Tilt head for info

click. bsssszzz, k-chunk. click-klack. Bzzzzzz kvrrrummm whiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

“Importing….”

“Import Complete”

click. bsssszzz, k-chunk. click-klack. Bzzzzzz kvrrrummm whiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Repeat ad infinitum.

Or, as has been the case, for about 10 CDs at one sitting.

I have a lot of CDs and one day they will all be in the loft, gathering dust, replaced by their digital cousins. It’s a slow process, mainly because it’s so tediously manual but at least iTunes helps by detecting the CDs, finding the CD data, and importing them to sensible locations.

This process stalled until recently when my new PC arrived, and has started up again as I now have plenty of legroom in which to stretch my digital legs. I also have a nice powerful graphics card which means I can use iTunes Cover Flow view. This allows me to flip through my music collection by CD cover, or rather by MP3 “cover art”, and offers a nice graphical way to interact with my digital content. It means I don’t need to scroll endlessly down lists of tracks when I simply want to browse for some music and pick whatever takes my fancy.

But there is a flaw with this system.

I don’t know the covers of all my CDs.

I know the spines.

I doubt many would have stored their CDs face out, unless they worked in a music store maybe, and without that view of my “analog” music collection it’s next to useless. So whilst Cover Flow view is all nice and whizzy and LOOKS v.impressive, it’s not really. So I guess the question is, who wants to take photos of the spines of all my CDs??

Comments

  1. I wonder about this sort of stuff in the same way I wonder who watches films on an iPod. Mine has music on it, nothing else, and it works just fine. I choose what I listen to from a list of albums/songs. And if I want to listen to CDs in the house, I play them on my stereo, not my computer. If I want to see their covers, I can pick them up and look at them.

    Am I just missing the point?

  2. Depends, how many tracks do you have on your iPod, or on your computer?

    I currently have 14,347 tracks in iTunes. I don’t listen to them all, some never (as they are for Louise) but ‘browsing’ through my music library is arduous at best.

    I don’t have a stereo in the house, I just stream music from my PC to my surround sound system downstairs. And the CDs are slowly being burned to PC, and will all eventually vanish into the loft.

  3. Been there done that – but decided it was less effort to download the MP3’s from allofmp3.com at 320kbps for ~24 cents …..

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