Advice Needed On Board Music

[hellosailor]

The first time you look at a thumb drive or chip and realize that you've got A THOUSAND ALBUMS or maybe a 3'x6' bookshelf worth of LP's on something the size of some postage stamps...That's when you've really finished ripping the music.(G)

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

We put ours on USB sticks and installed an automotive stereo with a USB slot.

I bought a stereo with both a USB slot and an SD card slot. I like the SD cards better because they don't extend out of the stereo so there's no danger of hitting one and breaking it.

Regardless, storing your music on a telephone seems a bit odd. The typical stereo has amplifiers built in so all you need is it and speakers. True, you can't call your friends on it but that's what the phone is for.

That said, I rarely listen to music on my boat. I listen to the waves and nature. There's nothing like a nice quiet anchorage away from noise and distractions.

Underway, I listen to the VHF.

[hellosailor]

Ron-
Every automotive stereo I have looked at, OEM in cars or aftermarket, has had arbitrary limits on the numbers of files, folders, tracks, etc. that it can read from any media, especially USB. Typically only 512 folders in a directory, if that many, or only 1000 tracks in a directory, if that many, but always a limit that can easily be blown by a 64GB USB stick. And then what happens is any tracks/folders beyond the limit, are simply never recognized.
Similarly, with SD cards, there are SD, SDHC, and SDXC. Many stereos stop at SDHC. Some read SDXC, but again impose arbitrary limits like 64GB or 128GB.

In contrast, most smartphones now will have at least a 128GB memory card limit, and the newest crop can read the full SDXC limit of 2TB. TB not GB. With no limits on the number of folders or tracks that I've found, although no doubt there is some path length limit.

So, car stereos? Literally won't work with a large music library, unless you are streaming the music into them from a smartphone. The industry has been just too damn narrowminded, and cheap, to just ante up and license an OS that works better.

Which is not to say the smartphones are perfect: A volume control that only has 16 steps is't my cup of tea either.

[JasonDS]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

"Backup to m-disc blu ray or dvd which has a 1000 year lifespan."
I've never heard of m-disc, but the only media with lifespans that long are magneto-optical discs, which are rather pricey and obscure things these days. The Library of Congress has done testing on conventional "burned" CD and DVD media, and the lifespans they found on even the best, are more in the 10-100 year range, 10 being most common.
Carrying two archives (lossless and everyday) on a boat, or carrying glass magneto-optical discs and the burner/player for them on board a boat, defeats the OP's original intent of getting the music off the bulky CD's and into compact form.
One USB stick, one thousand albums. Two USB sticks, now there's backup. And every five or ten years going down the line, you copy one or both off to newer media.
No thousand-year archive needed.

M-misc don't use a dye layer to record information like consumer cds and dvds the dye used is NOT uv resistant so don't leave them in the sun! M-disc use a very thin layer of a stone type material. You need a disc writer that supports the m-disc because the laser needs to be more powerful, but yes, 1000 (estimated) years.

[Haywoods]

We use an old iPhone with all our music on. This way you can play music wirelessly using Bluetooth. Also, if you use iTunes to copy your old cd's onto your pc, they are on your hard drive as MP3 files. Just search your hard drive and you will find them

[dwedeking2]

Bought an mp3 player that handles 128 gb cards. Each genre on a card. Direct line in to car radio. Backed up on computer and external hard drive.

[Kenomac]

Just subscribe to Apple music for $9.95 per month and have every music album ever produced on your iphone. CDs, hard drives and ipods are now obsolete. Millions of titles, download the ones you like most for offline use. My iphone has over 10,000 tiltes on it, all for less than the cost of one "old school" CD per month.

Get with the times, no need to buy music or storage devices any longer. Just pay $9.95 per month to rent all of it.

[hellosailor]

Jason-
While it is incredibly attractive to find an m-disc burner is the same price as conventional, and m-discs at $4@ aren't totally out of mind...It is interesting to note that Verbatim only says they will be good for several hundred years--not a thousand. And more tellingly, they will only warranty them for ten years, meaning they expect substantial failures after that.
Still cheaper and way more compact to burn to flash memory and replace that media with something better in ten years, especially as "rotary" storage of any type is being phased out because of the space it takes, and the power it takes.
Great way to make sure your files survive an EMP event, not so good for the needs of a boat.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Jason-
While it is incredibly attractive to find an m-disc burner is the same price as conventional, and m-discs at $4@ aren't totally out of mind...It is interesting to note that Verbatim only says they will be good for several hundred years--not a thousand. And more tellingly, they will only warranty them for ten years, meaning they expect substantial failures after that.
Still cheaper and way more compact to burn to flash memory and replace that media with something better in ten years, especially as "rotary" storage of any type is being phased out because of the space it takes, and the power it takes.
Great way to make sure your files survive an EMP event, not so good for the needs of a boat.

You folks aren't getting it...

There's no longer a need to burn, store or own anything. You can have it all (tens of millions of song titles) for $9.95 a month coming out of your phone.

The music world changed.

Your music collections of CDs are now worthless. People no longer "buy music," we now pay a monthly fee to access all of it at once.

[Saltyhog]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

You folks aren't getting it...

There's no longer a need to burn, store or own anything. You can have it all (tens of millions of song titles) for $9.95 a month coming out of your phone.

The music world changed.

Your music collections of CDs are now worthless. People no longer "buy music," we now pay a monthly fee to access all of it at once.

Yeah, except...

...one of the boxes I check off for a really good anchorage is being out of cellular range. Although admittedly (and sadly) rare these days. You can post your Facebook selfies from atop Kilimanjaro. Takes much of the charm out of it me thinks.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

You folks aren't getting it...

There's no longer a need to burn, store or own anything. You can have it all (tens of millions of song titles) for $9.95 a month coming out of your phone.

The music world changed.

Your music collections of CDs are now worthless. People no longer "buy music," we now pay a monthly fee to access all of it at once.

Spotify have been doing that for years, it's nothing new.

Might be OK if you have big deep pockets for the $120 a year fee to listen to some songs then pay for all the data on top of that, then get fed up when you can't listen to anything on passage or the countless anchorages where streaming isn't an option with barely a signal.

[hellosailor]

For your $120 per year forever, I have the entire library stored in my cell phone and a redundant copy in the car. I don't need to have cellular coverage or pay data rates, and even "unlimited" has costs, even if they aren't shown to you.

Best of all, my carrier or music service isn't datamining my listening habits. And they do that, to predict whether you're a Republican or Democrat, who needs to call you before the elections, what kind of car dealership would be most interested in marketing to you, what style of cloths you wear, and whether you want to vacation at Sandals or elsewhere.

Yes, everything you do online is datamined. I save money, gain reliability, and skip alll that. But if the cloud suits you, use it.

[Kenomac]

You folks still aren't getting it.

The $9.95 per month allows you to download any of the millions of titles onto your phone, then use them when away from your wifi or cellular connection. It's not like a radio, you have unlimited access AND the ability to download the music.

I download when I have wifi at home, then listen to the music whenever I want without a data, cellular or internet connection of any kind. In the boat, in the car... where ever.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by conachair

Spotify have been doing that for years, it's nothing new.

Might be OK if you have big deep pockets for the $120 a year fee to listen to some songs then pay for all the data on top of that, then get fed up when you can't listen to anything on passage or the countless anchorages where streaming isn't an option with barely a signal.

You have it all wrong. I'm sitting here right now in an anchorage in Croatia listening to music I downloaded months ago, and not using a single bit of data from the cellular carrier. I don't stream music.

$120 per year requires "deep pockets?" How much does all the silly devices your setup require cost? How much do new titles you wanna add cost?

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Saltyhog

Yeah, except...

...one of the boxes I check off for a really good anchorage is being out of cellular range. Although admittedly (and sadly) rare these days. You can post your Facebook selfies from atop Kilimanjaro. Takes much of the charm out of it me thinks.

Yeah except.... you no longer need a cellular connection to enjoy the music.

Like I wrote, things have changed. Wake up!