Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?
41–50 of 64 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?
#42I've got quite a few of my MP3s that I ripped from my CDs now on my smartphone. For a few of the ones that I missed before.... the purge, you can usually find them on YouTube or elsewhere. I used to use WinAmp, but these days I just us VLC to play them. I miss the good old days when you could use Napster to find music, then go to Best Buy and get the CD to keep forever.
I bought a lot of music in the Napster days.
It was great to be able to search for some things, spot someone with similar interests, and then browse the other stuff that they had to offer. I discovered a ton of good stuff this way.
It was usually a low-bitrate MP3 (or, far worse: An mp3 that someone callously "improved" by running it through BladeEnc at 192Kbps), and it would normally download at a rate far slower than realtime. This left a lot to be desired, but it was plenty good-enough for finding new-to-me music that would probably never have any airplay.
And then I'd gather up some dollars and head over to the local music shop. If it was on the shelf, I'd buy it. (And if it wasn't, they'd cheerfully order it -- usually it'd be there in a few days, but sometimes it was a month or two if it was from overseas.)
Nowadays, like many, I don't buy a ton of music. I still have MP3s, and I've got quite a selection of CDs...and I do enjoy having them and occasionally listening to them. But usually, it's just Spotify for me and has been for over a decade now.
Re: Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?
#43People are making a things way too hard. The old way still works. Manage your music using the native app on Macs or iTunes for Windows, sync with iPhone. Music you buy from Apple has been DRM free since 2009.
I have had a bad experience using the modern iTunes/native music app. It's clear that Apple has moved away from local first features.
Re: Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?
#44I never stopped using foobar2000 on the desktop. I can recommend Evermusic on iOS for it's excellent playlist management, carplay integration and last.fm/scrobbling if you're ancient like me and still using that.
Re: Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?
#45I never stopped, Bandcamp sells DRM-free files (especially on "Bandcamp Fridays" once a month when more of the money goes to the artist, unlike Spotify and other streaming services), and VLC works on both desktop and mobile.
Re: Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?
#46Yes, its a bit hidden away now- has worsening UX over time and it will prompt you to buy Apple Music’s subscription service: but you can still buy songs via iTunes on iPhone.
This is how I get most of my music, then I copy the songs to my NAS to play on Linux.
Less convenient for sure, and you have to take the backups[0] yourself.
[0]: https://blog.dijit.sh/importance-of-self-hosted-backups/
Re: Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?
#47I only stopped to collect FLACs instead, whenever available.
When Spotify came, I tried it, made playlists etc. One of them had 1000+ techno tracks in it, from 90's mostly. After a while, half of them had disappeared due to licencing expirations etc.
That was the lesson to not trust external services or rely on always-on data for streaming - I can stream it all myself from my own mp3/flac files when required.
Mostly using MOC (Music on console) to play locally, and on all mobile devices I have my collection on a sd card or in internal tb memory for the one that does not have a sd card slot anymore. Music folder player full version by Zorillasoft for Android devices - works well, as I keep the collection neatly organized and foldered.
Re: Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?
#48https://ytmp3.ai/
Note: If you're downloading from youtube you probably don't want mp3, since that requires an extra transcoding step. Most videos have AAC and Opus tracks available, which are both widely supported by players these days.
Re: Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?
#49i never went into spotify. Too much "tunnel-hearing" and, $$money-related choice.
My collection is like 20k pieces (curated with time, some still whole albums, some 1 song only). a) put all that on a usb stick. inserted in car's audio. random-all. 2 years already.. b) Alternatively, keep same on the phone, for not-in-car entertainment - bicycle, office, you name it. c) at home - kodi and other media players, over the network shares. Sometimes manual pick, sometimes random.
btw.. car's builtin as well as aftermarket radios (2023-2025) cannot take/index more than 5000 pieces / mp3s. Some even lower, like 3000. So.. i had to bundle above pieces back into whole/half-albums (anyone remember LP-sides? there)
Re: Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?
#50I never switched to streaming services of any kind nor to any other subscription scams. I have a large catalogue of music and access to loads of internet radio stations to discover new music - Radio Paradise being one of my go-to spots for such - and see no need to get entangled in yet another contract for things which did not need such before the push to eternal payments. Just install your own streaming service - I'm still running Airsonic because it works and I mostly use the Subsonic API so the somewhat clunky web interface doesn't bother me - and point it at your collection and ditch whatever paid subscription service you use. Keep regular backups and store them somewhere safe so your collection can survive the inevitable demise of whatever storage medium you keep it on. Done, no more "expert" advise needed.