One of the most popular genre of shows on the television today are those featuring hoarders of all sorts. The people on these shows have houses completely full of things from cats to antiques to comic books to VHS recordings of other hoarding shows. In a way, some regular citizens could also be considered hoarders of something way more healthy – music. Everybody knows the frustration of going for a jog if you’ve only got 3 or 4 songs on your iPod or MP3 player, in fact it improves your time because you want to get home so you don’t have to listen to “Baby You’re My Angel” by Shaggy even one more time.

As a new friend turns you on to some Indie music or you rediscover your love for 80’s Hip Hop, your music library can get quite complete and thus comes the importance of backing up those tunes. Whether you lose your iPod or the data becomes corrupted, having a complete wipe out of the music that you’ve built up over the years can be devastating both emotionally and financially to the tune of 99 cents per song. Luckily, backing up your jams is relatively easy and way more painless than listening to Shaggy’s latest hit.

Here are some of the most popular ways:

Backing Up A Music Library Through iTunes

If you have an iPod Touch full of music, you’ve likely used iTunes to load up the device with all your favorite jams. If you’ve used a PC or laptop to transfer songs over to your iPod, then restoring the songs in case of corruption is much easier. If all your songs are stored on the PC or laptop, you’ll just need to re-sync the iPod to that computer after a reset or buying a new iPod.[easyazon-image align=”right” asin=”B00A40UGQO” locale=”us” height=”169″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31LScifO28L.jpg” width=”259″]

If you’ve acquired your music library over the years from a number of different resources, you’ll want to make sure to transfer all these songs to iTunes so that you can someday perform a restore quick and easily. That being said, if all your songs are on iTunes on a laptop, what happens if the laptop crashes, gets thrown out of a window, or gets set on fire? There are two ways to back up iTunes, depending on what version you’re running.

Apple® – iTunes $50 Gift Card

Back Up iTunes To A CD or DVD

Earlier versions of iTunes offer a built-in ability to back up the data to a recordable CD or DVD through File > Library > Back Up Disc. There are a number of options available within this menu including backing up songs only from iTunes and backing up only songs that have been added since the last back up.

Back Up With iTunes In The Cloud

Just as laptops can catch on fire and destroy your music collection, CD’s and DVD’s can be used as clay pigeon practice from the top of your ranch home’s roof. An emerging way to back up your songs purchased in iTunes is with “iTunes In The Cloud.” Basically, this service will let you re-download songs you’ve already purchased and will remember your iTunes music library. Unfortunately, if iTunes no longer offers the song, you’re out of luck…and that still leaves no answer for songs you’ve acquired outside of iTunes.

Back Up Music With Online Storage

Outside of “iTunes in the Cloud”, you can purchase online file storage if your music library is of extreme importance to you. You actually get a lot for your investment as storing your files online ensures they’ll be safe and it frees up space on your computer, making it run faster and making you more efficient. There is usually a monthly fee but this is by far the safest way to preserve your data.

Back Up Music With An External Hard Drive

Some people don’t like the privacy invasion of having their Celine Dion remastered jams available on the Internet with online backup storage and even though those companies are sworn to privacy, there are other options available. Purchasing an external hard drive gives you the ability to back up all the files on your computer, including the huge data of your music library. External hard drives are nice because they are portable and capable to back up multiple computers.

Using A USB To Back Up Small Music Libraries

A portable USB cable is also a viable option to back up your music because it is less expensive than an external hard drive. USB’s have a lesser capacity for data but using multiple USB’s can be great for transferring say all your jazz songs on one device and all your hard-core death metal on the other. USB’s are also great for trading and transferring songs between friends.

Whether music is your life passion or you just use songs on your headphones to drown out the sounds of horns honking as you jog down the middle of the freeway, it’s important to keep your tunes safe. Depending on how much you want to spend, there should be no excuse you shouldn’t enjoy a “Right Said Fred” jam even after a device crash.