If youâve got an old iPod, CDs, CD-Rs, or other dead-format music libraries stuffed in a closet or storage somewhere, I have to recommend doing whatever is necessary to give them a new lease on life. Seriously: Order that old Dock Connector cable, buy that used Discman, or lumber around in the attic or basement for those buried boxes. I promise itâs worth every bit of the cost and struggle.I recently took a stack of old hard drives to data recovery, hoping to restore decades of lost photos and writings, but instead spent more time combing the MP3 collection I thought Iâd lost in a 2015 crash. All the forgotten albums, remixes, bootlegs, DJ edits, and Soundcloud rips were like accessing an alternate mode of music discovery from an earlier version of myself: Oneohtrix Point Neverâs Eccojams and early Games cassettes, DJ Sprinklesâ Midtown 120 Blues, Blawanâs âWhy They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage,â Death Gripsâ Exmilitary, and innumerable reggae singles, bloghouse remixes, and techno twelves are back from the grave (and loving it!), co-existing alongside years of Bandcamp purchases.
