The times...they are a changin'.
 

To preface this - this afternoon I spent some time loading up a 4gb flash chip with all my favorite MP3 tunes I've collected (or recorded myself) over the years. I went through all the drives on my various laptop and desktop computers, along with hundreds of archival cdrom discs.

I came up with 1,052 songs total (4.7gb)

I managed to eliminate just over 700mb to fit them all on the flash drive.

The 4gb CoreMicro flash drive is slightly bigger than a pair of nail clippers - small enough to attach to my keychain with the clip.

Growing up in the 60s, 70s & 80s - I spent a LOT of time collecting music on an ever-changing variety of formats - 45's, 8-track, vinyl albums, cassettes, CDs and cdrom. Vinyl, magnetic, digital. Over the years the collection has grown to somewhat overwhelming proportions, occupying a fair amount of space here in my home office. Thousands of hours spent recording - and tens of thousands of dollars on tapes (without exaggeration).

My point here is - now all my favorite tracks fit on a medium no larger than a toy whistle. As someone who grew up and evolved along with all the various recording formats - it's somewhat difficult to get my head around the concept.

Loading the tunes onto a flash drive was prompted by having a USB flash drive on the audio system in the new Kia Forte we bought last month. No moving parts, no skipping...and no degradation of sound quality no matter how many times its played. Basically, there's nothing to wear out.

A single 4gb flash drive at a cost of $15 bucks holds enough music to drive from coast-to-coast without hearing the same track twice.

The times...they are a-changin'. (Bob Dylan)

I totally know what you're saying, I grew up in the 70's and 80's, still big vinyl and tape eras. Wonder what it'll be like in 30 years.

Agreed. I remember getting my first 1GB HD and thinking it would take me a life time to fill that. Now I have a 1TB but I'm not so quick to say it'll take me a long time to fill THAT either. Guess I'm just a media whore :)

Few years ago a 1gb IBM drive for my Nikon was $400.00. Now 4gb flash drives are $15. That also is a big change.

it is crazy to think that...i too just recently transferred all my music to one location and ripped any old fashioned CDs...(but i do remember 8tracks, cassettes - having to flip the tape over for side 2) to digital and just surprised me how much music i can now carry on my phone....i have a simple 8gb sd card in my BB and i have virtually everything i own with me anytime i want.... i was just talking about one of my first computers and remember that it came with a 10gb hard drive and was told, oh itll take forever to fill it up.....i know have a 1.5Tb...

as you quoted good ole Bob....times they are a changin

Thats pretty crazy to think about.

I started driving in the mid/late 90's and I remember having a huge binder of CDs in my car, a small one on my visor and some in cases in a box in the back.

Once MP3 cd players were more popular in cars that saved a lot of room and I could fit almost my entire library on a few CDRs which was nice. I had a 6 disc changer in my old honda accord and rarely had to change any out.

Now with iPod plugins in cars CDs are almost useless. I have a single in dash CD player now, but can't tell you the last time I used it. Most of the music I listen to is through my iPhone or Sirius radio. Ive seen a few cars with hard drives which would be great to store an endless amount of media on.

My guess is in the future, you will be able to sync your car's music hard drive with your computer wirelessly. Ive looked into a few options now and they are very expensive to do so :1orglaugh

I remember when the computer store I worked at got its first 20MB (that's MB, not GB) hard drive in from IBM. We were like, 20MB, OMIGOD that's a lifetime of storage, and it cost thousands. :1orglaugh