Yet another stupid ipod question

[Linderbee]

My daughter is giving her youngest sister her ipod shuffle. She is getting a bigger/better mp3 player for christmas, but she says that she can only get around 65 songs on her shuffle. I think that's extremely low. ipod says it should hold around 240 songs. Anyone have any ideas why she is only getting around 65? Even if I'm confused & she has the smaller shuffle, she should still be getting over 100 songs. I haven't looked into it yet, so it's possible my daughter is just crazy...just thought I'd start here before I get incredibly frustrated...my lack of love for ipods should be well known

 

[thirty-two]

I think the average file size for a song is like 3 mb or something, so they probably base it off of that. Maybe she has a bunch of songs that are 5 and 6 mb a piece. That could take off a few songs.

Also, I've learned that even though it says this ipod is such and such gig, it's actually less than that. My 60 gig only holds "technically" 55 gig.

But yeah, 240 to 65 songs IS a big difference. And I really dont have any other info as to why. Hopefully someone can help!

 

[nathan]

The length of music you can fit on an audio CD is fixed (80 minutes). The amount of music you can fit on an ipod depends on how compressed it is. If your daughter has everything at 320 kbps, you might only be able to fit 65 songs. I think apple uses either 128 kbps or 192 kbps to come up with that 240 figure.

Another issue could be whether your daughter is using the device as a flash drive. Obviously that would reduce the number of songs by a lot.

 

[Linderbee]

The length of music you can fit on an audio CD is fixed (80 minutes). The amount of music you can fit on an ipod depends on how compressed it is. If your daughter has everything at 320 kbps, you might only be able to fit 65 songs. I think apple uses either 128 kbps or 192 kbps to come up with that 240 figure.

Another issue could be whether your daughter is using the device as a flash drive. Obviously that would reduce the number of songs by a lot.

how do I change the kbps? Is that something I can change? What the heck is that? I do appreciate your answering...my little one is going to be SO shocked to be getting the ipod!

Thank you, too, Kate.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

how do I change the kbps? Is that something I can change? What the heck is that? I do appreciate your answering...my little one is going to be SO shocked to be getting the ipod!

Thank you, too, Kate.

When you copy the contents of a CD to your hard drive, the kbps is the compression rate (standing for kilobits per second) of the audio file which is a value usually set by the user before the CD is copied. The higher the kbps number, the higher the audio quality of the song. However, the higher the kbps number, the larger the file is, so less songs fit on your hard drive or ipod. Once the song is on the hard drive, its kbps rate can't be changed (at least not very easily). Usually MP3 files you purchase at an online music store are 128kbps or 192kbps, but if the songs your daughter put on her ipod are at something like 320kbps, then the files will be twice as large. To check on the compression rate of the song, simply put your mouse over the audio file under My Music (or where ever it is stored) and wait for the tan Windows box to pop up, the bit rate will be listed.

How big is her ipod shuffle? It is possible that if the songs are at 320kbps and are on average something like 5 minutes long instead of 3 minutes then she can only fit 65 songs, but that number still seems kind of low.

 

[Linderbee]

When you copy the contents of a CD to your hard drive, the kbps is the compression rate (standing for kilobits per second) of the audio file which is a value usually set by the user before the CD is copied. The higher the kbps number, the higher the audio quality of the song. However, the higher the kbps number, the larger the file is, so less songs fit on your hard drive or ipod. Once the song is on the hard drive, its kbps rate can't be changed (at least not very easily). Usually MP3 files you purchase at an online music store are 128kbps or 192kbps, but if the songs your daughter put on her ipod are at something like 320kbps, then the files will be twice as large. To check on the compression rate of the song, simply put your mouse over the audio file under My Music (or where ever it is stored) and wait for the tan Windows box to pop up, the bit rate will be listed.

How big is her ipod shuffle? It is possible that if the songs are at 320kbps and are on average something like 5 minutes long instead of 3 minutes then she can only fit 65 songs, but that number still seems kind of low.

it's a 1 gb shuffle. I guess they must be at the higher kbps... her songs are 50/50 between ripped from a cd & downloaded. I'll see what most of her songs are at. Thanks for your help!

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

it's a 1 gb shuffle. I guess they must be at the higher kbps... her songs are 50/50 between ripped from a cd & downloaded. I'll see what most of her songs are at. Thanks for your help!

My songs are at 256kbps (double the "normal" 128) and I get about 170 songs in 1GB, so that 65 songs still seems low.

 

[Linderbee]

My songs are at 256kbps (double the "normal" 128) and I get about 170 songs in 1GB, so that 65 songs still seems low.

well, I still haven't looked at it yet, so it's possible she's just high. I'll be messing with it tonight & I'll see what I have.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

The length of music you can fit on an audio CD is fixed (80 minutes). The amount of music you can fit on an ipod depends on how compressed it is. If your daughter has everything at 320 kbps, you might only be able to fit 65 songs. I think apple uses either 128 kbps or 192 kbps to come up with that 240 figure.

Another issue could be whether your daughter is using the device as a flash drive. Obviously that would reduce the number of songs by a lot.

Check this one too. Also, is it the iPod that says that it is full (almost full) or is it the iTunes software?

I was helping my nephew this weekend with his iPod, and the bar that tells you how much free space said that he was 50% full on his 1GB drive (500MB), but the actual size on the iPod itself was less than 200. Any song that was listed in the library (checked or unchecked) was showing up in iTunes as used space. See if that is the case.

 

[Linderbee]

she is definitely not using it as a flash drive. We cleaned everything off, and loaded the songs my youngest asked for--she got 53 songs on there and it (itunes software) says that it's got about 200 mb left. She's only 7, and I hate ipod so much, that I really don't care too much. She's happy as a clam--I didn't buy it, so I am not too worried about it. I just thought it should hold more. Oh, well.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

she is definitely not using it as a flash drive. We cleaned everything off, and loaded the songs my youngest asked for--she got 53 songs on there and it (itunes software) says that it's got about 200 mb left. She's only 7, and I hate ipod so much, that I really don't care too much. She's happy as a clam--I didn't buy it, so I am not too worried about it. I just thought it should hold more. Oh, well.

Don't trust the software. That little bar graph at the bottom is not accurate.

 

[Linderbee]

Don't trust the software. That little bar graph at the bottom is not accurate.

good to know. It can't be counting everything, because there's over 1,000 songs in my library. We'll just load it up until it won't load any more!

 

[AZZenny]

When I tried moving my itunes library to another computer using the ipod as a flash drive, I ultimately ended up with two copies of the files on the ipod, even though it said there was only one. I finally erased everything, just reformatted it, reloaded the music library as if it was new, and it cut the used space almost exactly in half to where it should have been according to my library.

It also had sought out and downloaded all the photos I had anywhere on the second computer w/o asking.

When in doubt, reformat that little guy.