The Journey to MP3ia!

Last night, a vision came to me. A vision of physical media, of a better UI, of a user-focused technology.

Basically, I thought it'd be super cool to swap to using MP3's instead of spotify!

First order of business: how do I actually install the MP3's? I have premium, but it's a pain in the ass through the mouth to try to download music that way, so that was off the table. Obviously, I take to browsing reddit, low and behold I find this swanky little site that does exactly what I need:

https://cnvmp3.com/v23

Perfect, free, quick and easy! I love when things work out!

So, I go to youtube, and obviously, I download the entirety of the Sonic R soundtrack, which might be one of the best video game OSTs ever released. Everything's going nicely, then I look at the files and notice one little thing: the artist is wrong for every. single. file.

Well what the fuck do I do now? I can't click and edit it, am I just going to be stuck reading the wrong names and not giving the artists proper credit?

Woe, woe was me!

Oh, messing around with settings, nothing seems to be working, ah, it was the end- wait, what's the details button on the property tab?

Alright, I've got all the tracks numbered, the proper artists noted, and the song names corrected. Time to pop this bad boy into the media player and enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Hmmm, the songs are working, but that album cover isn't loading. Oh well, it'll work any second!

...Anyyy second.

......Come on now.

Didn't pop up. Fuck. There was no place to change the image file in the property tab, and changing it through the media player itself does fuck all.

It's over. Absolutely, unequivocally over. I gently closed my laptop, stepped outside, and shed a manly single tear. Then I realized that I was being a drama queen, slapped my ass back inside and got to WERK!

By this point in time I'd chugged an energy drink, and I was fully invested. page upon page, error report upon error report, nothing seemed to do the trick.

Wait. I'm not thinking like a true MP3 head! I go to the last page of google, and click on... the forums. Instantly, my savior is found. Someone had the exact same issue ten years ago, and so quaintly asked for help. Yes! YES! All I need to do is install this little app called "Mp3tag" and I'm home free!

I select the album, I import my new image, and I prepare for war. Shakily, I clicked on the media player, and selected the album tab. I scrolled down, and there it was: my beautiful album, repping its magnificent cover art. Huzzah!!!

Ah, what a night! Whew! Now I'm a true MP3 head! I can own whatever music I want, and no one can take it away from me!

hm. This media player, it's kinda boring. It also sucks to use. Wait, whenever I've typed it into the windows search bar, there's always been this "legacy" thing that pops up. Since I'm already avoiding my midterms, why not check it out?

I install it, and the most beautiful UI to ever grace my eyes appears. Gorgeous light grays and silvers, buttons accented with a gradiented blue and, what's this? Genres? Years? RATINGS???? How have I been missing this my entire life?!

Wait. The size of the album art. It's wrong. It's stretched. Why is it stretched.

BACK TO STAGE ONE!!!! I search, and I search, and I search. Since I'm already this far down the rabbit hole, I might as well only use album art that can fit on my dad's old zune. Hmmm, 600x600, I can do that!

Boot up the old GIMP, and give that scale tool a whirl! Not bad at all, just export it and use my original method to replace the album art. Okay, should work!

Nothing's showing up again.

What the fuck?

I scroll forums, I search, I wrap my head around all of the life choices that have led me to do this at 3 in the morning with a class at 9:30, just 6 and a half hours later, I scroll forums again, then I find one sly little remark in the middle of a long post that says "progressive JPEGs suck, never use them."

Progressive? The insurance company? How have I never heard of this before? (if you're really curious, look back at the beginning of this post!) I go to gimp, I export the image as 600x600, but before clicking confirm, I hit advanced options. It was right there! The whole time! THE WHOLE TIME!!!!!

I smack open that Mp3tag app, I change that icon, and I thrust open the legacy player with the might of ten bears, refreshing the album to make absolutely sure that the changes I made went through.

And there it was.

The cover.

The beautiful, beautiful cover.

The clock struck 4, and my work was done. After a journey rivaled only the the Journey to the West, I had finally reached the kingdom of the MP3. All the tags are correct, all the sounds sound nice, and all of the covers are vibrant.

Thank you, readers, for joining me as I recollected my tale fraught with danger, dispair, and a gleaming pile of treasure!