I’ve had this post in draft since March 2021, no doubt triggered by an article about iPods or MP3s ‘back in the day’. As is the case with these things, I’ve recently stumbled across a few different posts which all harken back, and touch upon, some of my own thoughts that I never fully fleshed out. So I’ve dusted this off. Ohh and I’ve marked where the original draft ended too, more for my own knowledge than anything.
As a self confessed geek I take some pride in being reasonably well organised. I have a place near my front door where our keys go, I have a place where my wallet goes, my phone chargers stay in the same place, and I even have a little basket in which I dump my running accessories (hat, buff, phone belt, key holder). I’m not completely anal about keeping everything organised, but for the most part I tend to be tidy and organised enough, after all a little clutter is just a sign of a life being lived, right?
With this mindset in mind, I’ve read books on productivity systems but don’t follow a particular one, and I’ve decluttered and minimised plenty without giving in to whichever system happens to be fashionable, I’m more than happy to try any given system if it might help me find more time to do things which actually matter, particularly things that don’t get in the way. However I always find myself picking and choosing aspects that suit me.
The same extends to my computer files and folders. My desktop and downloads folders tend to hold items for a while before I deal with them, but never that many.
There was a time though when my file maintenance got a little of control, a time when the files controlled me…
Hello MP3
Back in the hazy days of the early internet, a file format sprung up called MP3 which for the most part was used to hold music files. While it wasn’t the best format for the purpose it —just like VHS did back in the day when it triumphed over Betamax— fast became the file format of choice for tracks ripped from CDs or —shock horror— downloaded from the internet, ILLEGALLY.
Then along came file sharing and an app called Napster that was a revelation; music had always been a big part of my life and now I had access to virtually any album I could think of, and many more that I was yet to discover. All of a sudden my meagre collection started to grow —after all why download one Stevie Wonder album when you can download them all— and it soon became a little bit of a completist exercise and I found myself downloading whole catalogues on a whim. It’s with no small amount of shame that I realise now that I still have all of those files on an old (still functioning) iPod, most of which I never even listened to and only downloaded them because I could.
Of course downloading them was one thing, sorting them was another. Being at the mercy of whatever file naming was applied by whoever ripped the MP3s in the first place became quite the matter of annoyance for this possibly-ever-so-anally-obsessed-with-such-things guy and I spent many more hours than I care to admit sorting out MP3 tag information and renaming the files to MY preferred format.
FYI – the correct format was ALWAYS track number – song – artist, held in an album folder, under the artist name. Mostly. Don’t get me started on compilations.
Over time I ended up with a pretty well streamlined process; download an album(s) of MP3s, fire up the MP3Tag software, correct the data to what I wanted, update the tags, open a second app that would rename the files using the tag info, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Pretty soon I had a large bank of music, many many GBs, about a third of which came from my own CDs that I’d ripped, the rest finagled from some source or another, be it Napster or latterly bittorrent. Hundreds of albums filled my iPod and hard drive but there was a problem. My consumption had already started to veer more to playlists (I was an avid mixtape creator back in the day) and whilst I enjoy listening to albums from start to finish it wasn’t what I wanted to do all the time, and because I started downloading more and more single tracks to add to my ever growing and rotating playlist, I soon created my own problems in trying to adhere to a common naming structure whilst also being able to navigate the massively growing list of folders I was creating.
Those single downloaded tracks still required to be tagged, named and stored in the correct file/folder structure (Artist then Album), which meant I started to build up a large number of single files held in their own folders within folders. Then it struck me that such constructs already existed, compilations! That was clearly the way to go, and so I started looking for some good compilations and it was about then that I hit THE MOTHER LODE.
The Mother lode
Many (MANY!) years ago a compilation LP came out, it was a double gatefold design (that means two big black shiny discs were enclosed) and it featured the latest hits of the day by legendary artists like Duran Duran, Phil Collins, UB40 (twice!), Tina Turner and, eh, Will Powers. I remember owning a copy and taking it to all the record nights that school term, — of course the songs quickly faded out of fashion but that’s ok, because Now That’s What I Call Music 2 came along a few months later and today we are at Now 123.
Editors Note: When he wrote this draft, the most recent album was Now 108.
However back in my MP3 collecting days I think ‘Now 81’ had just been released and so imagine my amazement when I found not just that compilation but a massive download of every single ‘Now’ album, every 81 one of them.
Click. Download.
Several hours later and there it was, folder after folder chockfull of the most disorganised, badly named, mixed quality MP3s I’d ever seen. Oh dear god, what had I done?!
Looking back I realise now that what I’d done was kill the (admittedly geekly odd) fun that I’d had amassing my MP3 collection, and while I did start going through all those hundreds of files and folders I’d downloaded, I got so bored, and so disenchanted with the idea of HAVING to do tag all these files, and rename them, before I could then put them back into the right compilation playlist that, after a few weeks, I eventually gave up.
I opened my iTunes library and imported them all, file names and MP3 info be damned!!
Let the system do it
Turned out that, whilst a lot of the information tagged in the files wasn’t quite how I would’ve done it, iTunes managed the files just fine and I had no problems searching and finding tracks, or artists, or a specific ‘Now’ album. It made me realise that all those hours I’d spent slavishly tidying these things up made no real difference whatsoever.
I’d already stopped using WinAmp and the like, so had no real need to know where the files were, I could just leave that to iTunes. It was as heartbreakingly obvious as it was liberating. No more hours spent tagging and renaming files. Let the software do the work. Good robot!
Which, in a very roundabout way I know, brings me to Spotify.
My consumption of music hasn’t really dipped since I first went digital (wow does that sound like a throwback statement or what!). I listen to the radio most days, find new artists now and then, but largely lean on my own playlists for whenever I need a distraction. Most of what I play is found by search, and I have no idea of how the files are tagged or named, nor even where they actually exist.
Search for an artist, pick an album, click play.
It’s simple, it’s effective, and putting aside the monetary aspects —although hey, I paid for Spotify and they give a cut to the artists so that’s better than downloading MP3s for free, right?— it gives me all I really need. Music when I want it.
Dear reader, as promised, here endeth the original draft.
I switched to Apple Music a couple of years ago —mostly to save money but also because I didn’t like what Spotify were supporting (starts with R ends with ogan)— but the effect is the same; I let the system do the hard work and I benefit from not having to maintain acres of digital farmland.
Let’s go back
Recently, and I am part in favour of this, there has been more noise about how things aren’t actually as good as they were, about how we should maybe reverse course to that sweet spot when the divide between system and device was clearer, where we were more hands on with such things, and where have to put in just a little work to make things worthwhile.
Retro is the Future—which I recommend you go read— actually prompted me to email the author to both disagree with some of the points raised, yet agree with the overall message, but this line is one I wanted to highlight:
I feel like a lot more people are waking up to not wanting to be put through the consumerist meat grinder. It’s starting with the people who think to themselves “why do I need this new phone when my current phone works just fine?”
AMEN! As a happy owner of an iPhone 14 Pro and who, as he grows older, is starting to desire less and less stuff and things (I’ve mentioned this before) I do find myself fixing things if I can, or waiting until they really die before parting ways with them — my bang about bike is 12 years old but I still maintain it as best I can, our 10 year old car is past the 100k mile mark — and I’m happy to be able to do odd jobs here and there to keep these things running.
But I’m not sure I want to go fully back. As ever I find myself in the in-between thinking, of looking at both sides of the argument and falling somewhere in the middle ground, in the grey murky area that most things veer towards eventually.
I’ll quote myself here, from the email I sent in response to the aforementioned Retro is the Future post:
Do I want an iPod again. Yes.
Do I want to have to spend all that time collating MP3s, tagging them, uploading them, creating playlists so it was easier to navigate.
NO!
Gimme Apple Music on an iPod please, best of both worlds.
I think there are other lessons there, it’s not a ‘dismiss all modern tech as crap’ it’s a more holistic step back and figure out the sweet spot between old and new.
I’d love my analog Braun watch to offer me a vibration based notification if I get a msg (sms or WhatsApp) that’s all I really NEED from a watch these days. Why can’t I have that?
I’ve long since made my peace with my computer doing some of the basic heavy lifting for me, handing over part of those tasks to a service. Before AI came along those services were clear cut —I use Maps and let it do the work of finding a route so I don’t pick up a paper map, I use Siri for setting timers and turning on lights, my email is filtered for spam by a service, most apps I have include predictive text, and so on— but now those services are starting to merge and split and find different forms, and probably go further than I really want or need right now.
Perhaps I will find a true need for AI in my fridge in the future but right now, I’ll stand back and let my fridge do what it does best, keep things cold.
Looking back, I enjoyed the process of tidying up all those MP3 files. I realise that it was figuring out the system and fine tuning it that I enjoyed, and that the output, while useful, wasn’t where I found the actual enjoyment, likely because it was a simple process with no pressure or deadline, or system driven limits and factors to consider.
Ultimately, I guess the lesson for me here is to be more mindful about the future of technology —it will always move forward but sometimes it’s good to NOT be an early adopter all the time— and to be a little more aware that sometimes putting the effort into something is more about the doing, than the having.
Useful Links
- I definitely read this after I’d drafted my post – How to use an old iPod in 2024
- This probably added fuel to that early draft – Please bring back the iPod
And more recently:
- Where did the MP3s come from? which reminded me that this draft existed.
- We need a physical digital music experience which I think is a nice but very very niche idea.
What are your thoughts?