Do you find yourself running out of space on your Ipod or MP3 player? Or, how about your music player on the computer is getting clogged up with too many songs. Well, I have a solution for you, my friends.
With these 3 easy steps, I’ll get you back on the right track to enjoying your music listening experience on your library once again!
Step #1: Get rid of those songs that you don’t listen to anymore, or have never listened to before and were just sitting there in your library in vain. You know what I’m talking about, that old Nickelback that stayed in your library, even before Nickelback became popular. And you were thinking to yourself, “hey, they are half-decent songs, they sometimes get played”, but take a look at your play count in your library, and you’ll see a big fat donut hole. Cause what you thought was just your library playing those songs, was in fact the radio constantly playing the same 4 or 5 songs by the artist, over and over again.
An easy tip: Pay attention! In your music library, just take a look at your play count, or try to remember the last time you played that artist. And whether you are still interested in the songs or not. Maybe you downloaded in album, just for a few songs, and are not interested in all that filler on the album. And keep in mind, your music taste will change when you get older, like a lot of things in life.
Another easy tip, would be to download the LAST.FM Scrobbler. It’s a good way to track your listening habits, and to decide what songs are being played on your music library.
Step #2: Converting your music files, quantity vs. quality. I’m someone who likes to keep a good balance, with the number of songs I have in my library, and the quality (or should I say bit rate in which the MP3s are stored at). All MP3s can be converted to different bit rates, depending on what kind of quality you want in a music file. The bit rates range from very poor quality (64kbps), to very high quality (320kpbs). The bit rate I use for all my music files is 192kbps, which is almost CD quality music (I get the best of both worlds in having a good amount of music, at a very good quality). Though, this is probably the minimum bit rate any music listener should be using, anywhere lower, especially 128kbps, you are noticeably losing a good chunk of quality. Whereas a 256kpbs, or even a 320kbps is great quality, but you’ll be taking more hard drive space, and possibly room on your MP3 player.
An easy tip: Many of your music files can be converted to different music file bit rates through the use of your music player such as iTunes & Winamp plugins. If you really want to get technical, you can always get a copy of Adobe Audition, it’s a pretty good software for editing your music files.
Step #3: Always back up your music. Sure, managing your music library to get the most bang for your buck is a great idea. But what happens when your hard drive totally fails. The music library that you worked on for the past decade is gone, and you have to scour the web again to get all your music files back. It hasn’t happened to me, but it can happen to anyone. My advice, get an external hard drive, and sync your music files onto that hard drive using AllwaySync. Sorry for the shameless promotion, but this is an awesome program that works, just like how iTunes syncs music very easy to your iPod. It’s a very convenient type of software for duplicating your music library, to storing it on your hard drive.
An easy tip: Another good way to back up your music, is to keep your physical collection of cassettes (maybe not), 8-tracks (definitely not), CD’s (ok, your on the right track), and yes… VINYL! Cause nothing beats the sound quality of Vinyl. It’s just that damn good!
