subject: Tips For Creating And Enjoying Your Ipod Music Collection [print this page] In the past, music collections would mostly use LPs and more recently CDs. However, MP3s have become an alternative to CDs. CDs and CD players have started to be replaced by MP3 and media players. I will show some neat ways to build and keep track of an iPod music collection. I am also going to recommend some cool gadgets that can enhance your MP3 and media player.
Collecting music by storing tracks as MP3s has a number of advantages over using CDs. Tracks can be played instantly without swapping CDs. MP3s can store additional track data. Such data includes track title, artist name, album name and album cover artwork. This data will make searching and organizing your music easy.
There are several ways to build your music collection. The first way is to convert your existing CD collection. This is done by using a so-called CD ripper. The track is read from the CD by the ripper and stored on a computer. However, you still need to input information such as track name, CD name etc. which can be rather tedious. There are some software packages available which can automatically tag songs.
However, these services are not 100% reliable and do not work on all tracks. Buying music as MP3s avoids this problem. Songs are already properly tagged. There are some other tools available for obtaining larger amounts of music without having to purchase or download individual tracks such as iGetMusic. These tools record online music services and will tag each song.
When the audio is converted to MP3, you can often choose how much the audio is compressed. Less compression or a higher bit rate usually leads to higher sound quality. The result though is a larger size of each track. File size is less of a concern if you store your music on a computer hard drive but more important when using a portable player with limited memory.
By using a more advanced format than MP3, such as AAC Plus, track file sizes can be reduced by half without reducing audio quality. These newer formats, however, are not supported by some MP3 players.
Some of the benefits of having built your MP3 collection are that you can easily access any song, artist or album and play your music on any computer or media player. You can also transfer your music onto an MP3 player to enjoy outdoors.
By using a wireless audio transmitter, you can stream the music from your computer throughout your home without running long cables. You connect the transmitter to your computer or media player. The receiver then connects to your speakers. If you prefer listening over headphones, using wireless headphones will help you enjoy your music without being tethered to your PC by a cord. When picking a wireless transmitter or pair of wireless headphones, choosing a model which employs digital transmission avoids loss of audio quality.
