Those with large music collections - how do you listen

[Samsara]

hey all. So like I am sure many of you, particularly those in the older age ranges, I have a gigantic music collection.

When Apple stopped making the iPod classic many years ago, I had a customized one that stored 256 gb, and then later, when that died, I moved on to a 128 gb iPod Touch. Now that's going away. And looking around, none of the portable music players seem to be very in fashion these days.

So what do people do here to listen to your own music on the go? Does everyone just stream? I mean, I have a huge vinyl and CD collection and I've digitized the entirety of my CD collection (thousands of albums). But I'm unsure what to do now to take that music with me. My old iPod touch simply doesn't have the capacity, and I'm doing some research and some of these standalone, non Apple MP3 devices aren't as compatible with cars.

I know many stream on their phones -- but I don't want to take up my phone memory with my huge music collection. My 128 gb phone would be overwhelmed, particularly with the photos and videos I have on there.

I need a device that I can bring into the office, hook up to play on speakers, and then put back in the car. Does anyone even still do that, and if so, what are you using? Because while I know I'm a dinosaur, I didn't think I was as old as TAC.    But maybe I am.

Thoughts, suggestions? All my albums are at 256 kbps MP3 and that's what's currently on my iPod touch. But it's only about 1/3 of my entire collection.

[TAC]

Puppies was talking about his Plex Server here:

Is that just another Spotify?

I mean, I need an account? I load my music files to it? I got tired just looking at it.

It's mainly for people that already have a large digital music collection. So instead of you streaming music from a music service, you store your own files and stream them from your own server. And you can stream everything in CD quality or even higher if the files you have are higher quality.

Can't I just play them from my computer or load them on my phone?

Sure.

I mean, that's what I do now, but I'll check out that link later out of interest.

It's convenient for me because I have over 9000 CDs that I have ripped to my Plex server and I can listen to them anywhere on my phone without having to store the music on my phone. Or on any other device, as long as I have an internet connection.

He could talk more about it. I think I saw in my search that Faizoff also uses it.  I clicked the link Puppies sent me, but I was immediately lost, you know, being an actual dinosaur and all. 


Hopefully he sees this thread.

[Samsara]

Thanks fellow Jurassic era friend. 

Plex looks interesting. But man, it's like you have to buy a microcomputer, another hard drive, keep all of that running at home, just to literally enjoy your own music collection. Seems like a lot of effort. Plus I don't see how I can play it in the car, unless I go through my phone, and that has the problem of it being lower in quality (I assume) since it is streaming.

This is so ridiculous. Why did the world decide those of us with music collections are dinosaurs? 

[TAC]

I actually use Spotify quite a bit.

In the car, I just use CDs but being that my ride to work isn't very long, I usually just put on sports radio. Obviously I drive a vehicle with no audio input jack.

[bosk1]

The other issue with streaming that I don't like is that I sometimes want to listen to music in places where I don't have cell service. 

[romdrums]

I'm fully in the Mac/iPhone/iPad ecosystem, so I was able to sync my collection through Apple Music and now I can access it on any iOS device I have.  I also have a 256 GB iPod touch, but it has issues working with my car.  The only hard part for me is choosing what I want to listen to.

[Ben_Jamin]

The only thing I found that could house my entire library of music was the Fiio X5. It has dual MicroSD card slots, and if you have two 256GB cards it can store a lot of songs.

https://fiio.com/x5iii

I found it to be alright for what I wanted it for. The only issue I had with it is the interface, and the newer "Mp3" I got now doesn't have much of a difference with regards to issues, it pretty much has that same issue. But for me, those were the only two I could find that could hold that much memory of music.

The thing is though, they are tough to find now and are pretty pricey. But for me, it was worth it.

[Metro]

All my music is uploaded to iCloud via Apple Music(which used to be iTunes) on my laptop, and I can access and stream it all with the Music app on my iPhone. The music doesn’t take up space on your phone unless you choose to download it to your phone. I’ve used this method for the last four years.

[TAC]

The other issue with streaming that I don't like is that I sometimes want to listen to music in places where I don't have cell service.

Right. If we're travelling, I have my iPods with me, but at work and at home, I use Spotify quite a bit.

[Samsara]

The other issue with streaming that I don't like is that I sometimes want to listen to music in places where I don't have cell service.

This.

Metro, Ben, rom - all those are good options for sure. I did check out filo, but pricey.

I guess I'm just concerned that access to my music is dependent on connectivity. And I just don't like that. It seems that folks have been doing it for quite a bit (Metro), but I'm so leery of that.

Tim - Spotify...eh. Again, have to stream.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I don't enjoy mixing phone and music usage, I like separate devices.  I mainly just listen to podcasts on the phone.  I still have a few old iPods, but the right side audio output has gone out in one, the battery is almost toast in another, plus one that the hard drive died in.  I also just have way too much music for any one device to hold it all.  I still play CDs in the car.  I use streaming at home (plus my vinyl and digital collection), but wireless reception is spotty in parts of the house, plus other places, and in general I despise dropouts, so streaming on the go is a no go for me.  I've had a long list of various players from Creative Labs, Cowon, Fiio and others, but my current one has been giving me some issues lately, so I'm probably going to be in the market again for another player soon. 

[Elite]

Spotify gives you the option to save songs to your phone. You download them through the Sporify app and you can listen to them wherever.

[Samsara]

Elite,

Appreciate that. But if I have thousands of albums on cd already converted to mp3, I really don't want to use Spotify to download their versions of tracks to my phone.

In all honesty, I just want a simple to use separate device that can hold all my songs and be compatible with my vehicle and at the office with a set of speakers. What I am gathering is that what I want, while once available, has been all but eliminated from the marketplace. Really disheartening. I'm getting a new car next summer, and the last new one we bought, for my wife, was the last model year of hers that had a CD player. lol.

[jammindude]

About a year ago I picked up a Sony Walkman that takes a microSD card.

It can hold about 2000 songs in FLAC format. So once every few weeks, I load up an eclectic mix of albums and take them on the go with me. Then when I need a refresher, I’ll just trade things out from my hard drive to make a fresh mix.

[HOF]

Last night for some reason I couldn't get my phone to stream Amazon Music while I was out walking, which stinks (connection issue). Used to have everything on an old iPhone that I used just for listening to music, but I stopped using iTunes a few years ago and my collection is way to big to fit on it anyway.

So yeah, I'd like a device that can hold all of my collection on it that is not a phone and that has an easy to use interface that lets me quickly update it with new music, etc. (iTunes was really awful for this). I don't think anyone has the motivation to make a good device for this because of the prevalence of streaming though.

[Ben_Jamin]

Elite,

Appreciate that. But if I have thousands of albums on cd already converted to mp3, I really don't want to use Spotify to download their versions of tracks to my phone.

In all honesty, I just want a simple to use separate device that can hold all my songs and be compatible with my vehicle and at the office with a set of speakers. What I am gathering is that what I want, while once available, has been all but eliminated from the marketplace. Really disheartening. I'm getting a new car next summer, and the last new one we bought, for my wife, was the last model year of hers that had a CD player. lol.

That's still me. But, one thing though, my current FiiO gave me problems now with not being able to read my MicroSD cards so I can't upload new music onto them through the player. I don't have my older on me to switch and try it. But it still reads the cards to play music, thankfully.

[Phoenix87x]

I grew up in the time of CD's so I have 1000 of them saved in Itunes which I take with me on a 128gb Iphone.

Every few years, I trim the fat of my collection to free up space. Stuff that I never listen to.

Lately I've been using spotify to stream new music which works well.

[King Postwhore]

I have over 500 gb of music on CD.  I have a 256GB I-Pod.  I've moved to streaming with buying the bands I love. I hate my 256gb I-pod.  Is plays albums in random.   I checked all the settings. It's something with my truck and the I-Pod. It pisses my off.

[KevShmev]

I have over 61 GB of music on my phone now.  6,778 songs of the 13,603 songs in my iTunes, all of which are mp3s in the highest quality possible.  If I am online at home, I listen to iTunes on my computer speakers (or YT if checking something out), otherwise it is always on my phone, whether it be in the car, on the big stereo at home or on the buds at work 99.999% of the time (the .0001% is when I bust out something on the surround sound).  It is hard to get to everything, as I have so much now, and I feel like I never have time to listen to everything I want to, but it's a good problem to have.

I do not use Spotify or any of that nonsense.

[wolfking]

I don't stream, at all.  CD's and USB sticks for the car and everything is just ripped to my computer.  Youtube I use a lot for sampling these days.

[Cocopjojo]

I'm fully in the Mac/iPhone/iPad ecosystem, so I was able to sync my collection through Apple Music and now I can access it on any iOS device I have.  I also have a 256 GB iPod touch, but it has issues working with my car.  The only hard part for me is choosing what I want to listen to.

I do this as well and highly recommend it if you have an iPhone. Apple Music really screws up your library because it tries to merge all of your stuff with theirs. But iTunes Match, which is what we're talking about here, is just uploading your library to the cloud and it syncs across your iOS devices. You can download whatever you want to your phone for offline listening, or just stream without downloading. The only real downside to this is that you have to download iTunes if you don't already use it, and remember to always upload to it anything new you buy. It's $24.99 a year, last time I checked.

[SoundscapeMN]

I use USB Flashdrives for my car

I use Spotify, YouTube, Bandcamp or occasionally a download.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I don't stream, at all...Youtube I use a lot for sampling these days.

Youtube is just another form of streaming.  Their own service Youtube Music draws its content from the label-created/supplied topic channels that usually have the musical note to the right of the artist name. 

[Ben_Jamin]

I never snapped about using USB drives. I might try that one day and see how it goes.

[Cool Chris]

I am often amazed at how much music some people have. That isn't a knock on anyone at all. I tend to think I have more music than I know what to do with, and then I see it is just a fraction of the size of others here. Sometimes I wish I didn't purge so many of my CDs over the years, but I usually used that money to buy other CDs. And honestly, I cannot imagine listening to much of what I did 20 years ago, even for the nostalgia.

For at work/on the road (I drive a lot for work) listening, I have a cheapy cell phone with a 64Gb card, solely for music. If people ask why I am always going around with two cell phones, I just tell them the second one is for my girlfriends to contact me.

I stream music at home but am usually not able to during the work day, when I do much of my listening.

[425]

I don't have nearly the size of libraries that many people here have, but I'm also an almost-no-streaming person (I only really use it to listen to music that others share with me, such as in roulette). I'm an Apple person, and I'd say the expanding storage capacity of iPhones over the years has generally kept pace with me pretty well. My current library is 83GB, and the lion's share of it is on my 128GB iPhone. That was the second-tier storage capacity at the time I got this phone, and now the 256 is the second-tier, so I'll likely get that when I upgrade phones in a year or two and have room to spare.

[Bolsters]

I have a cheap tablet and an SD card.

[ProfessorPeart]

When out and about I use a 256 GB modded iPod. My car also has a 6 disc in-dash changer that I use to break in new purchases.

At home, I have Plex setup on my main PC with a dedicated hard drive for content. I did not open it up to the outside world. It is just for home use via my Roku's and then into my receiver.

I do know that many people will take old Android phones that have SD slots and load up a huge SD card and just use it as a makeshift iPod.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Thanks fellow Jurassic era friend. 

Plex looks interesting. But man, it's like you have to buy a microcomputer, another hard drive, keep all of that running at home, just to literally enjoy your own music collection. Seems like a lot of effort. Plus I don't see how I can play it in the car, unless I go through my phone, and that has the problem of it being lower in quality (I assume) since it is streaming.

This is so ridiculous. Why did the world decide those of us with music collections are dinosaurs? 

So like TAC said, I use Plex exclusively for my music collection. I have over 9000 albums all stored on my server in CD or higher quality and it's the only way I have found that I can have my entire collection with me wherever I am. The Plex server can stream at whatever quality your music is stored in, but this would obviously be limited by the upload speed of your home internet connection and the download speed of your phone wherever you are. Most home internet connections are fast enough to stream at CD quality these days though. Another thing I can do is use the Plexamp app on my phone and download from my server the music I want to listen to for the week (again in however high a quality I want). So if I know I'm going to be somewhere I don't have good cell service or Wi-Fi connection I can still listen to music. My phone has 256 gigs of space so I can fit quite a bit of music on it (and really that's all I use it for, other than work related stuff). For the most part though the area I live in has pretty decent cell coverage and 5g speeds that it streams CD quality stuff no problem.

As far as playing it in the car, the stereo decks in all my vehicles have Android Auto which can play back high quality music files just fine (I don't use iPhones, but anything with Android Auto these days also has Apple Carplay, however I have no idea what their capabilities are of streaming higher quality files). You do have to make sure that the stereo deck states it can playback Hi-Res music files though. Also most new Bluetooth stereo decks (if you don't want to pay more for Android Auto or Apple Carplay) will support the AptX Lossless bluetooth codec which can stream audio at 16 bit/24 khz, which is basic CD quality, but you have to make sure your phone supports the AptX Lossless bluetooth codec as well (as far as I know, none of the Apple phones support this yet, they have their own bluetooth codec which is apparently stuck at a maximum of 256 kbps mp3 quality).

[wolfking]

I don't stream, at all...Youtube I use a lot for sampling these days.

Youtube is just another form of streaming.  Their own service Youtube Music draws its content from the label-created/supplied topic channels that usually have the musical note to the right of the artist name.

Fair enough.  I guess I just meant cause it's free and I don't pay for anything like Spotify.  But you're right, technically, it's streaming.

[bosk1]

I just don't think there are affordable devices anymore for doing that.  If you don't want to stream (which I don't either), I think you are stuck getting a phone with as much memory as possible (or SD cards) and using that.  It's a pain, but it is what it is.

[jammindude]

Guys! Seriously! I love my Sony Walkman!

I know…I guess that’s just a separate device that I suppose does the same thing as your phone…but it plays FLAC! And has an SD card! And it doesn’t drain my phone battery!

IDK. Maybe it’s just my situation, but I guess I’m surprised that not everyone owns one of these!

[HOF]

Guys! Seriously! I love my Sony Walkman!

I know…I guess that’s just a separate device that I suppose does the same thing as your phone…but it plays FLAC! And has an SD card! And it doesn’t drain my phone battery!

IDK. Maybe it’s just my situation, but I guess I’m surprised that not everyone owns one of these!

It’s actually a portable CD player with an SD card, or is this a digital only device?

[Stadler]

I'm fully in the Mac/iPhone/iPad ecosystem, so I was able to sync my collection through Apple Music and now I can access it on any iOS device I have.  I also have a 256 GB iPod touch, but it has issues working with my car.  The only hard part for me is choosing what I want to listen to.

So....... have half an hour to shoot the shit on the phone, old friend? 

I'm moving into the "Plex" zone as soon as I can get my collection ripped (I'm at "The Who" now).  Other than I modded my iPod to 1TB (though the database restrictions are more stringent; I'm at about 35,000 songs, 500GB, and the system is unpredictable and fails/freezes often) I'm right with Samsara.  I don't want to stream.  I have the music I want, and I've customized a lot of it (removing spaces between live songs, removing the fade in/out between CDs of live sets to make it seem more like a live show, consolidating like material across CDs, putting things in chronological order, that kind of thing) meaning I want to hear it the way I want to hear it, not the way Spotify says I should.  I also have multiple versions of some albums; I have four versions of Rainbow Rising, three of Whitesnake's Slide It In, etc. and I want to pick the one I want to hear.

In all honesty, I just want a simple to use separate device that can hold all my songs and be compatible with my vehicle and at the office with a set of speakers. What I am gathering is that what I want, while once available, has been all but eliminated from the marketplace. Really disheartening. I'm getting a new car next summer, and the last new one we bought, for my wife, was the last model year of hers that had a CD player. lol.

This is me. I drive a lot, and I don't think it's too much to ask for in 2022 that I have all my music on a device I can bring with me, whether it's in my car or in a rental car. 

[Samsara]

Guys! Seriously! I love my Sony Walkman!

I know…I guess that’s just a separate device that I suppose does the same thing as your phone…but it plays FLAC! And has an SD card! And it doesn’t drain my phone battery!

IDK. Maybe it’s just my situation, but I guess I’m surprised that not everyone owns one of these!

JD - can you provide a link to which one you have? I assume it supports a 256 gb SD card? How do you hook it to the car? An Aux plug? Does that mean everything is controlled on the Walkman as opposed to the in-dash receiver? Because I want dash controls for the car.

Stads - the Plex zone sounds really interesting (Puppies, thanks for explaining) but I just don't want to stream, nor download into my phone. I mean, if I am forced to download to the phone, that defeats the purpose for me.

Overall, I just want the flexibility of having most of my collection at my fingertips, which was not a problem with a 256 gb (modded higher) classic iPod with the songs ripped to 256kbps (which is good enough for me). I'm just annoyed that a consumer like me is literally being shunned in the marketplace.