How Much Empty Space Is On Your iPod?

from the but-think-of-the-possibilities... dept

When the first iPods came out, it was a revolution in terms of the amount of music that could be stored on a device that portable. Over the last few years, the size of the hard drive has only grown and grown, so that people can now store an absolutely amazing amount of music on their iPods. With all of that space, however, how much would you think most people store? According to one study, the average iPod users has only 375 songs on it, even as people keep buying the ones with bigger and bigger hard drives. Perhaps it's just the possibility of maybe (no, really!) one day being able to store more music that drives people. Update: As pointed out in the comments, the study concerns all MP3 players, not just iPods, which makes the number a little more understandable. However, it still seems likely that a lot of iPods have a lot of empty space.
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Reader Comments

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  • identicon
    ryan, 7 Sep 2005 @ 4:10am

    60gb and 0 free space

    60gb and 0 free space

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    eeyore, 7 Sep 2005 @ 4:19am

    vague market research

    Since they just say "MP3" players they don't differentiate between players with hard drives that can hold 10,000 tracks and players with 128 MB of memory or less that only hold less than 100 tracks. They also seem to be trying to conclude that people will want to use their cell phones to store digital music just because they download ringtones. Wrong.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      BillCo, 7 Sep 2005 @ 4:34am

      Re: vague market research

      If I could have my mobile phone that:
      (a) can store a serious amount of music in modern formats (MP3 is 15 years old and sounds it) and
      (b) can play back with serious quality and
      (c) has a usable interface and
      (d) can also be a good as a phone and
      (e) is not be an ugly brick THEN
      Yes!!! definately - I want that device. I would put my iPod and my phone on ebay and embrace convergance techonolgies... just show me where to sign!

      But I'm not holding my breath!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Nick Starr, 7 Sep 2005 @ 4:38am

    60 gigs and over filled

    I've had the 60 gig iPod since the day they came out a year ago, and it is over filled. Granted a lot is from podcasts, but I only keep the unplayed ones on it now and still am over the size of the iPod.

    100% of my music is from iTMS and AllofMp3, and thus paid for (in some fashion).

    It is about time that Apple release an 80 gig iPod if not a Video iPod. Time to bump the high end to appease up power users.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bob3000, 7 Sep 2005 @ 4:49am

    No Subject Given

    No need for the antisocial mp3 player - I'd never use it. I play music at home and in my car, I'm already set up there.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2005 @ 6:32am

    No Subject Given

    I have a 40GB iPod which is currently 65%-70% empty. But then I've only ripped about 40% of my CD's so it should end up being enough for that and a bit more.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    RANDDICKSON, 7 Sep 2005 @ 7:07am

    100% full & changed often

    I'm a Bob Dylan & Neil Young Fan. Their collections alone take up 70% of an Ipod. I'm constanting moving things around to accomadate other collections as well as a growing number of podcasts .. 200 - 300GB might get me to a 'static' state ... course by then the 'video' ipod will be out and I'll have to find room for all the episodes of the Simpsons.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    William C Bonner, 7 Sep 2005 @ 7:43am

    10 GB First Gen Ipod is full

    I've got a 10GB first Gen ipod. It's got about 100 MB free. I've got around 40GB of music, mostly from my own CDs, since I've been collecting CDs since 1985. I've got a 300 disk CD Changer and a 400 disk CD Changer that are what I listen to when I'm at home.

    I've been looking forward to buying a new IPod that can hold my entire music collection, but justifying spending $400 on replacing my portable music source has been hard since my current player works.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2005 @ 8:43am

    No Subject Given

    Look at the posts this story generated. The majority are just paraphrased 'look at me. My ipod makes me cool.'
    That's why un-needed massive storage space will sell very well.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lance Allen, 7 Sep 2005 @ 9:36am

    40GB Full

    My 40GB iPod is full. I have over 63GB of music on my computer. I would love an 80GB player.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2005 @ 9:46am

    No Subject Given

    the study actually says 504 songs per ipod on average.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Big Dog, 7 Sep 2005 @ 9:47am

    Becareful..

    We don't want to quote you a year from now and have you sounding like Bill Gates!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Elisa Camahort, 7 Sep 2005 @ 10:19am

    11770 songs and counting

    I've got a 60 GB iPod Photo. It's my third one as I consistently ran out of space. I've used about 46 GB.

    It is filled with 8GB of purchased music from iTMS plus about 800 CDs from my CD collection. I still have ~200 CDs left to rip.

    I also have podcasts and photos on there.

    Does that make me an extreme user? ;)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2005 @ 10:40am

      Re: 11770 songs and counting

      Wow, you are so fucking cool.




      Looser.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2005 @ 11:09am

        Re: 11770 songs and counting

        But he/she can spell.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2005 @ 11:18am

          Re: 11770 songs and counting

          "looser" is a generally accepted l33t spelling amongst the digirati.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Nona Moose, 7 Sep 2005 @ 12:19pm

            Re: 11770 songs and counting

            ["looser" (sic) is a generally accepted l33t spelling amongst the digirati.(sic)]

            You are the loser. You try to dismiss these folks as braggarts, then try to include yourself in a different status club. Who ever admits to being in the 'Digitari'?

            Bzzzzzt! Next!

            link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        eeyore, 7 Sep 2005 @ 12:02pm

        Re: 11770 songs and counting

        It's "loser," which apparently describes you pretty well.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Permanent4, 7 Sep 2005 @ 11:08am

    Something's wrong here

    Ummmm... the study itself says that 50% of all DAPs hold less than 100 songs, and only 25% of all DAPs hold more than 500 -- and those 25% would include microdrive players like the iPod mini, Rio Carbon and Creative Zen Micro.

    If ALL those players were taken into account in this study, then it only seems natural that the average number of songs per player is going to be skewed toward a low number. To imply that this means most people who own 20GB iPods are wasting money is a little disingenuous and borderline Dvorakian.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    fuzzmanmatt, 7 Sep 2005 @ 4:11pm

    iPod

    My iPod is a 40GB, I bought it before my original iMac went kaput on me, using it as an external drive. I got my PowerBook with it's 80GB drive, and still use the iPod as an external drive, though now it's got 3334 songs on it, taking up 16.69GB. It also has all my SouthPark on it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ryan, 26 Oct 2006 @ 8:58pm

    most people buy the bigger i pod because it has more batter life. they dont buy it for the space just the battery life.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dave, 24 Feb 2007 @ 4:35pm

    2 iPods full

    I have a 60 gig and a 30 gig. At first I only had the 60gig with both music and video. But as my video collection grew, I purchased and additional 30gig. As of today my 60 gig is just holding video...whicj includes 75 full 2hr movies and 175 half hour shows. My 30 gig is just about completely full with music and podcasts. What to do...buy another or figure out a way to some how live without some of my videos and music. Any suggestions

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Eh, 18 Mar 2007 @ 2:10pm

    I don't know about you people

    I don't know about you people but my hard drive will probably always be bigger than the drives on any of my mp3 players. Currently I have a 4th gen ipod (20), 2nd gen nano (4) and an Xdrum (1). I think I have around 80-100 gig of music/podcasts though. I am getting rid of the 4th gen, as well, so I was browsing looking for tips on selecting your best songs from your masses, but I guess people are not really having this problem.

    Anyway, as you might imagine by my getting rid of the player with the most space (And I am certainly not getting rid of my itsy Xdrum, it can do things that no ipod probably ever can and is tough as nails) I don't think we really need to access 100 gig of music and podcasts at any given time (but it's nice to have them available for when you do feel like hearing some of your less favorite stuff) so I am looking forward to some softwares that is leaps and bounds ahead of itunes in helping me select which music and podcasts I ACTUALLY feel like listening to these days. That would be much more useful to me than carrying around an unnecessarily massive hard drive.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Aimee-leigh Morris, 17 Nov 2007 @ 5:39am

    Ipod

    Does it let me do a master reset on the ipod?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Nov 2011 @ 7:21pm

    its funny reading this in 2011 where my outdated ipod class holds 120gb

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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