ITunes Love
ITunes Love
Yeah, I know it ain’t called iTunes anymore. You’ll just have to get over me calling it that. Old habits die hard, and that one is not dying at all in my vocabulary.
Been reading a lot of iTunes hate recently and I’m sure for good reason. I guess I just don’t use it enough to feel that way. At one point, I had my entire music collection ripped from my CDs. My CDs had replaced all my tapes, records, and 8-tracks. Eventually, all my new purchases were digital until there were no more purchases to make. Now that we’ve got Apple One (under one name or another) I no longer buy music. I gorge myself on the media highway for a couple low monthly costs. I’m lazy. I don’t want to have to take the time and minimal effort of choosing something. I want something to choose it for me most of the time.
I had it all digitized, the CDs went into cold storage. After 5 years of cold storage and not once needing to grab a CD, they went into the trash. The CDs were just taking up real space in my house. I have yet to regret that.
So how do I consume my digital music? Mainly via SiriusXM. Satellite radio. Because a 3rd of my year is spent in areas where there is literally little-to-no cell phone service as well as no radio stations to pick up other than NOAA stations – and I’ve got them covered with my GMRS. That’ll make a music lovin’ mufucka mad af. That is why I subscribe to satellite radio.
Since I have that satellite subscription, I also use it at the house to stream my music at night whilst sitting in my cigar lounge sippin’ whiskey and smokin’ a stogie. Channels I frequent and have programmed in the truck and favorited in the app: NPR Now, 70’s on 7, Classic Vinyl, Watercolors, The Coffee House, Symphony Hall, Octane, and Liquid Metal. Classic Vinyl and 70s being my favorites.
While camping I’ll use iTunes on the iPhone. I’ll have it steam via bluetooth to the stereo in the RV and play over the outside speakers. Always have downloaded music on there. Until it isn’t. Sometimes songs will just disappear from a downloaded status. Uh oh. Have I found a reason to hate on iTunes?
Maybe 5-10 years ago, an ex-friend asked me how I used iTunes. He had music unlimited, but also subscribed to some other streaming service I don’t recall. Spotify. Pandora. Something.
So how or what do I use iTunes for? New music I guess. Remember New Movie/Music Tuesdays back in the day? I find that new music gets released anytime now. As I light up my stogie and pour my 3 fingers of my favorite bonded whiskey, I’ll check out the latest releases. Sometimes they’ll show up, sometimes they won’t. I’ll notice them months after they were released, and see they were released months ago, but they never showed up on my “Listen Now” tab. But that’s about it. After playing something new I’ll revert back to a satellite radio.
I might have a hankering for a particular artist, whether it’s old school Chicago, KC and the Sunshine Band, or Slayer. I’ll go to an album and play. iTunes will take over and continue to play like songs after finishing the album. Sometimes I’ll just let it run through whatever it decides to feed me until I’m done with that cigar and whiskey, generally 1.5-2 hours a night. Other times I’ll switch back to satellite.
Everyone has their own music preferences and where they feed those preferences from. It’s all good. Variety makes the world go ‘round.
Then there are the other 2 apps that spawned from iTunes – podcasts and TV. I have only listened to 2 podcasts. The first was called Angry Mac Bastards and can no longer be found. The 2nd is the God Pod, which is still in production. A highly irreverent and blasphemous podcast, so of course I love it. The TV app? Rarely used. We use Amazon Firesticks for our video consumption. We cut the cable years ago and only stream our TV via streaming services and directly over the air.