automaticable

Recently I felt that my ipod was going a bit stale.  We have outlined ways to improve your ipod before, but my problem is a bit different.  I have a 4GB ipod nano, so I am limited to having only a fraction of my music collection on the device at any given time.  My strategy until late has been to unload what I am getting the most sick of as I get new music.  Although this has worked fairly well so far, I feel like I am hearing the same music over and over again.  So it is time for a change.

My solution here has been to go old school with my ipod.  I wiped out the contents of my ipod completely and imported all of my favorite music from high school and a bit from the first year or 2 of college.  So far it has been absolutely wonderful.  Putting my ipod on shuffle keeps me on my toes not knowing what is coming next.  Most of these songs I literally have not listened to in years, so it is really good to hear them again.

There are definitely some downsides to this though.  Back in the early years of online music sharing, quality recordings were hard to find.  Many of my favorite bands were introduced to me through super low quality recordings, and many of these albums are so old and obscure that I doubt that will ever change.  Because of this I have been having volume issues, with lower quality tracks requiring a higher volume to rock out to.

Other than volume issues and some really bad songs slipping in here and there, I feel this has been a good decision.  I don’t know how long these songs will last on my ipod as my musical tastes have changed a bit since high school, but for now it is a good thing.

So automaticable, what are your strategies for keeping your music fresh?  I would especially appreciate tips from anyone who has an ipod with limited space like mine, though the same idea can probably be fixed through different playlists on larger ipods.