August 2, 2002

iTunes Ate My CD Collection

Christian Crumlish

x-posted from bodega:
Hey, I've finally gotten with the program and started feeding CDs into my 'puter. I think what prompted it is that I went through my roughly 600 non-bootleg CDs and chose about 50 to sell back to record stores. Bill and Jeff were polite when we talked about this last week even when I admitted taking cash instead of exchange, and they both reminisced about mistakes they made selling off parts of their early LP collections during their self-conscious punk phase. Inevitably you regret this, because you eventually either reconsider your taste or at least end up wishing you still had (or repurchasing) the music for ironic orÖface itÖnostalgia purposes.

I admitted to doing this once, when I sold off the first four or five KISS albums during some purist phase, probably in college. Speaking of KISS (Freudian slip, I started to type "Phish"), Keller Williams finished a set with an idiosyncratic reading of Rock 'n Roll All Night (And Party Every Day) at the most recent High Sierra festival, by the way. For that matter, Yonder Mountain String Band pulled off a great bluegrass version of Crazy Train.
As I got defensive, I explained that I had used a very conservative standard, keeping most borderline cases. Those I culled had had to have gone unplayed for a real long time without honestly evoking in me a confident feeling that I'd be spending any of my precious listening to them anytime in the foreseeable future (let alone Real Soon Now). We debated the ethics of selling gifts you've never warmed up to. I talked about my habit of the buying the lame second album after missing out on the key first album of various pan-flashers.

Eventually, I realized that even a few of the CDs I'd sold to Earwitness I should have first duplicated onto my hard drive. This was the kick in the pants I needed to start the uploading process, with breaks to listen to playlists and decide what to eat next. So, what did I just notice about iTunes? I noticed that when I'm shuffling a playlist, the new song comes in while the old song is fading out. There's none of that CD-shuffle empty air between tracks. I've not yet noticed a cross-fade (really, an overlap) that sounded awkward or inhuman. Even with no DJ there (besides me and randomness), it makes my listening experience more warm. [xian]

Posted by xian at August 2, 2002 8:25 PM
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