apple juice

I’ve been spending some time cleaning up all my old junk in the house. Old papers, boxes. Shoes that are worn out, clothes I no longer wear, etc.

As you might imagine, I have a lot of old technology lying around as well. Old computers, chargers, cables. (Just in case I need them!) The pack-rat genes run strong in my family. I really have to take a moment with each thing before put it in my tech recycling bag.

I have several old iPods laying around. Most of which, I found, no longer worked. The battery won’t take a charge, or the hard drive (when pressed up against my ear) goes, “click, click, click” when it tries to boot up.

But one still did fire up. A 30GB iPod from around 2006. I had loaded music onto it a several years ago, before I finally signed up for Spotify, and then Apple Music (and then back to Spotify).

I’ve been trying to put my finger on this feeling for a while. What is special about this collection of music? Why does having all of the millions of tracks available to you on Spotify somehow feel less special.

This article from back in 2016 pretty much nails it – An Ode to the iPod Classic – I guess the author would put me into the music nerd category. I still love kicking back and listening to an album straight through. Call me old fashion, but as much as I enjoy Infinite Indie Folk on Spotify – I probably couldn’t name a single track off the top of my head.

But for the meantime, I’m planning to pass along this working iPod to someone who I know will appreciate it.