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Blog: It's like your own radio station! What?

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The impending (it's a month away, but I'm PANICKING) debut of my DJ CAREER has led me to have a bit of a RIFLE through my CD collection which in turn has led me to FINALLY get it together to put iTunes onto my computer at home. Until recently it's always lived on my computer at work, which has been HANDY as every time I've bought a new CD at lunchtime I've been able to get it onto my iPod for the journey home, but LESS SO in that, whenever I've fancied putting some of my old CDs onto it, I've had to LUG them in from home.

Project: Home iTunes thus began with me lugging a pile of CDs BACK from home, but once done I set to putting them all onto the NEW version. I was a bit nervous at first - after all, I'd not had my computer long, I didn't want to COMPLETELY fill it with songs did I? And I knew this swanky new iPod Classic was a BIT bigger than my old NanoPod thingy, but surely it couldn't be THAT much bigger, right?

So it was that I TENTATIVELY put all of the previous batch of CDs onto it, which had FILLED the old one, and had a check to see how much space I had left on my computer. iTunes said I'd used over a GIGABYTE - would everything still work OK!?!?

Ah. I see. My computer has approximately SIX HUNDRED Gigabytes free, and the new iPod has about EIGHTY! Things, apparently, have MOVED ON since I last paid very much attention - can it have been THAT long ago that I got a new computer at work and was told "This has over a GIGABYTE of memory! You'll never have to delete ANYTHING ever again!"? Obviously so. The iTunes software seemed to MOCK me with it's graphical demonstration - Memory Free: PRETTY MUCH ALL OF IT.

I have thus been GLEEFULLY putting my ENTIRE CD collection into it, and have just about reached the halfway mark with Ben Folds (Five and Solo Career). My favourite EXITING NEW THING about it all is that you can get it to automatically download album covers - this may not be news to most people, but I was AMAZED, ESPECIALLY when it downloaded some of MINE! WHOO! There they are, on the INTERWEB! ZANG!

I was even slightly DISAPPOINTED when I found that EVERYTHING I have is on The Gracenote Database (barring homemade compilations - 'Belle & Sebastian When They Were Still Good' didn't pop up automatically). I was SURE some of the more obscure albums would DEFY it, but no. Even "Hangover Square" by The Caretaker Race, hunted for for years and eventually copied for me by Mr W Pilkington, managed to find its way onto it. I wonder how obscure you have to GET before you can defy it?

Best of all, though, is that I FINALLY get to see what all the fuss was about with SHUFFLE. On my Nano it was never that exciting. "Oh, The Beatles!" I'd think, knowing that a few weeks before I'd filled half of it WITH the Beatles [including WITH The Beatles, obviously], and so it wasn't that exciting. NOW, however, it is like, well, like Having Your Own Radio Station - and a radio station that seems rather obsessed with Half Man Half Biscuit to BOOT!

I know I'm about five years behind THE CURVE on this one, but CORKS, it isn't half GRATE. Must dash though, I feel the incontrollable URGE to go and spend fifty quid in HMV all in one go!

posted 4/9/2008 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

i totally did the gracenotes for shed anthems!
posted 4/9/2008 by CarsmileSteve

Yes Gracenote is update when you put in a CD that's not already there. Though loads of people have played your CDs, obviously.
posted 4/9/2008 by Pauly

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