iPods

I have had a number of iPods over the years. Starting with my iPod 3G, then a 5G (whose screen is pictured above), a 1st-gen iPod Touch and lately an iPod 7G Classic with a 160GB drive in it. I’ve loved them all, but it really feels like “Device as a Music Player” is done. Apple’s shift from iPods to iPhones started that downward trend.

But it’s gone further than just the obsolescence of the dedicated player. Music storage itself has become another quaint notion. Services like Rdio and Pandora (still not available in Canada) have replaced saved music for many people. And video too is a thing that is streamed rather than “owned”.

I blame Apple. The company that started the shift to digital music has failed to innovate. The 256kbit AAC DRM file is now the pinnacle of purchasable audio and it’s not nearly good enough. Marketing phrases such as “Mastered for iTunes+” really mean “We’ve destroyed any dynamic range this recording might have had”. Sure, the Compact Disc wasn’t perfect, but mastering for that format certainly left a lot more room for the engineer to play with.

iTunes itself has become something of an abomination. More interested with selling you things than maintaining and organizing your library, it’s frustrating to use if you have any amount of content in your library. Ironically, I think the Apple Remote software available on the iPad may be my preferred interface for the new iTunes. It may feel more connected to my library than iTunes itself.

iTunes 11 is the Apple Maps of media software.

I think the field is ripe for picking. Someone could come along and ship some music library software that doesn’t suck. I would pay for it. Bonus points if it will recognize and consolidate libraries from around my home network. And if it could stream to my devices while I’m out and about, automagically compressing my music on the fly, well that’d be keen.