Loyal readers/contributors will notice that this is my first post in this forum. Thank you for welcoming me with such grand applause. This post differs from others I have read here as I have a question about the use of technology on a practical level as opposed to the heady, abstract, philosophical-ethical discussion more common here as evidenced by my more seasoned and more estimable contributors.
Technology is fascinating to me for its ability to be submitted to unexpected uses. I have been ruminating on this idea as I try to figure out how to leverage Web 2.0 for business purposes that I have yet to see. Particularly, I am contemplating how to employ social networks such as facebook as ways of both finding customers, gaining exposure, and maintaining a referral network. This is certainly not the original purpose of facebook, but the business of referrals so mirrors the networks people create on facebook, and people share their wedding photos with surprising frequency that it seems only natural to employ it.
Now to the point.
The question is this: How do you manage/enjoy your music library? I am assuming mostly through iTunes and iPods, and so I am more concerned with how you have decided to approach the use of the technology. My personal library of media items numbers somewhere over 5000, and I have not even added all of my CD collection to it let alone even a fraction of my movie collection. It has swollen by the hundreds in the last week due to the discovery of iTunesU and the subscription to a large number of new podcasts (and of course downloading all available episodes of said podcasts). This presents a number of practical issues in terms of management of my music experience. I don't always know what I want to listen to, and it can be quite time consuming to make a decision. Therefore, over the last few months I have rated about 1000 songs. I have a smart playlist that keeps tabs on all 4 and 5 star songs. I then created an additional smart playlist to choose 1.2 GB of songs at random based on the primary criterion of being the least recently played (for the feeling of freshness). This generates about 240 songs that I then sync with my iPod Nano (2GB) and I play the songs at random, syncing the iPod every day or so to update the music. This keeps me cycling through music I like without listening to all the same stuff all the time. If I find something I'm really in the mood for, I can create a list customized based on my mood (I have one for ska, rap, folk, romance).
That's how I'm using my iPod and iTunes. How are you using yours?
Problem vexing me: How do I manage a digital library that is over 40 GB? My laptop harddrive is only 120 GB (=110 GB of usable space). I don't want to lose my ratings (which are not stored in the MP3 tag as are lyrics, but rather in the iTunes database), but I can't keep everything on my harddrive. I'm not sure how to solve this, so thoughts here would be nice as well.
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Social networks is a big thing today, but the next step (Deemed Web 3.0, both of which are purely marketing terms, which mean very little), is mashing these various networks together to create a social blob. The goal in designing any social-oriented site from here on out would be open-ness. Closed networks will fail. Also, for starting a network, focus on a niche and grow from there. For example, Facebook grew out of a need to connect with students from your college class. MySpace was originally intended for Musical Artists to have an outlet to gain fans. Find your niche, do it well, and expand upon it, tie it into other facets of peoples lives to keep them in your network. Your goal should be to keep a user on your site, but be open to pulling in their data from other sites.
Managing digital media is a common problem facing today's consumer. The space required presents a large cost problem, in that, online storage space, while fairly reasonable for one or two people, grows in costs greatly when users grow.
On the note of ratings, these are managed using iTunes, but when synced with an iPod, they are transferred to the iPod (I believe) that way the ratings play into the weighting on 'Random'. In that, the iPod deems what random is, based on various factors, including which album, artist, and rating. For instance, one of the major complaints on the original 'random' was two songs from the same album played back-to-back. In the mathematical sense, it's still random, but to some people, not random 'enough'...
Ahh... a non-philosophical discussion... don't get me wrong, I like to think too, but sometimes its nice to talk about something "less heady."
I use my iPod in a similar manner as the Quiet Hebraist. I sync all of my podcasts (which I listen to in the car and most other times) and then fill the rest of the space with music based on smart playlists, song ratings, and random smart lists created based on set criteria.
As for managing a large library when you have a laptop, my suggestion is to purchase an external HD. I have an 80 GB HD on my mac laptop, but only have about 50 usable (the rest is Boot Camped w/ Win XP). I also have a 300 GB external maxtor that cost me around $130.
One nice thing about iTunes (and iPhoto, for all of you fellow mac users) is that you can redirect your "library" to an external HD. How to do this is explained in a help file within the application. Basically, you move your library to the external HD and then tell the program the new path for it. While this does limit your access to the library to times when you are connected to the external HD, I find that I do not listen to music from my laptop when I am on the go; I listen to the music I have synced to my iPod. Therefore, carrying both with me (my IPod and my music library on my laptop) is redundant for everyday use. At night, I connect my external HD, back up my important documents for the day (which will be much easier come Leopard) and re-sync my iPod for the following day.
I already have a 400 GB external, but every time I tell iTunes where the library is, it keeps resetting to the default location when I reboot. I do want to have some of my music on my laptop because I do listen to it there when I am working on my laptop (instead of the iPod). With iPhoto, there is a nice little program that I use that allows me to have and manage more than one photo library. This is handy for some things, but would be a better program for iTunes.
Interesting Dave - I always wondered if iTunes and iPod's actually used ratings when playing "random" tracks.
And Hebraist, given your chosen line of work (for those who don't know, he's a linguistic student of ancient semitic languages), I'm curious exactly what "business purposes" you have in mind for social networking sites?
Regarding my use of iTunes/iPod, I'm a bit different from those that have posted so far. I bought the 30 GB so I could fit more of my collection - although it still doesn't nearly fit all of it. I've gradually put my most listened to groups and albums on, while not including tracks I don't care for in order to save space. I've not yet used ratings, although I might start. Instead, I'm very careful with labeling genres, so I can play all my jazz or pop or soul, etc on random when I'm in the mood. I also am starting to make some custom playlists - Favorite Jazz (separate contemporary and classic lists), Female Vocalists, Funk-ish music, and a list of "common ground" music with Cari. So I put as much as I can on, and leave it there. Soon I'll max it out and will have to occasionally switch some music out, but most of it will remain.
I've also gotten into the podcast thing lately, but I only need a little space because I remove them as soon as I listen. I've enjoyed NPR's Pop Culture and Religion podcasts, as well as Meet the Press and Mars Hill Church (Rob Bell's sermons). I also recently subscribed to the New Yorker's weekly commentary podcast, and that's been interesting so far.
Jake, the business uses are related to Christine's wedding photography. I have noticed that just about every girl that gets married changes her profile pic to a wedding pic, and they all put their wedding pics up on facebook. So we have started providing watermarked images that are scaled down to brides so that they can easily share photos on facebook. In addition to this, we are trying to figure out the best way to incorporate the natural networking factors into the business of referrals and bride recruitment. Any ideas on that front are welcomed as well! We are also thinking about interesting ways of using technology to provide new products to brides. Any ideas?
Ahh - that makes sense. Interesting idea - have the watermarked images been well received, or do you find no one really cares?
I'm not sure I'm going to have many great ideas for you - business was never really my thing. Are there businesses on Facebook? Can you start a page for your own business? Obviously you could link somehow to a page for your business, but you'd need to find a way to get that to other facebook users for it to be helpful. Are there other wedding businesses in the area that provide other bridal services that you can somehow "partner" with? Just a few thoughts - most of which you've probably already had.
The images have been well received, meaning that they have been posted. I haven't talked to customers about it yet (we've only done it for four people so far, three of whom use facebook). The difference in upload time would be about 1/100 of the time to upload without loss in picture quality at standard viewing sizes on a monitor.
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