Designed Obsolescence Strikes Back: First World Problem for An Anti-Streaming Luddite

I am resistant to change.

I am reluctant to embrace the newfangled. Sure, that’s frequently symptomatic of advancing age, but I have pretty much always been this way. I was late to buy a CD player, having sworn allegiance, back in the day, to vinyl LPs. I was equally late to the table in procuring an iPod, but I eventually caved there, too.

That, however, was where I drew the line. Disinclined to hop on the streaming bandwagon, I decided I was perfectly content to still buy CD’s and rip their contents to my iTunes and go on like that. The music industry -- for a little while, at least -- was more or less willing to accommodate me until fairly recently, when iPods were discontinued and iTunes was no longer supported by Mac operating systems. I unwittingly updated my iMac some months back, and iTunes was systematically dismantled in an instant — prompting much consternation from yours truly. A little creative Googling, however, allowed to me figure out how to re-load and update music files for my long-suffering (but still tenuously functioning) iPod Classic (160 GB). There was a bit more maintenance involved, but it was feasible, so that’s how I was continuing.

Back out here on Long Island for the last gasp of Summer 2020, I grabbed my iPod this morning for my long AM walk, only to discover that it was perilously low on juice. I plugged it into a charger, but when I returned later to retrieve it, its contents had been WIPED CLEAN.

Now, I believe all I have to do is plug it back into my iMac — back in the city — to effectively “rebuild” its music library. But Apple’s subtle tortures are not lost on me. Apple does not want me to use this particular product anymore, and one day — it will probably win this stand-off.

Comments

[back to the old]

You should put ALL your music on CDRs which are still sold and will never fall victim to the planned obsolence of Apple.

Convert them into mp3.

Subjecting 160 GB of music to the mercy of Apple is risky to say the least.

Apple and Spotify want you to rent music not own it like most landlords want New Yorkers to rent apartments not own them.