I’ve been using an iPod 5th gen for the past ~2 months, and it’s been wonderful. A friend put together the iPod out of parts for me, and it’s been the final piece in my journey to quit streaming and decouple music from my phone.
The last ~year of my life, I’ve been trying to separate more and more functions from my cell phone, so that I use it less, and am less bound to it. Until recently, music was probably the number one thing I used my phone for, and removing the need to have my phone on me to listen to music has allowed me to use it, carry it, and pick it up a lot less.
Discovery is one of the main selling points of streaming services. They advertise access to all of the world’s music, any song you want, whenever you want. Moving to the iPod has shown me that this is actually not as good as it sounds. Too much choice is a bad thing, and opening Spotify, I would often end up with decision paralysis, and end up either not listening to music, or listening to one of the 6 suggested (and often repetitive) albums on the home screen. This wasn’t satisfying, and despite having thousands of liked songs by hundreds of artists, I was listening to the same stuff all the time.
On the iPod, navigating the menus requires I scroll past all of the music in my library. Often, I turn it on to listen to one thing, but something else in my library catches my eye before I get there, and I end up listening to that instead. I find I’m listening to much more different music with my limited library than I was on Spotify with an infinite library.
Instead of relying on algorithmic discovery of new music, I’m a big fan of Record.club and talking to my friends. I Shazam songs at parties and out in the world all the time.
The music in my iTunes library has come from several sources, roughly in order of percentage of my library:
Streaming makes artists very little money; if you want to support an artist, buy merch, music, or go to a concert (personal favorite method). Having a CD collection is awesome, and I’ve ripped a lot of my mother’s extensive CD collection (going through it with her and asking for recommendations has been a really nice way to spend time together!). Building up a library can be a lot less expensive this way, and I’m more likely to listen to a whole album and find something new I like than if I was streaming individual songs.
Since switching to using the iPod almost exclusively, I’ve found that I feel a lot more satisfied with the music I listen to, and I’m much happier listening to music. Having music decoupled from my phone has also meant I carry my phone on my person a lot less, which has made me less distracted, less stressed, and generally happier. I feel like my relationship with the music I listen to has become more meaningful.