Those who know me are aware that I’m in a quandary regarding how I listen to my music. At present I have an extensive iTunes library (about 13,000 tracks) which lives, at present, on an external disk connected to an iBook. The music is on an iBook rather than my main G4 because the G4 is just too noisy to keep on all the time and I can here it underneath my office in the lounge. My music used to be on our office server but we needed more space there so that’s one of the reasons why the music came off it.

I also have a Slimp3 device in the lounge. This, combined with SlimServer on the iBook, allows me to wirelessly stream music from the iBook to the lounge, so I’ve no need to keep CDs handy. Running SlimServer on our office server was a bit too clunky for me which is the second reason the music is now on the iBook.

My quandaries are plentiful:

• At present, SlimServer doesn’t stream files bought from the iTunes Music Store (FairPlay protected AAC). I doubt any time soon that it will do. So when I buy music I have to rip to CD and re-import as MP3s. It actually turns me off buying music from the store. All that convenience to buy music – then the hassle to convert it so I can listen to it elsewhere.

• But, Airport Express streams wirelessly from iTunes and iTunes transcodes all music into Apple Lossless Format before sending it encrypted and securely to the Airport Express. So, why not get an Airport Express instead? Well, they don’t come with a remote control and iTunes can only stream to one of these devices at any one time. If I bought one, I’m sure I’d want to get another one for my kitchen. They’re nice and small. I don’t fancy running upstairs to change destinations. SlimServer can stream to multiple Slimp3 devices simultaneously – even different streams. And, synchronised playback of streams is handled, so you don’t hear the music in the lounge 2 seconds before you hear it in the kitchen.

• Then there’s the Sonos system. This is coming in the autumn and supports multiple streaming, just like SlimServer. You can buy a remote control for it too. Just like the Slimp3 devices. But that doesn’t support protected AACs either. And it’s rather expensive because it’s designed to be used standalone with powered speakers. Grrr..

So I have no preferred solution. Just a bunch of imperfect options. I asked in an earlier entry on this site why people accept things that are just okay. The alternative question is why do people accept anything less than perfect? Each of the above solutions and products are more than okay. They’re damn good. Pity is they’re not perfect.

My current iBook set-up is, at present, just okay. I need a bigger disk at some point – and that’s a whole new ball game (assessing capacity, noise, number of ports, fans). But I needed something to let me play music on my G4.

Fortunately, iTunes allows you to share from one instance of iTunes to any number of others. Whilst sharing Smart Playlists is a bit touch and go, sharing an entire library is a breeze. So, I can access all of my music from the iBook and play it through the G4. But I cannot buy music on my G4, unless I then move it back to the iBook. Nor can I fiddle with my iPod which needs to be connected to the iBook so I can update its content from the music library. However, there’s a product called netTunes which lets me drive iTunes remotely. This is essentially a clever, application specific, VNC. It’s all written in Objective-C and Cocoa, so PC users won’t see a version for them. Importantly it does work. This morning I just updated my iPod whilst sitting at my G4. My quandaries still remain, but at least for the moment I’m a happy bunny.