I’ve been neglecting my music habit for over a year. I’ve attended very few concerts and purchased very little music. Part of this can be attributed to technology overload. When my desktop HD failed, I had to recreate my iTunes library from my iPod and then redo all my “smart” playlists. I moved them to my Windows 8.1 docking tablet and got started. Then, I started using Amazon music because I have Prime access. Google Music started sending me discounts.
Over the weekend, I uploaded all my purchased music (five albums and a few songs on Amazon and 65 tracks on Google) to my iTunes library and I’ve resolved to buy only from Amazon or iTunes. Today, I am listening to my “Current Favorites” playlist at work. I keep my favorite 100 songs in it and to add a song I have to delete a song. The last songs I added were from One Republic and X Ambassadors.
The next project is to double-check all my CDs against the iTunes library before packing them up for storage. The second step is to burn any music purchased online to a backup CD. Recovering all your purchases from some sites can be complicated or impossible.
I do face a dilemma. Storage for my Amazon Music is limited and requires streaming. Streaming means that I have access to a lot of music w/o purchasing it. If I subscribe, I can even upload all my iTunes to Amazon. But the limited storage really requires access to streaming. I don’t always have that. In the end, I’ve resolved to only buy music if absolutely necessary. When I do, I’ll buy it either on Amazon or iTunes.