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A few weeks back, this video by independent musician Mary Spender popped up in my YouTube feed.
In the video, Mary reveals that she decided to cancel her Spotify subscription after receiving a price increase notice from the streaming service, which didn’t mention better compensation for artists. For Mary, that was the last straw.
She also suggests that streaming has made us lazy, that real discovery is taking place on other platforms, and that it’s actually more costly in the long run than purchasing and owning music. Equally, this thirst for traditional listening has, she says, prompted many to revisit one of Apple’s most beloved cancelled products – the humble iPod.
This touched a nerve with me. And it also sent me down a rabbit hole of watching iPod modding videos on YouTube – a rabbit hole which has ultimately led me to a big decision.
This year, I’m going to buy an iPod, make it my own with some Tom-tinkery, and start listening to music properly again. Like I did in the 90s.
Ok, it’s not that big of a decision, and I’m not ‘doing a Mary’ and cancelling my streaming subscriptions, but I am excited enough to share the start of this journey with you today.
My love affair with vinyl (it started here)
Come to my house, and in the dining room you’ll find a Technics SL-1210M3D turntable connected to my recently-installed DJ station. Beneath, I have three vinyl-shaped open cupboards with a slowly-building collection of my favourite bands, random finds, and a bunch of white label house records I bought from eBay years ago.
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I love my turntable. I deeply love buying new records to play on it. I adore the process of unearthing the LP from its protective sleeve, placing it on the platter, gently dispersing any dust, and slowly dropping the needle. And then I remember that there’s also a wealth of stuff to read and look at on the cover, and, often, within the record inserts.
There are eleventy million Reddit threads discussing whether or not vinyl records do actually sound better than digital music. I sit in the camp that thinks they do indeed sound warmer, fuller, and less compressed. That might be a placebo effect, of course, but the truth is, I couldn’t give two you-know-whats.
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I just love vinyl. The problem is that my moments with it are fleeting, which is why I need to extend the influence it has had on my listening habits to the digital realm.
The problem with streaming
Spotify is currently the world’s largest streaming platform with around 713 million active monthly subscribers worldwide. Add that to the fact that streaming accounts for roughly 86% of total recorded music revenue and Spotify reporting its largest-ever royalty payout in 2024 ($10 billion, to be exact), and you’d be forgiven for assuming that things might be improving for artists. That sounds like a big pool of money to divide amongst those who are writing the earworms that are being algorithm’d into our heads. Right?
Nope. According to research (this might be my most stat- and research-filled blog post ever), thousands of artists don’t earn enough from streaming revenue alone to make a living wage in the UK.
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It’s not all bad news. Apparently. Around 30% of artists on Spotify earned over $10,000 in royalties in 2024, and 22,100 earned more than $50,000. Who those artists were is anyone’s guess, but, well, that’s what Spotify is telling us.
But enough with the stats. The fact remains that, on the whole, artists get a shit deal out of streaming. It has completely changed the music industry. Albums are no longer purchased, having been replaced by an endless platter of eat-all-you-can playlists and algorithm recommendations. As a result, artists have had no choice but to lean heavily into revenue generated by gigging (often vastly unprofitable – even for the big names) and social influencing (increasingly crowded).
So, streaming is, on the whole, bad for artists. But it’s bad for us listeners, too. I can’t remember the last time I listened to an album from start to finish. It’s either endless playlists or algorithm-powered ‘radio stations’. This can be fun; I’ve discovered some superb music via both of those avenues, but it has shifted me away from the joy of listening to an artist’s body of work.
More importantly, the ‘all you can eat’ music buffet offered by streaming services is overwhelming and, conversely, leads one to listen to only a narrow portion of the music available.
The iPod mod revolution
I owned several iPods during its reign as king of the MP3 players. Like so many people, though, I considered it an entirely defunct piece of technology as soon as the iPhone arrived. The proliferation of music streaming services that followed was the final death knell.
Fast-forward many years, and people are buying iPods again. Not just that – they’re grabbing screwdrivers, opening them up, installing new, bigger batteries and acres of SD card storage, and flashing them with something called Rockbox.
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As noted earlier, having watched Mary Spender’s video, my YouTube feed quickly filled up with iPod modding guides and declarations of love for Apple’s discontinued media player. I don’t have any numbers this time, I’m afraid, but it appears to be a fairly big scene full of passionate modders and music listeners.
Why are they doing this? Because they want to escape from streaming and algorithms. They want to own their music without the threat of random albums disappearing from their collection. They don’t want to be fed recommendations – they want to proactively seek out new music, buy it, and listen to it. The iPod, clearly, remains one of the best ways to do this.
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It’s also a magically simple device. It doesn’t multitask. There are no notifications. Safari doesn’t exist. And you can’t install Instagram on it. You just browse your library and hit play.
The iPod is about as far from the AI-infused world of endless scrolling and distractions that you can imagine. And that’s very alluring for many of us – me included.
My iPod shopping list
As is always the case when I head down hobbyist rabbit holes, I now feel like something of an expert when it comes to iPod modding. And I haven’t even bought any of the bits yet.
Firstly, you need your iPod. Obviously. Your only choice is to buy second-hand these days, but that’s cool – you just need a base from which to start, whatever condition it’s in (you’ll be swapping out pretty much everything, you see).
As it turns out, the golden goose in the world of iPod modding is the 5.5th generation. This is because it was the last iPod to feature the Wolfson DAC (digital to analogue converter), which is widely regarded as the best-sounding DAC ever to grace an iPod. This particular iPod will also happily play with large storage upgrades (as much as 1TB, if you fancy it) and has some of the most readily-available modding parts on the market.
There are two main modifications you need to undertake for an iPod mod to be considered successful: bigger storage and more battery life. The former can be achieved via a couple of methods, but the easiest and most reliable is generally considered to be an SD card, which can be installed with an internal adapter. As for the battery, I’ve settled on a 3,000mAh unit which fits neatly inside the iPod 5.5’s casing and will, presumably, offer utterly hysterical battery life.
A replacement front shell and rear casing will complete the spruce-up and leave me with an iPod that looks nigh-on brand-new, albeit with supercharged internals. From there, it’s a decision of whether to stick with the standard iPod operating system or opt for Rockbox, which is a favoured aftermarket option.
As noted, I haven’t bought any of this stuff yet, but I will be doing so later this month, and I’m extremely excited.
I’m also slightly apprehensive.
Will it stick?
Like a lot of people, I can be a bit faddy. I get an idea in my head about something, pursue it relentlessly, and drop it once life takes over again.
There are some challenges I can foresee relating to my iPod project. They’re not insurmountable, but they’re important enough to note here (in the hope that the process of writing them down will talk myself out of them).
I’ll need to develop a listening habit again. I used to have one, but it was many, many years ago. These days, I listen to music while running, working in the studio, and writing. But I’d describe all of those listening activities as passive; it’s been a long time since I sat down and listened to something.
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There’s also the process of sourcing music for my fancy turbocharged iPod. And adding it to it. This will involve buying new CDs (which feels eminently cool, but potentially full of expense and faff) and/or buying and downloading stuff from sites like Bandcamp (again: cool, but faffy).
Let’s not forget that this isn’t a Bluetooth device. Sure, one can go one step further and retrofit Bluetooth to an iPod, but from what I can tell, that involves soldering, and I’d rather eat glue than do that. So, this means I’ll have to resort to wired headphones, which is great news, because it means I’ll be making the most of that Wolfson DAC. But it also means using wired headphones, which is yet more faff.
As you can tell, I’m not a fan of faff, but I have a feeling I’m going to have to leave that particular gripe at the door if I’m going to make the most of this iPod.
Final thought (for now)
The concerns I’ve just laid out aren’t enough to tempt me away from this iPod modding project. I’ve been looking forward to it for weeks, and it’s only Christmas and CES in Las Vegas that have prevented me from getting onto it sooner.
I’ll be reporting back, but in the meantime, I’d love to know if this is something you’ve dabbled with yourself or, like me, you’re considering. Get involved in the comments!
1 Comment
I still have my 30-pin iPod. how do I know if it’s 5.5th generation?