece of free software I've ever seen. The iPod showed up a few minutes ago and it literally took longer to open the box than to start moving music to it. No iTunes, no Apple software of any kind, I just plugged it into a USB port, fired up one of my external drives, opened the "Artists" list in Media Monkey, right clicked on an artist and selected "Send to --> iPod". No conversions, no copy management, no bullshit at all. I'm happy so far.

[emperor_black]

kewl!! I'm gonna download it tonight!!