Okay before I go on, I don't wanna sound like an asshole here. The last thing I want to do is sound pretentious and pretend like streaming music is some horrendous sin... it's not! I love the fact that streaming has helped so many people discover new things. Hell, I wouldn't be writing any of this without the help of Spotify and YouTube channels in my early teens. This blog is merely a method I have carved out for myself, and if you find it interesting, I encourage you to give it a try!
Song - 'blade bird' by Oklou
The iPod -
Since I've been trying to get off my phone more, buying a used iPod sounded like a pretty cool idea. So far, my best method to prevent doomscrolling has been to replace the phone with other devices, and this was no exception. Why switch to something more inconvenient though? Well, aside from the nostalgia of a dedicated portable audio player, I wanted to feel like I owned my music again. Streaming encouraged me to flip through songs like a speedrun, and I found myself listening to things for only a few seconds before getting bored. I could have very well gotten a new record player or even a CD player, but I honestly do not have the money or time for that right now. For me, at least, buying albums and owning the lossless FLAC files is just as gratifying as holding a record in my hands.
Another reason I decided to switch over was because I wanted a fun side project. Over the last year or so I've gotten pretty good at fixing all of my electronics. Finding a beat up iPod sounded like something I could get a lot of practice out of.
Anyway, I bought this used iPod Classic on eBay for about $70. It came preloaded with a shitton of songs, and whoever used it last must have opened it up and put a new hard drive in. None of this mattered though, because I too was going to open it up to make some changes.
First, I replaced the old spinning hard drive with an SD card adapter. Most drives from the iPod Classic era are either dead or on their last legs, and using SD cards is a really easy way to get more storage and increase performance. I bought a board on Amazon and replaced the whole drive in five minutes or so. This also included a fresh new battery, which would essentially double the original lifespan.
The best part is that these mods are really easy! It seems scary, but the hardest thing is really opening up the iPod shell itself. From there, it's just clicking things into place like Legos. After all was said and done, I had a brand new iPod Classic with 500 gigs of storage, and a battery that can last up to two weeks.
My next move was to load some music onto the thing. Just like how I was changing the way I listened to music, I also wanted to find new ways to discover it.
For context, my previous methods of discovering music were driving me fucking nuts. I initially found myself wedged into 'music/hiphop twitter' way back in 2017, and while it was cool at first, it quickly turned into discussion about what felt like the same few albums. It's kind of like a cult, and these internet groups tend to latch onto hype or 'coolness' instead of actually enjoying things. Like honestly, you could make an album of just cartoon sound effects, and if you talked to the right people, it would be considered an avant-garde generational classic.
Obviously as a human being, you can choose to block out these opinions, but when you're so sucked in to these communities, you start to feel stuck. Plus, there is a lot of elitism, and a general sense of "I'm better than you because I discovered to this album one microsecond before you". This phenomena has been around way before the internet existed (go listen to 'Losing My Edge' by LCD Soundsystem) but it is VERY loud nowadays in comparison, at least to me.
So I started to look for multiple sources of suggestions instead of one single community. Music magazines and independent journalism were my first outlets, and man, I wish I checked these out sooner. My favorite of the bunch is hearingthings.co - a group consisting of ex-Pitchfork members who went on to create their own platform just last year. I was initially a bit frustrated that most, if not all their articles were paywalled, but I am a firm believer that good journalism is absolutely worth a small asking price. And I'm glad I gave it a shot, because I haven't found this many great albums is years. Do yourself a favor and go support some indie publications if you can!
Okay so what's the takeaway here? Well not much really... I just wanted to talk about a project of mine that I have been particularly proud of. Ditching my phone has helped reignite my passions for writing and making music, and I feel like I have a newfound control over my free time. I would not be writing this blog had I continued to keep up my previous bad habits, and for once, I actually made a positive change in my life.
I hope to share more of these blogs, as well as some new music (finally) with you all soon. If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading, it means a lot to me. Sometimes I get in my head about oversharing or crowding people's feeds with my work, but I try to keep pushing regardless. If at least one person finds this stuff interesting, then I've succeeded. I hope you will all be around for what is to come in the future!