The iPod killed my music collection

Try as you might BOSE sound dock. It's not the same.

I hate my iPod.  OK so I don’t hate it. But I dislike what it has done to my beloved CD/vinyl collection.

While the latest iPod Touch allows me to view awesome album covers at least a little better than previous versions of mp3 playing technology (the Zune does a great job too), it has made selecting music a chore for me (even after opting for an eight gigabyte model over the bigger sizes).

I thought the smaller model would somehow limit the amount of crap that ends up on my iPod (old pop punk I used to listen to in middle school? Sure why not, I got the gigs!), but now I’m in some sort of limbo where I have crap on my iPod, but plenty of good stuff that hasn’t made its way over there.

But the main thing Apple’s invention of the iPod has done is take away my ability to listen to an album in its entirety. Sure I still can listen to a full album, but when I’m crunched for time, I just put that badboy on shuffle. And then I skip a song, and another, and I am never truly satisfied. It’s like channel surfing, except with music.

Lately I’ve started the practice of digging out about six CDs to keep in my car. I limit myself to those until I’ve heard them all. Then I pick some more (keeping in some favorites at times) and listen to the album all the way through, the way the artist intended.

So I guess my main argument is that I hate the way the iPod has killed the listening experience an album presents.  What’s the point of checking out a concept album if the songs are delegated to random selection on my iPod?  (I won’t even point out how the only place to find most physical nonmainstream CDs nowadays is Amazon.com or another virtual retailer).

And then there’s the sound quality of most iTunes albums. It sucks. Try and play an AAC encoded file on a BOSE sound system through your iPod, then try and play a CD through the same thing (and vinyl with an amazing sound system is equally killer). I sometimes regret ever buying those fancy noise cancelling earbuds, because it allows me to hear the flaws of the format.

Maybe I’m just a bitter music fan that needs to get on with the times and embrace the technological ease of an MP3 player (which I still use all the time). But until it becomes impossible to find CDs from my favorite bands on store shelves, I’ll still be rockin’ out to them in my car and home whenever possible.