iMod Diaries #3: Rocking with Rockbox
A deep dive into an alternative software stack
Welcome back to iMod Diaries, an exclusive series for Day Soda subscribers following my journey into iPod modding. This edition is all about software. How does one maintain a digital music library in this, the Year of Our Lord 2024? And then how do you get that library onto an iPod?
Past entries
In part one, I lay out the parts that went into my first iPod refurb:
Adam Cecil
In part two, I walk through the process of actually putting those parts inside of the iPod:
Adam Cecil
RIP iTunes, 2001 - 2019
iTunes—the center of Apple’s digital media strategy—had a good run, but by the end, it was a bloated mess. What originally started as streamlined music management software was stuffed with hardware syncing, podcasts, audiobooks, university lectures, films and TV shows, games and apps, and even, at one point, “iTunes Ping,” a short-lived social media platform.
As Apple started selling way more iPhones and iPads than iPods, iTunes as a hub made less and less sense, and with the rise of cloud services like iCloud and streaming services like Spotify, the writing was on the wall.
Apple finally killed iTunes on Mac in 2019, splitting its duties into the new Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Podcasts apps. Hardware syncing was relegated to Finder—you can still plug in an iPod and sync it with your local music library.
Windows machines have those new apps, too, but iTunes is still available for computers that don’t support them.
