For a while, I wanted to repurpose a bunch of MP3 players that I found while shopping thrift stores. Although the simpler ones are easier to come by, it’s the more “advanced” ones (for their time) that I was really interested in. These usually had larger capacities, a larger screen, and were easier to use.

I was originally going to send promo material of No Place Called Home to friends and family. The MP3 players would have a copy of the album on it that can be played immediately when they receive it. But more so than anything, I wanted them to be reused. Perhaps to live a second life where the people who received it can load it up with their own music and take it around.

Although most of us have abandoned the idea of keeping and maintaining music libraries, they’re finding a bit of a resurgence. Mostly in the physical realm with vinyls and tapes making come backs, but digital files too. Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music have been convenient for consumers (and also historically bad for musicians but that’s for another day) but in recent days, they’re proving to be more headaches than anything else. Price hikes, music being removed from services, a worsening algorithm for new discoveries, and claims that Spotify is using “ghost artists” to minimize royalties, just to name a few. So for many others such as myself, I’m back to building a library of music.

“Repurposed MP3 players would be great for that!” I thought.

Oh wait, the Zen Creative line of players required proprietary software to load music onto. And that’s no longer working on modern systems. In addition, refurbishing these devices can be difficult. Batteries are hard to find and they’re often soldiered in place.

“Well maybe these iPods will still be of good use!” I said to myself.

Oh wait, I had a weird amount of difficulty getting these recognized by any recent Mac. While I could get it to pop up on a more recent Apple M (ARM) processor, I had mixed results with the latest OS (Sequoia at the time of this writing) and I’m seeing conflicting messages online that suggest that support for syncing older iPods have been removed from the newer OSs. Not to mention the fact that you still need to download and install software called “Apple Devices” for your Windows PC.

I’m sure there’s great software being written by people on Github but my goal of this project was to lower the barrier of entry to get people to try using MP3 players again. And after all that, I ultimately devices to abandon the idea.

At the end of the day, we’re probably better off just syncing music onto our phones since we carry those everywhere (or if you’re a nerd, streaming it from a server somewhere) and occasionally listening to a CD, tape, or record from your favorite musician. But there is something special about carrying around a device with you for the sole purpose of holding your vast library.

Oh wait, you didn’t leave your wired earbuds at home, did you?

-M