2gb of music gets pretty boring, pretty quickly.

What’s an mp3 album, 100MB? That’s twenty albums, on a watch.

Maybe they plan to ditch itunes? Too expensive to administer?

Apple already have, last year, as for iPods; most folks don’t want two things when one thing (a phone) will do it for you, and why buy individual pieces of music when you can download an unlimited amount of music to a phone for a tenner a month?

And an iPhone is not the kind of thing you’d take on a run

I have a Garmin, but apple watch doesn’t need a phone, and it’s hours and hours of music (that you can change easily if you get bored)

As I said up-thread, these systems want you to access music in a pretty convenient way – via an app. doing something else “because” is like hitting you head against a wall.

I think apple needs to offer an affordable and portable way to access iTunes, otherwise it’s going to lose customers.
Maybe they plan to ditch itunes? Too expensive to administer?

Tbh I think Apple wants you to use Apple Music, on one of their phones ideally. Music ownership is becoming much less of a thing.

Music ownership is becoming much less of a thing.

FTFY

TBH I can see both sides of the argument, I’m a die hard hold out with my iRiver H120, it already got a new battery a few years back and will be getting a full storage refresh soon. I like being able to carry the music that I bought without having to rely on flaky data or just being able to get the proper version of a track/album.

On the other hand if you’re going to use a sub service then phone it is. An external battery pack is probably the same weight as another player (okay, hard drive player) or you may well be running about with one anyway, my light doubles as a battery pack and a lot more devices seem to carry the function. If you wanted to really push the boat out you could fit a dynamo and USB charger but obviously that’s not going to add up if it’s a bike you only ever ride during the day.

TL:DR – if it was me I’d be giving your iPod a birthday and continue to enjoy it as you have for years and leave the sub for the phone/computer.

I can see both sides of the argument

As can I if the argument was “I want to play mp3s rather than being tied into a subscription service.” That’s totally valid. I have* what I believe is the world’s smallest mp3 player and whilst it doesn’t get a lot of use, it has its place.

What I can’t get my head around is “I’ve bought into this modern service, and already own a modern device, but I want to use the modern service on something else.” It’s like looking for a record player for your CDs.

(*- somewhere, it’s hard to find.😁)

Yeah, I’m using the service at home…where I also have all my music on mp3 format, so although I’m using it, it is playing my music collection of mp3 files that I uploaded.
So using a dedicated player for my music is fine…basically as the iPod is dying, I’m happy to not be using iTunes (which was tied to my home pc and my iPod). So the files are in mp3 format and I’m just needing a new suitable device for them to be uploaded and stored on so I can play them.
So I’m only wed to YouTube Music so the smart speakers across the house can play my music (in my head the smart speakers use less power than leaving my pc on and using it as a networked music server as I’d still need a means of playing the music in each room).
So I guess I’m needing a device to play all my music on whilst biking. Can’t be existing phone as not enough storage space for it all, so likely a sd-card and a wee portable player – so sounds like I’ve got my solution…I think.

Not read every post so apologies if it’s been suggested already, but one idea is a smart watch that does music if you’re a smart watch inclined kind of person.

News to me, but, as it turns out, apple discontinuing the iPod isn’t the disaster I thought it would be.

It’s possible to transfer the music from your iTunes account to windows media player. Some caveats, tho.

Running windows 11, I opened windows media player, and it started uploading music from the external HDD on which my iTunes account resides.

I’ve been able to store the music (purchased via iTunes and from cd’s ripped to itunes) on my inexpensive MP3 player.*

Windows 11 doesn’t seem to recognise MP3 players that are plugged into the USB port.
So, I used the micro SD cards in the MP3 players to upload the music.

Works perfectly fine this way.
Windows 11 may recognise your MP3 player if it already has the drivers installed (Sansa clip?).

So that’s the caveat: it’s unlikely that your MP3 player will be acknowledged by windows 11, but a micro SD card will.

And in a strange twist, the music exists, quantum style, simultaneously in iTunes and WMP. It’s not like they’re mutually exclusive.

The lack of drivers for MP3 players for win11 seems to be a problem.
Usually with windows, it would try to search online for a suitable driver.🧐

* Deal: 80GB MP3 Player with Bluetooth, YOTON Portable Music Player with Clip, HiFi Sound, FM Radio, Stopwatch function, Voice Recorder, E-Book, Pedometer, Earphones and TF Card Included https://amzn.eu/d/89u0UdI

I got £9 off.

Hope that makes sense.

Cheers, handy to know…I’ve not progressed this much – after finally understanding how YouTube music (and I guess the likes of Spotify work) – I’d stupidly thought the files that were downloaded were .mp3 files…hadn’t understood it was a different format (or at least a specific form for the app). So once I’d clocked that I realised my original request wasn’t right.

I’ll get the MP3 player and stick my music on the card so I’ve got it all there – still prefer the idea of not filling the phone up with tunes – space is required for other junk and I try to keep the phone battery as full as possible whilst out and about as I also use the phone for medical stuff, so it doesn’t really get used whilst out riding.

The iphone doesn’t keep a charge now for more than 1 hour so the battery is well and truly gubbed.

My Bragi Dash headphones have internal storage (and music player)
watches have music storage
but like you say, most devices only handle native Mp3’s
i use google podcasts on my phone, im subscribed to a load of my favourite DJS, music downlaods automatically on wifi when a new episode is released ready for next time i need it

Can’t see it suggested, apologies if it is – have you looked at a Mighty ?

https://bemighty.com/

It lets you put your spotify (and also amazon music) playlist on a tiny device – which is great for running with. Not sure of the limit – I have about 6 different ones of 40 songs each without drama.

It will work with bluetooth headphones but its a bit fussy since it has no screen and can be confusing to keep paired. I just use cheap wired headphones and clip it to my t-shirt neckline and put the cable inside.

It’s been very reliable over the last few years considering the abuse it gets.

Never run out of power on a run – don’t use it on bike but you can of course use it with aftershokz if you want.

Read reviews for battery life etc

Didn’t I mention, you don’t need iTunes to manage an iPod
https://www.copytrans.net/copytransmanager/