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The 80s Ate My iPod!

So here's a weird one. Last night, I noticed that, in addition to its normal roster of artists, my iPod now contains two or three songs from Depeche Mode and Duran Duran, only one of which I even vaguely recognize ("Girls On Film," if you must know.) I have no idea how these tracks got onto my iPod. I realize I just posted about my newfound habit of buying crazy songs from the eighties on the iTunes store, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not buying crazy songs in my sleep -- and there's no record of anything by Duran Duran or Depeche Mode in my entire music collection. (I even searched my hard drive and no mention of Duran Duran anywhere -- save all those soul-revealing fan letters to Simon LeBon, of course.) It's definitely my iPod, and it's been in my possession of late. Where did these songs come from? I'm worried that this is some kind of creeping virus, and I'll wake up tomorrow and find the entire iPod library replaced with old Bannanarama and Thompson Twins songs. Any clues would be greatly appreciated....

May 16, 2003 in Personal |

Comments

Tricia Harvey

I, too, found Thompson Twins on my iPod. oh wait what is the Best of the Thompson Twins doing in my Purchased Music folder. Ok I admit it I'm a fan of 80's pop.

Posted by: Tricia Harvey | May 16, 2003 at 01:58 AM

Cowboy X

Don't "factory" iPods ship with a small collection of music, including a couple tracks from Wilco's Summer Teeth? That's a damned gift to humanity, I tell ya.

Posted by: Cowboy X | May 16, 2003 at 03:56 AM

Chris Krewson

I know ITunes ships with a library. The IPod may as well... or maybe you got a package deal, buy one 80s song, get one free.

Posted by: Chris Krewson | May 16, 2003 at 05:07 AM

Ben

Perhaps you downloaded some music from "somewhere" that has an incorrect filename. The tags and song are what you've found on the iPod, which doesn't use filenames.

Posted by: Ben | May 16, 2003 at 05:11 AM

askpang

I've not had this specific problem, but after having my iPod for a few weeks, I find that the process of MP3-ing my entire music collection has reintroduced me to a lot of stuff from the 1980s that I haven't touched in years. (As I write Asia's "Alpha" is playing on my iPod-- and it takes great courage to admit that!)

It's just one of those unanticipated consequences of using a new technology, though there are others.

Posted by: askpang | May 16, 2003 at 06:52 AM

peel

I don't own an iPod but if you want to send me yours, or perhaps buy me a new one, I'll see if I can get to the bottom of this whole ordeal. My guess is that it was either part of the original shipping library or perhaps was a free download as a result of your buying 80's files online. Kind of like how Amazon suggests stuff based on what you buy/look at, maybe the iTunes store gives you free music based on what you buy. Either way I'm still going to suggest that I get a free iPod to do more research. -peel

Posted by: peel | May 16, 2003 at 07:15 AM

Charles

I know my iPod had some tunes on it - something by Alanis Morissette and some other stuff. I know I didn't download those.

Posted by: Charles | May 16, 2003 at 07:56 AM

Lasse

There is another explanation: Maybe your iPod wasn't quite new when you bought it. It may be purchased by another owner and then returned shortly after. And the store just forgot to clear the harddrive. That happened to some mobile phone-buyers here in Denmark. They bought appearantly new phones, but discovered that there already were phone numbers of other people stored on the phone.

Posted by: Lasse | May 17, 2003 at 03:29 AM

Kevin Marks

At a guess, you have some kind of 'greatest hits' CD you have forgotten about which had them on, and though the CD is filed under 'various artists' on the HD, the mp3 tags which iPod uses have the real artists in. Search for 'duran' in iTunes, not the finder.

Posted by: Kevin Marks | May 17, 2003 at 07:34 AM

chas.

'girls on film'! sick! your ipod probably has better taste in music than you do :-)

Posted by: chas. | May 18, 2003 at 04:02 AM

Richard

finding a couple of 80's tracks on your ipod isn't so bad, the new iTunes has FORCED me to download 80's songs which I thought I had locked away with my childhood. Oliver Newton John and 10cc are now racking up the royalties. Ahh, the wonders of instant access to media, with Tivo and iTunes I am in really bad shape switching my personality based on suggestion engines.

Posted by: Richard | May 18, 2003 at 09:25 AM

AD

iTunes when initially set up will give you the option of finding every mp3 file on your system. I had recently purchased a firewire HD from Otherworld Computing and after seeing strange songs in my iTunes library, traced it back to a folder of sample tunes that OWC included on the new HD. iTunes found these before I did.

Posted by: AD | May 19, 2003 at 11:28 AM

Frank

Ah... if iTunes initially tries to find each and every MP3 on your system... then what was in the cd-rom drive when you first plugged it in?

Posted by: Frank | May 20, 2003 at 05:35 AM

Taylor

He said it was on a new hard drive, It came pre-loaded, there was no CD, it wasn't a CD drive.

Posted by: Taylor | May 21, 2003 at 04:54 AM

blah

i know as a fact that the MAC ipod ships with a certan number of preloded songs but the windows ipod dosent

Posted by: blah | June 09, 2003 at 03:14 AM

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Posted by: Anne | January 10, 2004 at 02:36 AM

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