Jim Willis

Author: sjwillis

  • Quickly Share Marvis settings across devices

    I was struggling to keep my Marvis player settings in sync across multiple iOS devices and landed on this really low friction solution: Go to Settings->Advanced->Export Settings and then use the share sheet the pops up to AirDrop the file to your secondary devices. The receiving device will automatically open the file in Marvis and…

  • Apple Music Library Organization & Marvis

    A few weeks ago I began using an iOS app called Marvis (which, I cannot recommend enough for helping to organize and find albums/playlists in your Apple Music). Using Marvis, I’ve created a few rule/filter sets that help me surface albums I haven’t listened to in a while. However, what I am finding is a…

  • The Tyranny of the Filing Cabinet

    I have been thinking a lot about the relative merits of two different ways of storing files: a robust and well-executed hierarchical folder/file system vs tagging/metadata files. I’m thinking about this in the context of a work project but also in light of something L.M. Sacacas wrote a while back in, A World Ordered Only…

  • 2021 Year End Music Review

    Started writing this in my journal but figure it’s probably something share-worthy, here’s a quick look at what I listened to in 2021. Planning on using last.fm this year to better track this stuff. Telecaster/Guitar music Earlier this year during lockdown I picked up a very nice used American Telecaster. I love it. It’s the…

  • iOS and Last.fm

    Really a bummer that iOS makes it so tricky to log listening to last.fm. While on vacation this week I haven’t been sitting at my computer that much and have been doing a bunch of listening on my iPhone and iPad and very little of what I’ve listened to is showing up in my log…

  • Support artists, buy vinyl?

    I’ve been buying albums from new artists for the past year or so. If I find myself repeatedly listening to a new release on Spotify or Apple Music, I buy the record. It’s usually about $30 w/ shipping which is steep but I’ve long suspected that the margin is pretty good for the artist so,…

  • Getting better at tracking listening

    I use this service called readwise that helps me remember what I read. I’ve posted about it before.  Anyway, it occurs to me that I really need something similar for my listening. Like, what artists have I recently followed in Spotify or tracks I’ve dug Apple Music, etc. I think there’s probably some way to…

  • Focus mode for musicians on iOS

    I’m sure there are a bunch of really excellent use cases for the new focus mode in iOS but this one that I created yesterday is a total game-changer for me. On so many occasions I’ve been playing guitar or recording something in garage band and had a phone call or text interrupt the recording…

  • AirPlay 2 on Shairport

    This is still in its infancy but it’s fantastic to see AirPlay 2 support making its way into Shairport/Linux. I haven’t tested this yet as I’ve been buying old AirPort Express (amazingly, they support AirPlay 2) devices to replace my Raspberry Pi’s but it’ll be fun to pull out a raspberry pi and try to…

  • Long Form Article Reading on Kindle, Improved

    Over the past year I’ve been using a service called Readwise.io to surface highlights from books I read on my Kindle and from articles I read on my iPad using Instapaper. The service has its flaws but all in all has been useful to me in helping me to remember what I’ve read and found…