It's 2025, and I still listen to music the iPod way

Summary

Music streaming apps are immensely popular, owing to the convenience and artist discoverability they can provide.
For as great as services like Spotify and Apple Music are, I always keep a supply of local music files on my phone.
Here’s why, even in 2025, I enjoy living the traditional iPod lifestyle.

In 2025, music streaming apps are well and truly ubiquitous. The sheer convenience that comes with having instant and on-demand access to millions of songs is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal are excellent tools for discovering new songs and artists, creating tailor-made playlists, and sharing tunes with friends and family.

I’ve personally been subscribed to Spotify for the better part of a decade, and, aside from unfortunate price hikes, I don’t regret my decision. That being said, I don’t exclusively rely on Spotify — rather, I supplement my music streaming habits with a hearty dose of good old-fashioned local playback. I’m aware that this is an oddity in today’s streaming-first world, but, as far as I’m concerned, there’s a method to my madness.

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Music streaming is great, but I prefer living the iPod life

I value ownership of digital files, no internet requirements, and better sound quality

Apple iPod nano 5th gen and iPod nano 7th gen

iPod nano (5th generation)

Apple released the 5th generation iPod nano in 2009, and it built upon its predecessor by including a bigger display, a built-in camcorder, and a new set of colorways.

For all the merits that come with music streaming, and for as much as I enjoy listening to tunes via my Spotify app, I’ve opted not to entirely transition my music-listening habits over to streaming. Rather, I maintain a collection of local music files on my solid state drive (SDD), of which I load many onto my Google Pixel 9 Pro. I’ve elected to do this for several reasons: in order to ensure ownership of my music collection, to always have offline access to my tracks, and to benefit from the best audio quality possible.

I value ownership of media, and this extends to my music collection. In exchange for convenience, Spotify and other streamers require the surrendering of ownership in favor of fee-based rental access to tracks. For songs and albums that I particularly love (often ones that I discover through Spotify), I go ahead and download them as local music files for my own peace of mind.

In a sense, I’ve never fully let go of the iPod and MP3 player era.

Most music streaming services make it easy enough to temporarily download music for offline access, but this doesn’t satisfy my desire for true ownership, nor does it ensure access to the best quality audio files. Sure, Apple Music now supports lossless audio playback, but I already have a collection of FLAC files ready to go on my SSD.

In a sense, I’ve never fully let go of the iPod and MP3 player era of the 2000s, and I’m entirely content with my hybrid streaming-plus-local-music setup.

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The iPod is what (nostalgic) dreams are made of

I miss the tried-and-true click wheel interface

Pocket-lint / Apple

My Classic

My Classic looks like an app that emulates a Game Boy, but once you input a special code, it transforms itself into an iPod Classic.

While I’d love to use an actual iPod or dedicated MP3 player on a full-time basis, I’m hamstrung by several factors. My own iPod nano 5th generation suffers from battery bloat, rendering it unsafe to use. Meanwhile, my iPod nano 7th generation still boots up, but it lacks the iconic click wheel interface that I have so much reverence for.

There’s nothing quite like scrolling through a library of music via the click wheel — the tactility, the sound effects, the simple and effective design — it’s the ideal setup for portable music consumption. As an aside, there’s a wonderful iPhone app called My Classic that emulates the traditional iPod experience, while tapping into Apple Music. I can only imagine how excellent a modernized Apple-made click wheel would theoretically turn out, complete with haptic feedback and more.

Best offline music players for Android header image

Ditch Spotify and relive your iPod glory days with offline Android music players

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Gramophone is my current music app of choice

There’s an endless selection of local music playback apps, particularly when it comes to Android

Gramophone

Gramophone is an offline music-playing app for Android that focuses on providing a clean and intuitive user interface, local music file organization tools, and dynamic Material You theming.

I’m primarily an Android user, and so My Classic isn’t an app that I have access to at all times. I’ve tested out a number of third-party music apps designed with local playback in mind, and my current favorite of the lot has got to be Gramophone.

The Gramophone app has a lovely and minimalistic user interface, while tapping into Google’s dynamic Material You theming engine (take that, YouTube Music). The app is full-featured, with tons of sorting and organizational tools to help me keep track of my local music files.

Other Android-based music players that I’m particularly fond of include:

I can’t imagine ever fully parting ways with my local music file collection. I’ll continue to use Spotify, certainly, but the era of music streaming hasn’t phased me one bit. The era of the iPod may be in the past, but in my mind, it lives on through local music playback apps, ownership of my digital music files, and the occasional nostalgic boot up of my trusty old iPod nano.