32GB of Music Is All You Really Need - Long Live the iPod
My 20-year-old-iPod holds 1,246 more songs than I listened to on streaming platforms last year.
Last year I listened to 1,476 different songs on YouTube Music. I pay for the full YouTube Premium service at $14 per month. Based on that math, I spent $168—or 11 cents per song—to rent my music. I own about 80% of the songs I listened to, which is doubly worse because I essentially spent my money on convenience.
This got me thinking. How much music do I actually need on a daily basis?
Enter my 20-year-old iPod
I’ve written about my love of the iPod before but the 4th generation of the iconic music device holds a special place in my mind. My iPod was a gift from my parents for Christmas 2004. I had owned a few Rio MP3 players but they never had enough storage or battery life to satisfy my hunger for music. My iPod is the 40GB model and also the fattest iPod to ever exist. It’s thicker than a deck of cards by a few millimeters. And I love it.
I used this iPod extensively for years up until 2009 when I bought the 7th generation Classic with 120GB of storage. My 4th generation was beginning to have hard drive issues and the battery would last 10 minutes. I put it in a box and it sat at my parents house until 2019 when I finally moved the last of my things to Georgia. There it sat for a few more years until I finally brought it back to life late last year.
My iPod Video 5.5 is a beast with 256GB of flash storage, a bigger battery and a new exterior. I wanted to make my 4th gen iPod understated and as original as possible, while also spending under $50 on the update. I already had the tools and an old 32GB SD card. I spent $42 on a new battery, a CF card reader, and a Toshiba to CF card adapter.
I took the iPod apart, removed the old battery and hard drive, installed the new parts, and closed it up. I reformatted the SD card and did a test sync. My old iPod was alive again! I hadn’t used it in 15 years and it was working better than new.
Less really is more
I purposely used the 32GB SD card because I wanted to make sure every album and song I put on my resurrected iPod was exactly what I liked. The single best feature of the iPod is selecting the shuffle option and letting it pick what song plays next. I’ve used this feature on my bigger iPod but I tend to skip songs more frequently. What I’ve discovered with having a smaller library is that I skip songs less often.
I had my iPod going for a couple of hours last week and I didn’t skip anything for 45 songs straight. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to that much music continuously on a streaming platform.
Even with 32GB of music, I was still able to upload 2,722 songs! That’s 1,246 more songs than I listened to all of last year. Clearly, 32GB and nearly 3,000 songs should be enough to satisfy my love of music.
We’ve been sold a myth that having everything all of the time is the best way to enjoy life. But I don’t believe that’s true. I was always content with my iPod. If I didn’t have an album then it meant I had to seek it out. The process of curating a collection is a deeply personal one that no algorithm can fully replicate.
What about sound quality?
Most of my library was sourced from CDs so many of my files are Apple Lossless with a 16 bit 44.1 kHz sample rate. Basically, the majority of my music sounds fantastic and good enough for me. Long gone are the days of 192 kbps MP3s that I downloaded from LimeWire or some other file sharing website.
What’s more, old iPods have great DACs (Digital-to-Analog Converter). In short, the digital signal that is sent to the headphone jack for analog conversion, sounds better than any iPhone I’ve used in the past decade. An old iPod paired with a quality set of headphones makes for a fantastic hi-fi music setup for very little money.
Should you limit your music to just 32GB and static files?
Fixing an iPod and syncing it with a curated list of albums takes time. Not everyone is going to do this, especially when streaming is just so easy, convenient and abundant. For me, that’s exactly why I still use an iPod. That and the nostalgia factor. I know lots of younger people are getting into iPods, so I’m not alone.
I think the iPod is a great solution if you feel overwhelmed by choice. I like to limit my daily choice as much as possible so I can focus on my family, my health and my work. Knowing that there’s an end to my music is comforting.
The pursuit of what’s bigger, faster, brighter and bolder comes at a cost. The price we pay for all of these choices is our attention and ultimately our time. I don’t want to feel like something outside of my control possesses me. Having a physical representation of my music gives me control into what I want to listen to and how.
Let me know your thoughts on the topic of too much choice. I’m curious to know if any of you feel the same way.
And as always, I appreciate your attention.
I totally agree. I’m still paying Spotify monthly so I can re-listen to the same playlists. I lost a good chunk of my old music collection to a corrupted drive. What’s left I still listen to from time to time, but I need to just go back to downloading songs. For the price of my subscription I could be building a good updated collection. I’ve been thinking about it more and more lately, but like everything, it’s one more thing I haven’t had time for. I like that you are still using the iPod. That would be a good way to set the phone down and separate yourself from it.
Loved this, as you know I still use mine and with your help, I have two. Thanks