The self-sustaining iPod

Anyone with an iPod knows that being locked into your iTunes library can be a very annoying thing. And though there are a lot of solutions for working through this, I've never been entirely happy with the results.

What's more, if you're not a big fan of iTunes in the first place (or you're just not a fan of firing up that memory hog just to sync your iPod), it can be that much more annoying when iTunes puts its stranglehold on your iPod.

Unfortunately you can't really get that far with your iPod if you don't use iTunes, right?

Wrong! By the end of this little tutorial, you'll be able to rip a CD, sync the MP3s to your iPod, then play any music off your iPod from any computer without ever having to install anything on that computer - and not once will you have to open iTunes to do it.

That's right - add MP3s from any computer. For example, if your SO insists on ripping MP3s on her laptop rather than straight to your shared library, you can still easily sync her MP3s to your iPod. Or maybe you're on a public computer and you're eager to rip and import the CD you just bought to your iPod. Without installing any software on that computer or ripping any MP3s to its hard drive, you can rip and sync your new CD to your iPod.

What you'll need:

1. A Windows PC
2. An iPod (any iPod, from the shuffle and mini to the photo and video)

Here's how to get your iPod slurping up music from any computer or CD, any time, without installing anything on said computer.

1. Set your iPod as a removable hard drive. If you haven't already setup your iPod as a removable storage device, you can do so by plugging in your iPod and opening iTunes. Go to Edit -> Preferences and select the iPod tab. Next select the Music tab and click on the radio button labeled, "Manually manage songs and playlists." Click on OK.

   This will automatically enable disk use, and it will keep your iPod from automatically syncing (i.e. removing music you've added elsewhere) each time you plug it in. You'll want to keep your photo and video settings the same for the time being. [1]

2. Setup CD ripping.

   Now you'll want to download and install the awesome free CD ripping program CDex. But rather than installing it to your computer's hard drive, you're going to install CDex to your iPod. Assuming you've setup your iPod for disk use, just install it as you would any program and direct it to a folder on your iPod. I'll be installing everything in this tutorial to a folder named, "Lifehacker iPod Pack."

   To rip a CD to your iPod, go to My Computer -> YOUR IPOD -> Lifehacker iPod Pack -> CDex_150 and run CDex.exe. You can now get track names from CDDB (you need to enter an email address to do this) and rip the songs to... you guessed it, your iPod. [2]

   Go to Options -> Settings and select the Filenames tab. Change the Recorded Tracks directory to a folder on your iPod (I've chosen F:\\Ripped MP3s for my directory). Click OK and then click on the "Extract CD track(s) to Compressed Audio File(s)" button (the default compression is MP3). Now CDex will rip the CD tracks to your iPod.

   Of course, at this point you've only ripped MP3s - it's going to take a little more to add them to your iPod's database and start playing them.

3. Sync the music to your iPod. Download and install the free Windows iPod music transfer software, vPod.

   vPod is a program for transferring music to your iPod from Windows. It presents a unified view of all of your music and lets you see what is and what is not already on your iPod.

   vPod is the glue that holds this whole process together (and it's an awesome glue).

   Install vPod in the same folder you installed CDex, again to your iPod. When you've finished installation, run vPod. From vPod, go to iPod -> Select iPod Drive... and direct it to your iPod (e.g., My Computer -> ADAM'S IPOD). vPod will read your iPod's database and populate all of your music organized by Artists, Albums, and Playlists.

   Now you can finish the job you started. Go to File -> Add Files To Library, then select your Ripped MP3s folder. vPod will scan your selected folder and any music that isn't already on your iPod will be populated in the list without a check in the checkbox. [3]

   

   Find your imported music and check what you'd like to add to your iPod (or uncheck anything you'd like to remove) then select iPod -> Synchronize.... Your iPod will be updated with all of your added/removed MP3s. If you ripped your MP3s to the Ripped MP3s folder, you can delete them - they're in your iPod's weird file structure now.

4. Play your music. So you've ripped MP3s and you've synced up your iPod without placing one file on the computer you're plugged into - now it's time to play your songs.

   Download the freeware application Pod Player from iPodSoft, a program designed to run and play music directly off your iPod. The Pod Player is a very lightweight program that loads your iPod's music database and plays any song off your iPod in an iTunes-ish interface (it also allows you to open a playlist externally, if you prefer).

   Finally, as if things weren't already good enough, the Pod Player will allow you to easily extract any songs off your iPod onto the computer you're currently connected to in that oh-so-familiar Artist -> Album folder format.

At this point, if you've followed along and installed all of the software, you should have a wonderfully self-sustaining iPod that you can add and remove music from completely sans iTunes. Add music from any music library on any computer, rip and add MP3s to your iPod, and play your iPod's music library on any computer without ever having to install anything.

I know I've been on somewhat of an iPod kick lately, whether it's getting the most out of an old iPod or getting free content for your video iPod, but this time I'm content. My iPod has finally achieved the status of truly beautiful.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The vPod software mentioned later in the article currently supports syncing music only, but the software's author says that a newer version with photo and video support should be released in a month or so.

[2] You don't have to rip the MP3s to your iPod, but in the spirit of doing everything on your "self-sustaining iPod," I'm keeping everything on the 'pod.

[3] If you're only interested in syncing your iPod to the music library on another computer, just select the music folder from the computer rather than your iPod's Ripped MP3s folder.