USB Thumb Drives as Music Storage Devices

[rcarlberg]

Both my wife's and my car stereos have USB inputs for attaching something (dunno what exactly), I've been using them to plug in a 16GB dongle and have, like, 2,000 songs at your fingertips.

i did the entire Beatles catalog on one thumb drive; it took up about 1/10th the capacity.

i dropped all my British Folk-Rock to another. The entire catalogs of Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Incredible String Band, Fotheringay, Steve Ashley, Sandy Denny, Richard & Linda Thompson, Albion Dance Band, Doctor Strangely Strange, several samplers, and a couple dozen other bands -- all of which filled up maybe half a dongle.

I'm going to do another of British blues bands, Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, Climax Blues Band, John Mayall, Peter Green, etc etc etc.

The dongles are dead cheap ($8) and incredibly convenient.

I rarely hear about people using them as music storage devices though. I can understand why labels would never market music on them -- the licensing on 2,000+ songs would probably make USB drives prohibitively expensive!

[Dave (in MA)]

A guy I worked with had a Portishead album that was released on a thumb drive in the shape of a P. I know some artists have special editions of albums out on them.

[WHORG]

We use them constantly in the car and for my son's DJ gigs, in addition to the XBox One . . .

Just make sure you have backups - as these things can go bad (chip errors), and make sure you "eject" them properly from any computer - as they sometimes can never be formatted again even at the DOS prompt or through the registry (it's happened to me twice now with 2-3 year old units).

I keep 2 X 32GB permanently attached to our (ASUS) wireless router - running their AiDisk protocol = I can hit this storage locally, and over the Internet anywhere in the world to avoid the cloud. It's like a NAS/VPN of sorts - - -

[frinspar]

That's what I've resorted to with the new stereo I put in my Escape. I got a 128GB drive, jammed most of what I have that's under 10 minutes, and set it on shuffle. If I go from The Motels to Carcass to Crimson, so be it. Shuffle rules my drive-times.

But it's not a bad idea to get several smaller drives for more specific collections. Oh, Jesus, the "mix tape" possibilities with an 8gig or 4gig drive for a road trip could be insane.

[Dave (in MA)]

Not only do I not have usb inputs, I'm still using a cassette adapter to let me use my mp3 player in the car.

[LASERCD]

Which brand sounds the best? <ducks>

[frinspar]

^
The one that costs the least as far as I'm concerned.

[roymathew]

the poin is all of you using sterio using in you r car good but my dear friend, just tell my ols days past 50 years , my ambassedar car have a tape recorder to listen music no indian karnatic songs ..oh the changes i see ..anyway new changes are good

[Jubal]

My drive time is about 10 minutes, so I don't use them in the car so much. I do use them with this at work:
http://www.amazon.com/GOgroove-SonaV.../dp/B0089ZV1WY

[Plasmatopia]

We just got a new car where USB is one of the options for playing music and I realized I could get pretty much my entire collection on a 128 GB thumb drive. I basically just dragged my entire iTunes music folder onto the thumb drive.

We gave it the first real test yesterday (we rarely drive the new car at this point) and the implementation leaves something to be desired (this is a Honda). There is a huge list of folders and it takes a long time to scroll through the entire list. The folders are in alphabetical order and we couldn't seem to get past the F bands without somehow cycling right back to the top of the As.

I'm thinking I need to get everything onto the root of the thumb drive. Right now each band has a folder, each album a sub-folder. Also I should probably weed out some things. It might be easier to navigate if I had two or three 32 GB thumb drives.

Apparently the "music search" function in the Honda doesn't actually let you type in names to search for. That would be really useful and would make this setup much more convenient. We ended up using shuffle - it was just easier.

[R_burke]

Do you need any playing s/w on the USB or does the player take care of it.
Does it matter what format the songs are in

[Plasmatopia]

If we're talking car stereos, it's the car stereo that takes care of everything. They seem to all have different formats they like and don't like. I was able to get the Honda to recognize AAC files. I don't think it does WAV, but I suspect MP3 would work. I had another car stereo that didn't recognize AAC but did recognize MP3s.

[rcarlberg]

Apparently the "music search" function in the Honda doesn't actually let you type in names to search for. That would be really useful and would make this setup much more convenient. We ended up using shuffle - it was just easier.

That is a problem with mass storage devices. Perhaps, if USB sticks catch on as storage devices, somebody will come out with a voice-activated navigation system.

[Plasmatopia]

That is a problem with mass storage devices. Perhaps, if USB sticks catch on as storage devices, somebody will come out with a voice-activated navigation system.

That would be great. Or at least something my wife can navigate easily while I drive.

[Scott Bails]

Yep, I've been doing this for years now. I use different thumb drives for different genres, etc.

The only problem, as mentioned, is that the navigation through the different folders isn't optimal, but my car is 3 years old. I'm hoping that this improves by the time I need a new car.

[Dave (in MA)]

We gave it the first real test yesterday (we rarely drive the new car at this point) and the implementation leaves something to be desired (this is a Honda). There is a huge list of folders and it takes a long time to scroll through the entire list. The folders are in alphabetical order and we couldn't seem to get past the F bands without somehow cycling right back to the top of the As.

Sounds like the way my TV deals with storage media. It doesn't matter how well the files are tagged, it just presents them in that way. I guess that's one advantage of using my MP3 player through an adapter, the interface is always the same.

[progmatist]

I limit the USB storage to 2GB. I don't do playlists or the shuffle thing...I simply copy albums in alphanumeric order by artist, then albums of said artists in order of release date. I then listen to full albums in the car. If I went with more than 2GB, it would take longer to reformat the drive and copy the next artists/albums down on the list.

[Scott Bails]

We just got a new car where USB is one of the options for playing music and I realized I could get pretty much my entire collection on a 128 GB thumb drive. I basically just dragged my entire iTunes music folder onto the thumb drive.

We gave it the first real test yesterday (we rarely drive the new car at this point) and the implementation leaves something to be desired (this is a Honda). There is a huge list of folders and it takes a long time to scroll through the entire list. The folders are in alphabetical order and we couldn't seem to get past the F bands without somehow cycling right back to the top of the As.

I'm thinking I need to get everything onto the root of the thumb drive. Right now each band has a folder, each album a sub-folder. Also I should probably weed out some things. It might be easier to navigate if I had two or three 32 GB thumb drives.

Apparently the "music search" function in the Honda doesn't actually let you type in names to search for. That would be really useful and would make this setup much more convenient. We ended up using shuffle - it was just easier.

Can't speak for Honda, as I drive a Chevy, but I think the size of the drive may be the culprit here. You might want to check your manual to see if there are parameters for your USB jack - some can only handle up to 32 or 64 GB. With my car, it takes a few minutes for the data to index. If I put in a new drive, it takes longer than if the drive has already been indexed and is in the port, but it must index every time I start the car.

[nycsteve]

We use them constantly in the car and for my son's DJ gigs, in addition to the XBox One . . .

Just make sure you have backups - as these things can go bad (chip errors), and make sure you "eject" them properly from any computer - as they sometimes can never be formatted again even at the DOS prompt or through the registry (it's happened to me twice now with 2-3 year old units).

I keep 2 X 32GB permanently attached to our (ASUS) wireless router - running their AiDisk protocol = I can hit this storage locally, and over the Internet anywhere in the world to avoid the cloud. It's like a NAS/VPN of sorts - - -

I can get an eject option on my XP computors but not on the Windows 7 units. Is there an eject for 7?

[strawberrybrick]

Just make sure you have backups - as these things can go bad (chip errors), and make sure you "eject" them properly from any computer - as they sometimes can never be formatted again even at the DOS prompt or through the registry (it's happened to me twice now with 2-3 year old units).

Great advice. They are not "permanent" storage.

[Scott Bails]

Is there a "permanent storage" option for data?

[rcarlberg]

The only problem, as mentioned, is that the navigation through the different folders isn't optimal, but my car is 3 years old. I'm hoping that this improves by the time I need a new car.

New car stereo might be cheaper.

I bought mine for $100 and paid my son-in-law another $100 to install it. I still like my 18-year old car. In another couple o' years I'll be able to buy it a drink.

[rcarlberg]

Is there a "permanent storage" option for data?

Nothing is permanent Neo.

[Scott Bails]

Nothing is permanent Neo.

Didn't think so.

[Plasmatopia]

I can get an eject option on my XP computors but not on the Windows 7 units. Is there an eject for 7?

It's there. Look for the little arrow pointing upward in the bottom right-hand corner. That brings up a little raft of icons which is where the eject icon will be if you have a thumb drive plugged in.