Making love to your Ipod, or My Organizational Music System

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:38 pm

I have an almost fanatical devotion to my Ipod "playlists", not only to the music contained therein, but also to my system of organization of it. It's a somewhat anal retentive, though masterful, (for me, at least) way of listening to music.

Personal music listening is a true art, especially so since the advent of Ipods and playlists and mp3's and the like. Before I wax verbose on my own system, I'd like to hear how you listen to music.

jack · Post by **jack** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:46 pm

with my ears?

erik · Post by **erik** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:02 pm

I am not understanding this question.

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:13 pm

OK, apologies if that was vague.

I have an Ipod playlist of all my "new stuff". This includes CD's I've just bought, mostly, or some old records I've recently added to my digital library. These songs have no ratings. As I listen a few times to this new music, eventually I decide how well I like it. If it gets a rating of 4 or 5 (out of 5) then based on the genre it's assigned to it automatically gets added to an existing playlist which includes only music of 4 or 5 stars in that genre. Sometimes I want my new CD to stay around for a long time, so I don't assign it any rating and it stays in my "new stuff" playlist until I've decided I like it or hate it.

I also have a playlist of "unrated" music, which is not new, but which I have not assigned a rating to. I have, for example, an "alternative rock" playlist which contains just 4 or 5 star alt rock songs. I also have an "unrated alt rock" playlist which contains any alt rock songs I haven't yet rated. If I rate it 4 or 5 stars, it's automatically in my alt rock playlist. Less than that and it drops off the Ipod entirely.

This doesn't include my system for Songfight listening, which is something else.

It goes on and on. Anal, I know, but I love my little system. I'm pathetically disorganized in every other conceiveable cranny or my life, but for this, I'm not.

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:19 pm

My playlists are Songfight stuff, Week of ___ SF stuff(this gets updated most weeks, obviously), Gentle music(I'm a sucker for acoustic stuff, and it's good to do work to), and then Musicals and Broadway stuff.

Boring playlists :/ There's not much music on my iPod that I don't like and will skip over so no need for ratings and whatnot.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:20 pm

I get this from people a lot, but I'm with you, Jim. Transformed is my life. Listening to audio (not just music) has fundamentally changed, due to playlists, smart playlists, podcasts, etc.

I listen to WGBH Morning Stories, ITConversations, and the PopTech2004 series via podcasts. I (Audio)Hijack NPR's All Things Considered. I have various rating systems for Songfights, kid's favorites, suck, etc. I carry the (almost) complete Beatles, Zappa, Police, Eno, Costello, Beck, 15/16 Puzzle...

This is not like the introduction of the Walkman. We can take all this for granted but at some point it's just too great. I just want to kill myself it's so cool. Is that what you mean?

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:44 pm

That's EXACTLY what I mean.

c.layne · Post by **c.layne** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:52 pm

i have this inexplicable obsession with having the entire album on my ipod, i even if i don't like all the songs. there's some 2600+ on it right now, and i think only 3 of them are not accompanied by the entire album.

Calfborg · Post by **Calfborg** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 12:12 am

c.layne wrote:i have this inexplicable obsession with having the entire album on my ipod, i even if i don't like all the songs.

i also favor this action.

fodroy · Post by **fodroy** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 12:39 am

i don't own an ipod and i really don't want one. it just seems like it would take away from the experience of listening to music. actually taking the disc out and putting it in the player is more attractive to me. you have to commit to a cd. just switching to another album saved on your ipod is too easy. i think it takes away from the holiness of albums.

i don't know if this makes sense. it's almost two a.m. and i just got back from a grueling paper writing binge at the library. i'mgoingtogopassoutnow.

Gazelles · Post by **Gazelles** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:45 am

I love my iPod. I listen to it pretty much nonstop through out a school day. I haven't really gotten too into the playlists yet, but I've been trying to go through all the artists and put my favorite songs of theirs in that On-The-Go playlist. Other than that, I usually just go through various albums and such or artists.

On a semi-related note, am I the only one it drives absolutely nuts when you find out people have less than 1000 songs on their iPod after having it for more than a year? I have around 2600 songs and I've had my iPod for 4 months. It just seems like such a waste of such a wonderful invention.

Kapitano · Post by **Kapitano** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:20 am

I have a computer dedicated to recording radio shows. Music, documentaries, drama and comedy.

I've got 70-80 CDRs of mp3ed stuff, mainly genre music shows - synthpop, classical, chillout - but a lot of factual stuff and drama too.

So if I'm on a long train journey, I might fill my ears with three consecutive concerts broadcast the year before. Or walking home from a class, catch up on last week's documentaries.

My other half thinks I'm completely insane to do this.

c.layne · Post by **c.layne** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:04 am

fodroy wrote:i don't own an ipod and i really don't want one. it just seems like it would take away from the experience of listening to music. actually taking the disc out and putting it in the player is more attractive to me. you have to commit to a cd. just switching to another album saved on your ipod is too easy. i think it takes away from the holiness of album.

i know what you mean, that's why i collect vinyl. there's just something really great about putting a record on and setting the needle down.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 12:14 pm

Philistine.

c.layne · Post by **c.layne** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 12:55 pm

roymond wrote:Philistine.

i have an ipod, too!!!!

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 1:45 pm

c.layne wrote:
roymond wrote:Philistine.
i have an ipod, too!!!!

This was really directed at Fodroy rather than you, C.
And I have lots of vinyl. But I don't play it anymore.

fodroy · Post by **fodroy** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 2:30 pm

roymond wrote:
c.layne wrote:
roymond wrote:Philistine.
i have an ipod, too!!!!
This was really directed at Fodroy rather than you, C.
And I have lots of vinyl. But I don't play it anymore.

hey. i just prefer cd's. i use itunes. i just have no interest in ipods.

reve · Post by **reve** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:09 am

fodroy wrote:i don't own an ipod and i really don't want one. it just seems like it would take away from the experience of listening to music. ... just switching to another album saved on your ipod is too easy. i think it takes away from the holiness of albums.

I'm with dan, sorta. I don't own an ipod. However, I feel that it's the CD that detracted from the holiness of the album.

Fast forwarding tapes... having to walk over, open the lid and really giving the record the EYE to see where the next track is -- pain in the ass. (not to mention 8tracks, which were the biggest pain of all.)

Hitting next track, however -- easy.

In a sense, I see the mindset that the CD culture established as a logical precursor to the rampant music piracy we see today. People stopped thinking of albums in a holistic sense; it was simply a collection of disparate tracks, only a couple of which the individual really wanted. Psychologically, the buyers were back to singles culture redux, but the industry wanted (wants) the LP to remain the primary vehicle, due to its profitability.

This is all terribly funny when you stop to think about it.

The track-by-track thing isn't for me, though -- I'm an album guy. However, I looooooove the Album List plug in for winamp. I'm still in the process of ripping my collection -- I'm at ~2050 albums at this point (or late T, if you prefer)... and being able to hit "random album" is just... super. Things I'd totally forgotten about, in my ears again.

But I'm a picky about my mp3s. I'm a stickler for metadata. I need my MP3s to have embedded:

a) full artist/album/title/year/etc
b) one or more critical reviews (amg preferred; pitchfork in a pinch)
c) cover art
d) recording notes, if applicable
e) lyrics if it's something i actually like.

All using controlled vocabularies, standardized punctuation and naming conventions. Thanks to perl, I've written enough scripts so that most of my tagging is automated now. But still. Does anyone else go crazy like this?

I got sidetracked talking about metadata. Sorry.

c.layne · Post by **c.layne** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:57 am

i would go crazy like that if i had the patience to figure it out. i am pretty picky about making everything in a standard format. (i.e. itunes is case sensitive, so Beck and beck would technically be two different artists) so i make sure everything in there is written the same, and all the tracks are in the order they are presented on the original album, blah blah blah. i don't really care about the year or anything.

what i don't understand is, why do you need reviews?

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Wed May 04, 2005 7:09 am

I don't have an ipod - and after reading these posts I think you are all complete freaking weirdos.

...and yet, I understand completely and empathise.

I think I better go buy an ipod...

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Wed May 04, 2005 8:21 am

reve wrote:The track-by-track thing isn't for me, though -- I'm an album guy. However, I looooooove the Album List plug in for winamp. I'm still in the process of ripping my collection -- I'm at ~2050 albums at this point (or late T, if you prefer)... and being able to hit "random album" is just... super. Things I'd totally forgotten about, in my ears again.

But I'm a picky about my mp3s. I'm a stickler for metadata. I need my MP3s to have embedded:

a) full artist/album/title/year/etc
b) one or more critical reviews (amg preferred; pitchfork in a pinch)
c) cover art
d) recording notes, if applicable
e) lyrics if it's something i actually like.

All using controlled vocabularies, standardized punctuation and naming conventions. Thanks to perl, I've written enough scripts so that most of my tagging is automated now. But still. Does anyone else go crazy like this?

I got sidetracked talking about metadata. Sorry.

You can't talk too much about metadata. Until it is fully available and usable we should all push the various vendors/developers to incorporate intellegent and flexible metadata functionality. MusicBrainzhas recently incorporated as a not-for-profit organization and re-kickstarted their attempt to build an open metadatabase and the tools and APIs to access it.

BLUE SKY FUNCTIONALITY WISH LIST:

Give me the ability to:

- navigate my library based on any element (artist, backing artist, composer, engineer, producer, year, genre, accustic/sonic similarities, tempo, lyric content)
- give me various "6-degree" relationship playlist options:
- play all songs that this producer/engineer worked on
- all songs where this guitarist plays backup to other artists
- all songs where any of the backup musicians on Paul Simon's Graceland are the primary artist

- search across metadata and assemble playlists based on results
- view lyrics (follow allong...auto scrolling)
- mid-song indexing (sections, movements, bookmarks - all very useful for educational purposes)
- playlist bookmarks
- tag-in-play for future lookup/research
- share playlists across platforms/users

fodroy · Post by **fodroy** » Wed May 04, 2005 11:03 am

i don't think i want that much control. i just wish that artists would put their name, song title and album it came from in the tag. that and specify what track it is off the album so there not out of order in iTunes. it's really not that hard, but there are people here at songfight who neglect this simple task.