From One Extreme To The Other, And Back Again
I can no longer deny how handy it would be for me to own some kind of reasonably high-capacity MP3 player. My dad's workmate recently won an iPod Nano -- but he doesn't have a computer. This has resulted in Dad being bestowed with the task of putting music on it, using our computer. It's already proven to be a pretty impractical system by which to do things, but I took the chance to have a play with the Nano as it was sitting there on the floor, plugged into the computer's USB drive, charging up. Apart from the fact that my entire one and a half gigabyte collection of music, painstakingly downloaded over a period of years via dial-up, had been automatically loaded onto the iPod, I was impressed. I've never really tried out an iPod before, and finally doing so drove home to me the concept of just how much music it is possible to fit on an MP3 player (even a small one like this, which is two gigabytes).
Owning an MP3 player would be a damn sight better than having to engage in the intense, life-defining deliberation that currently I partake in every morning as to which single CD album I am going to take with me to listen to on public transport. From there, there also arises the problem that what I am in the mood to listen to on the way to university may well not be what I am in the mood to listen to on the way home. Then of course there's the spontaneous cravings to listen to a certain song that you get during the day and which are unsatiable unless you actually listen to the song. As Alison and Cynthia pointed out, as if to enrage my anti-dilemma, these cravings become less of an issue if you have an MP3 player. So, overall the costs of getting an MP3 player far outweigh the benefits -- or do they?
It's my feeling that the current iPod range gives you poor gigabyte-per-dollar value, at least when you're focussing on the lower price ranges. I'm certainly not going to be paying in excess of seven hundred dollars for any gimmicky video functions, and impossibly big sixty-gigabyte hard drives that you are never going to fill. At the same time, I'm not going to buy a four-gigabyte Nano for around four-hundred and thirty dollars when a thirty-gigabyte video-playing beast would cost only a slight bit more at five-hundred and forty. In that particular case, the Nano is overpriced for the amount of space you get, and the behemoth iPod I would consider to be out of my price range. If I bought that Nano I'd feel like I'd been ripped off, and I surmise that I have at least one gigabyte of Pink Floyd music alone, so I don't think such a small unit would suffice. The only course of action I can think of is to start looking at the other brands such as iRiver and Creative Nomad, considering in the case of iPod I feel like you're paying extra for the brand anyway. Your thoughts on all this would be appreciated, from anyone who owns iPods or other MP3 players.
Taking an ethnomusicology paper has turned out to be an even more successful experiment than I first thought. Not only have I been thoroughly enjoying Anthro 219 Contemporary Perspectives on Music and Culture -- moreso than any other paper I've done at university so far -- but in my five-hundred word article review that I got back on Monday, I got ninety-five per cent -- an A+. That's top of the class. I was sitting behind the tutor in the lecture, and when she turned around and discretely told me my mark, I thought she'd got the wrong person. Yes, I did put a lot of effort into the assignment, having got an A in the last one and seeking to improve on that, but I didn't realise that it was that good. She asked for permission to photocopy it and distribute it to the class. When she handed it out in the tutorial, someone asked what mark it got. "Ninety-five," the tutor said. Everyone ooh'd and aah'd. I tried to make my pride unnoticeable. "Who's is it?" the other student probed some more. "Aha, I can't tell ya that!" laughed the tutor. I smiled uncontrollably under the peak of my cap; it's lucky people weren't scanning the room. Not that I would mind them knowing, but you know, it's a game. The next day, I looked on Cecil to find that the class average was fifty per cent. Cor blimey.
Needless to say, if I do take on an anthropology minor, I pick that a significant number of the papers are going to be ethnomusicological now. I'm hooked to the field. It makes sense that two big interests, anthropology and music, have combined so well in a subject for me.
Owning an MP3 player would be a damn sight better than having to engage in the intense, life-defining deliberation that currently I partake in every morning as to which single CD album I am going to take with me to listen to on public transport. From there, there also arises the problem that what I am in the mood to listen to on the way to university may well not be what I am in the mood to listen to on the way home. Then of course there's the spontaneous cravings to listen to a certain song that you get during the day and which are unsatiable unless you actually listen to the song. As Alison and Cynthia pointed out, as if to enrage my anti-dilemma, these cravings become less of an issue if you have an MP3 player. So, overall the costs of getting an MP3 player far outweigh the benefits -- or do they?It's my feeling that the current iPod range gives you poor gigabyte-per-dollar value, at least when you're focussing on the lower price ranges. I'm certainly not going to be paying in excess of seven hundred dollars for any gimmicky video functions, and impossibly big sixty-gigabyte hard drives that you are never going to fill. At the same time, I'm not going to buy a four-gigabyte Nano for around four-hundred and thirty dollars when a thirty-gigabyte video-playing beast would cost only a slight bit more at five-hundred and forty. In that particular case, the Nano is overpriced for the amount of space you get, and the behemoth iPod I would consider to be out of my price range. If I bought that Nano I'd feel like I'd been ripped off, and I surmise that I have at least one gigabyte of Pink Floyd music alone, so I don't think such a small unit would suffice. The only course of action I can think of is to start looking at the other brands such as iRiver and Creative Nomad, considering in the case of iPod I feel like you're paying extra for the brand anyway. Your thoughts on all this would be appreciated, from anyone who owns iPods or other MP3 players.
Taking an ethnomusicology paper has turned out to be an even more successful experiment than I first thought. Not only have I been thoroughly enjoying Anthro 219 Contemporary Perspectives on Music and Culture -- moreso than any other paper I've done at university so far -- but in my five-hundred word article review that I got back on Monday, I got ninety-five per cent -- an A+. That's top of the class. I was sitting behind the tutor in the lecture, and when she turned around and discretely told me my mark, I thought she'd got the wrong person. Yes, I did put a lot of effort into the assignment, having got an A in the last one and seeking to improve on that, but I didn't realise that it was that good. She asked for permission to photocopy it and distribute it to the class. When she handed it out in the tutorial, someone asked what mark it got. "Ninety-five," the tutor said. Everyone ooh'd and aah'd. I tried to make my pride unnoticeable. "Who's is it?" the other student probed some more. "Aha, I can't tell ya that!" laughed the tutor. I smiled uncontrollably under the peak of my cap; it's lucky people weren't scanning the room. Not that I would mind them knowing, but you know, it's a game. The next day, I looked on Cecil to find that the class average was fifty per cent. Cor blimey.
Needless to say, if I do take on an anthropology minor, I pick that a significant number of the papers are going to be ethnomusicological now. I'm hooked to the field. It makes sense that two big interests, anthropology and music, have combined so well in a subject for me.
posted by Gary at 9:43 am
4 Comments:
Yeah thanks Pie. Just so that I can generally gauge how much music I'd be able to get into thirty gigabytes, how much (in terms of time) can you yourself fit on the twenty-gigabyte iPod? Most of my files would be at a 192kbps bit rate.
I do only have a gig of music on the computer at the moment, but I have a very large CD collection -- at least fifty CDs (I haven't done a precise count), averaging at forty-five minutes each, but some are as long as seventy -- most of which I would want to have on my MP3 player.
The twenty-gigabyte iPod that you have isn't available anymore -- the closest thing I could get to that would be the thirty-gigabyte one, but like I said I don't want to feel like I'm paying for the video gimmick that I'm never going to use.
That's why iRiver and Creative Nomad seemed like a possibility when Mat mentioned them to me -- I thought maybe I could get a thirty-gigabyte one of those for less than the current iPod of the same size costs.
Do you know what average bit rate the files that you put on there are in (128kbps, 192kbps, et cetera...)? Or is there some system of standardisation on the iPod that puts everything at the same clarity?
I purchased a 30gig video Ipod and its probably one of the best investments I have ever made. I was a little conscious and weary of whether it would be worth the $528 when purchasing, but have so far found it to bring nothing but high quality entertainment for those boring bus rides and the like.
The video function is surely not a gimmick, for I have loaded on many episodes of Family Guy, Simpsons and now Dr Katz. The tv rip quality actually looks pretty darn good on the small screen. But don't let the size of the screen fool you, it's still perfectly fine to watch, detail can be made out etc.
I feel that my ipod is less 'indy' than the indys' ipods because it is black, and black pwns.
30 gigs for me has been an ample ammount of space, I don't bloat my ipod up with crap - only the music I like, there is still heeeeaps of space to add more.
I worked out yesterday that I own just over eighty albums, with an average length of forty-five minutes, which comes to 3600 minutes. As I said before, some of them are longer, but judging by the amount of music Pie's managed to fit on his 20 GB, the 30 GB should be more than adequate.
Because I have broadband, it's hard to get a hold of video that I would actually be able to put on the iPod -- all I've really got is a few music-related clips. The way you put it though, Leitch, means that I can certainly see the appeal now. Family Guy on the train? Too good a thought.
I'd decided prior to reading your comment, Leitch, that if I do buy an MP3 player it's going to be a 30 GB iPod that is black, with the colour choice being made for reasons similar to those you stated. You've substantially reinforced my confidence in my provisional decision, so thanks for that. Also, there's no indieness to worry about -- everybody except me has one of these things (hyperbole). Cheers.
Now the choice is essentially as to whether I make the purchase, or put the money towards my OE (I do not have the money yet, by the way, as I am currently unemployed and paying for petrol out of my reserves).
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