How to Solve that Annoying USB iPhone Car Audio Problem for FREE

Thanks to Franklin Campbell

Lots of people are giving Samir Mezrahi 99-cents for a ten-minute track consisting of complete silence.  It’s in the top 50 on the iTunes download charts.

They are buying the track because it solves a pretty annoying problem in which when you connect your iPhone using USB many car audio systems will automatically begin playing the first track on the device in alphabetical order — in this case, the first track in your library that begins with A.

That’s why Mezrahi’s track is called ‘A a a a a Very Good Song’. It’s completely silent.

Because it is silent you don’t get annoyed by the first song in your library that begin with A always playing when you jump into your car.

Even if it is by Metallica…

Or Aallyah..

Or the Manic Street Preachers…

The problem with your system automatically playing the first track in your library that begins with A is that it DOES YOUR HEAD IN, and you need to change the music…

That’s why Mezrahi’s track is ten-minutes long,  it will play automatically and the duration gives you a chance to figure out what track you want to play.

So, here is how to create a ten-minute track of silence for free.

• Get your iPhone.
• Download and install GarageBand
• Pop a little tape over the bottom of the device where the microphone is.
• Open GarageBand and create a new voice track
• Hit record
• Leave it ten minutes and stop the recording
• In the GarageBand Project/Song browser select your new track and tap Share
• Tap iTunes, and select Song
• You’ll be given the chance to name your song, the artist and the album. Call them all A a a a a a a a a a Even Greater Song, and switch it to Low Quality.
• Tap Share and the song will be sent to iTunes next time you Sync your device with a Mac or PC
• When you do, look in the File Sharing area under the Apps tab in iTunes
• Click the GarageBand icon to see the song.
• Tap Get info and right-click the track, select “Get info”.
  In the “options” menu change ‘media kind’ to “Music” and check the title of the track is still ‘A a a a a a a a a a Even Greater Song’
• Now you must sync your device with your computer’s music library and the song will be the first in the list.

No wonder people gave the guy 99-cents.

What an insanely tedious task.

There really must — and I am certain there will — be an easier way — but in an ideal world you’d be able to do this on your iPhone, without using a computer at all.

Why can’t you just create, save and easily place a silent Voice Memo as a track in iTunes?

This story illustrates a problem that means Apple really should figure out how to make it easier for people to save recordings to their own iTunes music collections using iOS alone. No computer required.

Why not?

Oh, and by the way: Don’t even get me started on who owns the copyright to silence.

The world is mad.