When you added the album to your iPod, was it separate files for every song, or was it one big file with a .cue file?
Concerning the long track duration, are you playing a single FLAC plus a Cuesheet? That would be my guess for why the duration is freaking out.
DID I HEAR A RULE AND STONE!?
150,000 track collection owner here.
CDs are king, but the cost adds up. A lot of artists I follow are on Bandcamp, which I use to purchase my music. I assume everything I buy there will eventually be removed, so I don't rely on them for archiving it.
But then, there's the piracy route, which I do for a good portion of my library. Rutracker is absolutely fantastic for lossless. Soulseek is solid, but you gotta use it in a smart way for some releases. Some keywords don't turn up any results for some reason. So, to find certain albums/artists, try searching for a particular song, then browse by folder on those results to find full albums, if that makes sense.
Why not use Qobuz or Deezer to rip music? Qobuz-dl and Deemix let you rip FLAC from those services if you have a streaming acct. I use Deemix with my Deezer acct to download a TON of music I cant find anywhere else.
Its a lot of work, I agree. But it's doable. At this point, as services get shittier, pirate. They need to learn that as their services get shittier, people will leave. Give them a financial reason to get better ;)
LMS would fit the bill perfectly. LMS, or Lyrion Music Server, formerly known as Logitech Media Server, is open source software that's been given to the community by Logitech themselves. It used to be used to stream music from your computer to Squeezebox devices, but now you can stream it to nearly any computer, including...
Raspberry pis! By using piCorePlayer, you can turn your pi into a server for LMS, a player, or both at the same time!
I've been using LMS for years and can't praise it enough. I've got whole house audio. My server runs on a Pi 4 and streams music from my NAS, but you can even stream it from a connected drive, Spotify, Deezer, or Qobuz!
Also, don't fret about LMS's...dated...UI. There's robust themes out there, including the legendary Material Skin https://github.com/CDrummond/lms-material
Since you can use a Pi, you can connect any amp and speakers to it. Hifiberry makes great DACs that you could use for a cleaner sound, but any modern USB DAC would do well IMO.
You can still get Squeezeboxes cheaply on eBay, BTW. The Squeezebox Boom and Radio both are all-in-one WiFi enabled devices that can connect to your LMS server and stream music. Their sound quality is excellent, even for 10+ year old hardware.
If you have any questions, hit me up or check out the forums: https://forums.slimdevices.com/
This is exciting! Can't wait to kill my install by trying to upgrade!
I'm using Reolink E1 Zoom cameras. My router's firewall keeps them offline, and I manage everything through HomeAssistant. Very happy with my experience on a budget
But, it doesn't? I have yet to log into a Google account
Storage is cheap, and music (even in FLAC format) is small. You can fit tens of thousands of songs into a terabyte.
I download anything and everything. An artist I enjoy? Entire discography. I've only heard one song? Entire discography--there may be more I might enjoy! An artist in a genre I like but I've never heard? Entire discography.
I'm at over 125k songs, and I still feel like my collection is a sliver. I eventually want to reach 1m songs and truly become my own Spotify. Finding songs I've never heard before and that I end up loving in my own collection is a joy I can't describe.
I went away for a few hours, wow, all the replies! Thanks all!
I ended up going with a refurbished T480s. Wanted something I could upgrade memory/storage on. The form factor and the metal case also sounded appealing. Should have it in a week.
Logitech media server, every day of the week. Despite its name, it is open source and in the hands of the community. Then, with cdrummond's Material Skin and LMS Android Wrapper, it's next level good. I can't ever imagine going back
Edit: if hosting the server on a RPI, check out piCorePlayer. It can host your server and also serve as a player simultaneously
DRG is the best answer