# How Much Music Do You Have on Your PC? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-music-do-you-have-on-your-pc/220070 "2003-12-19T23:27:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-music-do-you-have-on-your-pc/220070/21 "2003-12-20T14:47:37Z")
**Chavardz** , don’t worry, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that the music industry [can’t force ISP’s to turn over information](http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3758771&p1=0) about illegal downloaders. Man, the RIAA keeps losing, don’t they?? I’ve got approx. 2240 mp3s = 14.4GB, about 1/3 of which are legit. I’m a stickler for high bitrates (192+) so the average file size (6.43mb) is quite high. Most of the not-so-legit stuff is rare demos and OOP albums. And that doesn’t count the 928mb of mp3s used exclusively for my Sims game. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-music-do-you-have-on-your-pc/220070/22 "2003-12-20T15:17:47Z")
I have about 30 gigs, ripped from about 100 CDs. It’s so high because I rip the wav with EAC and then encode using the alt-preset-extreme setting for very high variable bit encoding. ---
**Author:** ![Profane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-music-do-you-have-on-your-pc/220070/23 "2003-12-20T16:01:54Z")
I have about 10 gigs, and that’s only about 10% of my CD collection. I have many many many long hours of ripping left to go. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-music-do-you-have-on-your-pc/220070/24 "2003-12-20T17:50:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KGS \* > \*\ ***Chavardz** , don’t worry, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that the music industry [can’t force ISP’s to turn over information](http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3758771&p1=0) about illegal downloaders. Man, the RIAA keeps losing, don’t they?? > \*\* You’re misinterpreting, KGS. The ruling yesterday (as defined on All Things Considered) simply requires the RIAA to get a judge to sign off on a subpeona. Previously they could demand one from a Clerk of the Court. So all yesterday’s ruling did was require them to get a friendly judge (and they’ll have them) to sign off on it. Then it’s back in the dock for the sharers. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-music-do-you-have-on-your-pc/220070/25 "2003-12-21T22:25:17Z")
3331 songs, 10.3 days. All legit copies ripped from CDs I physically possess. And I haven’t even started on the 150 or so classical CDs. Took close to three weeks to rip 400 or so CDs, but now I can: A: get the CDs out of the living room and… B: contemplate selling them in order to… C: buy a “media adapter” that will play MP3s on the main stereo D: get an iPod ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-music-do-you-have-on-your-pc/220070/26 "2003-12-21T22:33:01Z")
Can I get symphonies, operas, Broadway musicals, etc downloads like people get free pop downloads? If so, how do I do it? ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-music-do-you-have-on-your-pc/220070/27 "2003-12-22T00:06:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Can I get symphonies, operas, Broadway musicals, etc downloads like people get free pop downloads? If so, how do I do it? -You get whatever file-trading program you choose, and then you search for them by artist name or title, just like anything else. … - I got about 110 CD’s I paid for and maybe another 150 or so downloaded songs. Total space is about 8.5 gigs, but I ripped my own CD’s at 160 KB/sec. The downloaded stuff is at whatever it came in on. … As much as it is illegal, I have found it to be true what file-sharing advocates say, however (at least in my own case): the only music that is casually traded is music people wouldn’t have paid for anyway. If I like an artist enough to go searching for very much of their music I usually end up buying their CD’s anyway because I want a higher-quality copy. The problem I have with buying legit CD’s is that many of the songs I would like to have are late 70’s/80’s/early 90’s stuff that’s no longer in print–so there’s no way I can get a legit CD of it now–the record companies don’t print it anymore. ~ ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-music-do-you-have-on-your-pc/220070/28 "2003-12-22T00:47:06Z")
Thank you DougC. Looks like it’s not worth the trouble. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-music-do-you-have-on-your-pc/220070.md?page=1)