You know what I hate about iPods/iTunes?

The convenience. Its greatest asset is also its greatest flaw. It’s far too easy to skip to the next song. I no longer have to sit through C grade songs and a lot of B grade songs are getting the hook too. I have somewhere around 13,000 songs on my iPod and I can envision a day in the not too distant future where I just listen to “the Israelites” and “Here Comes My Baby” over and over again on a loop.

(I realize that this is actually a flaw with me and not the technology but it’s annoying and would not be possible without the iPod.)

You can make further copies just from the CDs themselves, right? Or do you somehow lose fidelity that way? I'm not an expert here, but I'm curious to know.

I hate the fact that Apple developed Itunes not to sell music, but as a way to spur the sales of Ipods and increase their market share in the hardware biz. It's about the music, man!

Of course I hate the DRM and proprietary file format too. I assume Mr. Mod knows that once he's burned a CD, he can rip the files from it and burn 8+ additional CDs using WMP or some other software.

I only bought an album from Itunes once. I immediately burned a CDRW, ripped the files to mp3's for my hard drive, and then erased the CDRW, which is a ridiculous process. Once Amazon (and Kompakt, bleep, Juno, etc) started selling DRM-free mp3's I never looked back.

I use Itunes as my jukebox, and I own an Ipod nano for the gym, but otherwise I don't play nice with Apple, because they think Mr. Mod's son should have no more than 7 friends. And I don't play the lower case 'i' game.

I'm loving this. I'm feeling better already. Yes, I know I can then burn my iTunes-loaded stuff to a regular mp3 and then do what I please. That's what I ended up doing. I still hated The Empire, though. Especially considering it was 1:00 am and I still had dried papier mache goop stuck in my cuticles.

Everyone one in a while what I hate about iTunes and the Apple Empire, in general, is its reliance on icons. I want WORDS to tell me where to click.

Hey, look, Mod. At 1 a.m. with papier maché goop on your hands while trying to make last minute doo-dads for your son, you'd resent a pair of scissors, wouldn't you? I've drunk the apple kool-aid, and love the iPod. I'm preparing for a trip to Nahant, MA with the family for a memorial/family reunion, and I just started my playlist with our traditional packing-up-the-car and putting-out the virtual cat song, the theme from Hitchcock's "Rear Window." A beautiful piece of Americana, as usual, composed by a European. In this case, Franz Waxman. I ripped it from the DVD, having searched for it for years on album or CD. Anyhow, a little Malkmus, Stanley Brothers, country western and Penguin Cafe, and we're on our way. Ah, the joys of convenience and 27,000 songs instantly available. I used to have to get up and cross the room to flip through lps and put a song on tape in laughable "real time." Seize your century, oldsters! Is apple a drag? Sure. Was it a drag getting the tape end into that little part of the reel where it goes? Sure. They made a few cars with turntables in them in the late 50s, but I wager I'm way ahead of them with my iPod. Especially in the one environment where I can't hear anybody whining about sound quality and digital inferiority, much less hear the actual inferiority!

General, this thread was set up for the free expression of sincere, if temporal, feelings of hatred for The Empire. Although I appreciate just about everything you've written, it seems to be suggesting we put a damper on our negative feelings. Without the sharing of these feelings, I ask, how will we ever heal?

Enjoy your family trip...and the tunes!

I have broken away from the Apple/Ipod family.
For father's day I got a sony walkman MP3 player to replace my 1st gneration Nano. I LOVE IT! I've always had Rhapsody, so I pay $1 more per month and I can download anything from Rhapsody onto my MP3 player. It immediatley saved me $$$ by not having to re-re-re-buy the latest re-issue of "My Aim is True" and "This Year's Model"

Touching, Andyr. Fight the power!

I've used iTunes - been given gift cards. But I can recommend Amazon's downloads too - No DRM and higher bit rates.

I don't own an Ipod or any sort of MP3 player. I'm a hold out. I was a hold out for the glorious CD, but now that I've aquired thousands upon thousands of plastic discs, I cannot face the daunting task of moving all of that material over to such a tiny teeny device. I know it's practical. I know it's simple. I bought my wife one for Christmas this past year (mainly for the car trips; she's a singles fan where I'm an album man).

I'm not morally opposed to them or anything. I just love packaging. I love looking at pictures. I like to hold it in my hand. I know if it's really about the music, then I don't need Elvis Costello telling me what I should feel about it or me having to look at an outtake photo of Joe Strummer to enjoy it any more or less. I sincerely love the find. The hunt. I usually don't even buy stuff online. There's something too simple about merely clicking on the title you want and getting it a few days later. I still order the damn things from my local record store (the discount doesn't hurt, I'm a good customer). I'm sounding like an old fart, I know. I'm sure I will reluctantly make the transition the micro-music revolution, but, for now, I like to hold the thing in my hand.

And I have bought This Year's Model three or four times now. Why? Because I'm a sucker and E.C. laughs at me every time I buy it.

One more story from way back when: When I first started collecting music, I was on a search for chicago III. It was elusive. I couldn't find that stupid record anyhere. Maybe it was being in the Deep South, that us uncultured hillbillies didn't appreciate the HIGH ART of Chicago III. I remember the day I found this "holy grail" of Chicago music. It was like a little shimmering ray of golden sunlight. I held it in my hands. I opened it. I could finally hear the glorious Chicago III sound. Keep in mind that this was before the internet and CDNow and Amazon and what-have-you. There was just something magical about finding that stupid record sitting on the shelf in some shop. Even if it was a mega-super-we-have-it-all superstore of music (that's now closed). I found what I was looking for. And it was great.

I leave you all with the words of Mr. Dylan in a recent Rolling Stone interview:

"We all like records played on record players, but let's face it, those days are g-o-n-n-n-e. You do the best you can, you fight that technology in all kinds of ways, but I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really. You listen to these modern records, they're attrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like-static. Even these songs (referring to his latest record, Modern Times) probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em. CDs are small. There's no stature to it. I remember when that Napster guy up across, it was like, 'Everybody's gettin' music for free.' I was like, 'Well why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway.'"

Didn't Dylan do an Ipod commercial to promote his last record?

TB

I'm not crazy about those earbud things. They've made me paranoid that I have irregularly shaped ear holes or something.

But come on, Mod, what were the 15 songs?

Let me see if I can recall the 14 or 15 father-approved songs I downloaded for the boys. I should note that they were sitting alongside me and had some say in probably the last 4 or 5 selections, when I wasn't sure what else to add. They'd hear song samples from iTunes and give me a thumbs' up or down. It should also be noted that there were a few songs I did not give them the opportunity to sample. Father knows best.

Living Thing
Do Ya
Evil Woman
Tightrope
Strange Magic
Sweet Talkin' Woman (presently my youngest son's favorite along with "Tightrope" - he's the "melodic one," also into Aimee Mann's I'm With Stupid and the new Sam Phillips album of late)
Mr. Blue Sky
Look at Me Now (I think that's the sawing-cello/Roy Wood number one from the first album)
Can't Get it Out of My Head
Rockaria
Don't Bring Me Down
Roll Over Beethoven (my rhythm-oriented oldest son is way into this '50s-inspired trio of ELO tracks; he's the one most digging that Buddy Holly collection)
Turn to Stone
Telephone Line
So Fine

Yes, those are the ones I downloaded.

Those fucking wires from the iPod to your ears. Putting up with 'buds is a big enough pain; untangling those skinny little wires is even worse.

I hate the fake sound that the menu "wheel" makes when I "turn" it.

I was hoping you'd all discovered and championed Laredo Tornado. But now I'm more curious which songs you blacklisted.

And yeah, the iPod wires are awful. Those are going to be the tangled up cords between a phone and its handset to this generation of kids who don't know what a telephone handset is.

Anything post "Don't Bring Me Down" was off limits. I didn't seek out that instrumental that used to be used on sports shows either, from one of their first albums.

I played my youngest boy the first Traveling Wilburys album a couple of weeks ago, to see if he'd dig the Jeff Lynne production. He hated it! Maybe my older, roots rockin' boy would have liked it better.

I'm a sucker for Jeff Lynne. I think "Do Ya" is about a perfect a rock song that you can write. I even like Ace Frehley's version of it. I cannot begin to describe my love affair with that song.

That said, I'm also a sucker for the Jeff Lyne production. The big drums, the phased vocals, all of it. I remember when "ELO" (really solo Jeff Lynne) released that record in 2001 (Zoom). It totally bombed. You couldn't give that record away. There was big tour planned but Sony cancelled it for lack of interest, which stunk because I was ready to finally get to see my hero, Jeff Lynne, in person. Anyway, I found it interesting that in the late 80s and early 90s, you couldn't escape that Jeff Lynne sound. He had so many hit records. Roy, Tom, The Wilburys, George, Del, et al. He was on a roll. I even like the stuff he did The Beatles. He makes a record ten year s later and no one cares. It's not a bad album and certainly worth picking up, if you're Lynne fans. I am.

"Laredo Tornado" is great. I also have a perverse love for "Last Train To London." I like that whole "very disco" Discovery record. I'm a masochist. I know.

TB

PS--Anybody see that Concert for George Harrison? I think Jeff was one of the highlights.

I didn't know Lynne was part of that Zoom album. I thought it was, like, Bev Bevan's ELO.

I agree that Lynne was SOLID in the Concert for George show.

I chucked out my earbuds within a month. Bought a refurb pair of Sony noise-cancelling phones at the outlet mall for $15 and haven't looked back. It's the buds that'll fuck up your hearing, because they're so underpowered that you turn the volume up too much to compensate. I never have my iPod over 50% volume now, and it sounds fine.

Other than the buds, I hate little about my iPod or iTunes, especially since they finally put a sort field option in.

Yeah, Zoom is pretty much Lynne. The only other ELOer on that record is good old Richard Tandy. Lynne played most of the instruments himself a la McCartney. The record also features cameos by George and Ringo. It's worth seeking out. I even saw one in a cut out bin somewhere. I think it was a truck stop.

I don't know, and I know this has turned a little toward a Lynne/ELO post, but the guy seems like nice fellow. He's semes very genuine and that he really gets a kick out working with his "heroes, The Beatles." Some of them, even George, have been quoted as saying some nasty things about him, but I haven't heard the man say a discouraging word. He's just a music nut, who happens to craft some really nice pop tunes. So, yeah, I'm a fan.

Just to get to get back on subject, I only like the big honkin', ear-covering headphones. Ear buds just aren't comfortable. I like to look like Matthew Sweet on the cover of 100% Fun. I even use my big 70s headphones with my trusty discman (the one everybody makes fun of me for having. "You should have an Ipod, dork!") The bigger the headphones, the louder and better.

TB

vinyl dudes.
that's where it's at.
apple sells no vinyl.
big bummer.

I even use my big 70s headphones with my trusty discman

My wife has also swapped to the giant noise-cancelling headphones like me, which she uses with her iPod mini. The tiny little one that's about the size and shape of a large postage stamp. She enjoys some very odd looks on the subway every morning.

You may know how I feel about any kind of headphones: http://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/index.php/2007/01/30/hey_man_simply_put_headphones_aren_t_my_

I hated the Empire from conception and have never used the service nor bought an MP3 player. I would probably use one if it fell into my lap in some way but I've found no reason to buy in. I'm a big eavesdropper and I hate to have to give that up.

I understand how people who have fallen out of the habit of listening to music re-started their joy with these gizmos. Whatever my life was needing, it wasn't a new way to listening to music. That part of my life has always run smoothly.