So long, iTunes, hello Amazon:
Several months ago, I ditched the iTunes store for Amazon MP3 because I could find songs that were priced the same or lower and they weren't “protected”. Last week, Amazon offered unlimited space for music on its cloud drive with any paid upgrade. So I forked over the twenty bucks and began transferring my entire library. Now I have access to all my music on up to eight devices without having to constantly sync one up with another. My iTunes playlists were imported so I didn't have to redo any of that.
I sort of let the whole iTunes thing pass me by. By the time all the portable MP3 players came along, I was out of the "music as the background of my life" phase and didn't need to have tunes with me all the time. But now that I have a smartphone, I've started downloading a few alubums and invididual songs from my college days. Rececently I put an album on the Amazon cloud (Deep Purple's "Machine Head," btw). The disadvantage is that when I'm in a lousy reception area, I can't get to the album from my phone. The advantages are that I'm not cluttering up my phone's storage space, and I can reach the Amazon Cloud Player on other devices, including my laptop and netbook.
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Years ago, I converted all my music to MP3s, so that I didn't have to mess with the physical media. The front of my house, though is a dead spot. I have to walk to the back of the house to talk on the cellphone.
However, I recently got a Kindle, and I love it. I seem to be developing cataracts, and I need really bright light to read books, and I've really missed them, but by bumping the type size up one notch, I've been able to start reading books again. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
What does this have to do with music? Well, you can copy MP3s from your PC to Kindle, and it'll play background music while you read. And you can download podcasts, too, so you can listen to This American Life or to Car Talk (Click & Clack) while you wait at the doctor's office. It's not an Ipod, in that you get the music in the order you loaded it, but then, the Kindle pays for itself in savings on books, so all you need are earphones that you probably already have.