Tough choices

[rikibeth]

I am approaching capacity on PopTart, my 30G iPod.

I am going to have to start deciding what doesn't need to be on there.

And this is AFTER deleting NIN's "Ghosts I-IV" (because, frankly, it SUCKED, and while it can stay on the hard drive, I don't need to carry it with me) and everything that's come up on shuffle featuring the Cookie Monster Death Metal Voice (screamo crap), because I've been tagging those with a one-star rating so I can delete them.

How would YOU go about deciding what didn't need to stay on there?

ETA: Cleaning up the duplicates gave me another GB of room without having to lose variety. My entire collection still fits in my pocket.

Comments

[gentlyepigrams]

Things go in and out on a revolving basis depending on what I've listened to most recently.

[ihadtimetokill.livejournal.com]

wow, the reason i bought a 30 gig was so i wouldn't have to make those choices for a long long long long time (11 gigs and counting...)

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

THIS IS WHY I COVET THE 160G.

Sadly, not in budget any time soon.

Srsly, what to delete? Especially since I prize the ability of Shuffle to give me things I barely know.

[thisside.livejournal.com]

My iPod is for the stuff I always enjoy listening to, the stuff that gets the most play, that I want to have handy for occasions when I'm away from my computer, or stuff that is inherently away-from-computer stuff (meditations you'd do while lying in bed, or something).

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I'm inherently away from my computer all day at work, and I want EVERYTHING!!!

I guess I have to give all the unfamiliar sampler tracks of bands I barely know some critical listening time, and dump the ones that don't speak to me, and dump the sampler duplicates of things I have on album.

[thisside.livejournal.com]

Some of this stuff is just information overload, you know? If you don't love it already, you won't necessarily miss it. So if you HAVE to get rid of stuff, get rid of that, in favor of stuff you DO love and want to have with you.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

But one of the things I value about Shuffle is its capacity to serve me songs I DON'T know by heart. That's why I have so many samplers on there!

All the screamo is GOING, though. Life's too short.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

/me loves his 160GB and the 111GB of music on it. :)

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

yes, well, I just got laid off, no 160GB for me. :(

Labyrinth Ballroom...

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, I was surfing the web because of the Ballroom Scene in Labyrinth, and saw a comment about how you helped to recreate it years ago? The woman I'm in love with mentioned that being in that ballroom is one of her greatest fantasies and I would love to do that for her in hopes that she'll realize that I'm more than her best friend you know? If you could give me any pointers I would greatly appreciate it. My name is Ian and my email address is cuatroxcuatro68@hotmail.com

Thanks in Advance...

[ihadtimetokill.livejournal.com]

hurr. understood. but i know that my "i need to have EVERYTHING" mentality is more like, vaguely OCD-based than because i actually like/love/have listened to everything i have. i just really like the idea that this little thing holds every song i own...so if it came down to it i'd be able to find some stuff to sacrifice.

i guess, maybe, either rotate out the stuff you haven't listened to in at least six months...or rotate out (temporarily, mind) the stuff you listen to all the time and know by heart? ugh.

failing that, uh, yeah...it might be upgrade time. poptart 2.0! woo!

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, I was able to load all the things I bought back in April and hadn't ripped yet and still have a hair under 2GB left.

I am now attempting to sort and delete duplicates, and telling myself that I am NOT likely to listen to the Warped compilations AS ALBUMS on PopTart, so it's okay to delete things I have elsewhere from those lists, even if, were I to play the Warped compilations as albums, those would probably be the things I liked best.

[pocketpolina.livejournal.com]

Ditch the cookie monster stuff (you saw that coming a mile away.) Keep stuff that fits certain moods or atmospheres. Driving mix, walking mix, exercise mix, pre-party mix, etc. Keep your favorite songs from each artist you covet and rotate the ones you can go a month or two without. Also, there's something to be said for keeping the old classics (OH HAI THAR DAVID BOWIE/THE JAM/THE CURE/STOOGES/whatever.)

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I have very few sorted-out playlists, as I am a big fan of the serendipity of shuffle.

Bowie and the Cure are two artists where duplicates probably aren't getting deleted. :)

[shadowflyer.livejournal.com]

Serendipity of Shuffle coming right up!

Divide your music list - by song title, not by performer - into alphabetical blocks giving you five roughly equal lists. Call A-E Monday, F-I Tuesday and so on, or whatever arbitrary thing you want, the point of the exercise being rotating the lists through the Pop Tart on anything from a daily to a weekly rotation depending on how your spirits are moving.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I have actually kept the shuffle going without resetting for nearly half of PopTart's library (you can do this when it's recharged via wall or car charger and not by connecting to the desktop). That's not the issue.

The issue is MAKING ROOM.

Of course, I just discovered, for example, that I have four identical copies of All Time Low's "Coffee Shop Soundtrack," because it was on three compilations in addition to the album, so that's three tracks that can go away.

I'm finding... a lot of that.

[(Anonymous)]

Put anything you find yourself skipping in iTunes or from the iPod in a cleanup playlist (use an on-the-go playlist for this when out and about). Then decide if you never want it or just don't want it now.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

On-the-go playlist is too much work. I tag the "skip this" tracks with a one star rating, it's faster (I don't use ratings otherwise). I just deleted a PILE of screamo crap that way.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

I sort things into genres, and only sync certain genres. My genres include things like "pop-girls-non-sucky" and "rock-crappy" and so forth, rather than the genres that are pre-assigned to the songs. And it works well for listening on the computer as well.

I also have a giant playlist called "Sync" of stuff that has to stay on there all the time because I listen to it like a crazy addict. The rest of the stuff gets changed around every week or two (my Ipod's only 20gb and I have audiobooks on there too)

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Aha, you use the matociquala genre-labeling method.

So far I've freed up at least 2GB just nailing the duplicates. More than one ALBUM was on there twice, probably from originally loading it from my housemate's PC when I still had a G3 tower that wouldn't run a current enough version of iTunes to talk to my iPod, and then when I got Toaster (my dear little Mac Mini) ripping every CD I owned and bringing it over.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Ah. Right. Sorry. Forgot about that...

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

In theory, OTG is pressing... one of the button positions... top? center? for 3 seconds or so, while starring things is 2 clicks, a careful turn, and a click, no?

(I use 1 star for "broken, re-rip", 2 for I don't care if I don't hear this for a very long time, and never really figured out how to use 3-5. :)

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Right, but I am not sure when it decides that the on-the-go list should be reset, and I actually use it for its on-the-go function when we do Road Trip All Request Hour, and don't want to get the Request Hour selections mixed up with the "kill" list.

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

I can't even fill my (much much smaller) Ipod clone. :(

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Want pointers to music freely supplied by the artists? I can give you some.

[shadowflyer.livejournal.com]

Maybe I wasn't clear, sorry - I meant clearing out the iPod so that only that day/week/arbitrary segmentation's quasi-random list was on it, then wiping all of that list and loading in the next.

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

You know I am always open to musical advice :)

[eternaleponine.livejournal.com]

It resets the On-the-Go list when you plug into the computer... and then that list gets transfered to your playlists in iTunes. So it's never really lost unless you delete it yourself.

[pentane.livejournal.com]

I know this is late to the game, but it's not a good question, since we don't know the parameters you want (shuffle is good) for keeping stuff on.

I suspect if I had your ipod, it would be easy for me to make room, since I'd delete most of the music you had on there ^.^

[ihadtimetokill.livejournal.com]

RE: the edit:
1. congratulations, a full gig clean just off duplcates? bad-ass. nice.
2. that in mind...there's nothing like being able to postpone the inevitable...