Your iTunes Library...

[DrJ]

When I had to move from Dublin last year the first thing I did was digitise my CD collection onto iTunes (yes, I should have had other priorities) This seemd to unleash an unhealthy obsession where nothing escaped getting ripped: CD I hadn't listened to in a decade, CDs I hadn't listened to at all, Discs from magazines and so on...

Now a few months later I'm at 18,300+ tracks and you see some strange patterns:

There are 1010 EC Tracks

Ten versions of The Monkees doing The Girl That I Knew Somewhere

55 songs that mention a day of the week

Twelve vesions of The Who doing My Generation

Has anybody else experienced this madness? Findings?

DrJ

[John]

Must confess, Dr J, to converting all my vinyl albums, singles, 12"s, tapes etc to CD and ripping all plus all CDs to my computer. I have a mere 5985 tracks including 731 EC. I have tried to delete all duplications and absolute rubbish.
Good for parties as long as everyone has your taste in music!
I am certain there are some sadder cases on this very board. Come on - own up!

[pophead2k]

I don't have an iPod and to be honest, the mere idea of ripping 1200+ Cds to an iPod or to my computer terrifies me. Maybe I could pay someone to do it.........

[Who Shot Sam?]

I have around 4100 tunes imported into my iTunes now, and a little more than a tenth of it is EC. Whenever I pick up a new album now, the first thing I do is rip it into iTunes. I only really used my CDs for listening in the living room or in the car, and there are adapters available that would allow me to use my iPod in these places as well, although I've read very mixed reviews of the FM transmitters for your car.

I do miss opening a CD or vinyl album and perusing the liner notes, photos, etc. I expect that someone will come up with a nifty way to do this virtually in iTunes, but it hasn't happened yet - or I haven't heard about it.

[DrJ]

Oh you can pay people to rip your cd collection for you...
http://www.dmp3music.com/
http://www.ripdigital.com/

When you download with iTunes, the file comes tagged with a little album cover art which you can print off or have flash up on your computer/digital player screen. The U2 album comes with a full downloadable booklet, which I guess will be an option which will become more common.

DrJ

[Who Shot Sam?]

When you download with iTunes, the file comes tagged with a little album cover art which you can print off or have flash up on your computer/digital player screen. The U2 album comes with a full downloadable booklet, which I guess will be an option which will become more common.

I checked out that U2 edition at my local Apple Store. I think they give you a coupon toward the purchase of the complete U2 from iTunes, plus the booklet you describe. Seemed like a bit of a rip-off to me. For the privilege of having a black and red iPod that will show every smudge and fingerprint (but does have replica signatures of the band members mind you), you get to pay Apple an additional $100 or whatever it is, and they throw in a coupon that encourages you to spend even more on iTunes. No thanks.

I would, of course, happily purchase an EC iPod model if a similar offer came along, though I'm at pains to think what it might look like - maybe the Armed Forces paint splatter effect?

On a related subject, am I the only one who doesn't get the appeal of the iPod Photo? I would have preferred to see Apple integrate PDA functionality into the iPod. Maybe that will be on the way in the next few years.

[BlueChair]

I don't have a big enough hard drive to house all of my CDs so I tend to just keep whatever I have on my 20GB iPod in iTunes.

[stormwarning]

I must be a bit of a geek then.

iTunes = 13,407 (about 4000 in a separate iPod folder)
They're mostly downloaded, I'd say about 5% is ripped. (It's easier to download a CD than rip it, even if you already own it...)

FLAC/WAV/mp3 bootlegs & collectables (excluding CD's I've burned and backed up)
Elvis = 3,790
Bowie = 4,286

It kind of sneaks up on you doesn't it ?

[so lacklustre]

Has only just dawned on you that you have geek tendencies?

[DrJ]

3,790 EC tracks, that's impressive!

I checked out that U2 edition at my local Apple Store. I think they give you a coupon toward the purchase of the complete U2 from iTunes, plus the booklet you describe. Seemed like a bit of a rip-off to me. For the privilege of having a black and red iPod that will show every smudge and fingerprint (but does have replica signatures of the band members mind you), you get to pay Apple an additional $100 or whatever it is, and they throw in a coupon that encourages you to spend even more on iTunes. No thanks.

Well, it's not bad, you get a voucher which for $100 or £79 you get everything U2 have ever recorded: a-sides, b-sides, album tracks, remixes, rarities, a bunch of never released takes and three previously unreleased gigs. About 450 songs in all. Not bad value. But yeah, it's black, not crazy about that.

On a related subject, am I the only one who doesn't get the appeal of the iPod Photo? I would have preferred to see Apple integrate PDA functionality into the iPod. Maybe that will be on the way in the next few years.

The iPod photo has an appeal but it still has limitations that I hope will be resolved with the next generation. At the moment you can't connect a digital camera to the iPP directly and empty the camera card onto it and start taking photos again - you need a media adaptor to connect the two. Secondly, the iPP can be connected to a tv and display selected photos with a soundtrack of your choice, ergo, you could connect it to a projector, so with an iPP you could carry your presentations on your iPod and present them off it. At the moment it means you'd have to save your slides as JPEGs or similar, but with second gen they could integrate this with Keynote, Apple's own Powerpoint... "Export Presentation to iPod"... that'd be cool. The best thing about the iPod photo is the colour screen with the album art popping up, much more pleasant than black and white.

I'm king geek and claim my prize...

DrJ

[LessThanZero]

Wow, what a funny feeling. I just had to check this out.

Ipod may be the closest thing I've ever had to trying drugs. Wait...I had a dark Taco Bell period in 2003.

Anyway, I have a pathetic 1500 songs on my Ipod. But that's only because i don't prioritize my day well enough.

Beatles +solo Beatles 20%
Elvis 18%
Sam Cooke 7%
Otis Redding 4%