# I have my iTunes backed up sufficiently, correct? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2011, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-my-itunes-backed-up-sufficiently-correct/590072 "2011-07-23T10:46:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-my-itunes-backed-up-sufficiently-correct/590072/1 "2011-07-23T10:46:56Z")
I’m in the process of burning all 450+ of my CDs into iTunes on my Mac so that I can get that massive load of space-hogging packaging out of my life (I hope to sell them and get a fair price- I have what I think is a decent collection). I have an external hard drive that has a partition to which my Mac does daily backups, and I also use Backblaze backup service to store offsite in case my external goes titsup. I’m sufficiently protected so that I will never lose my music collection, correct? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-my-itunes-backed-up-sufficiently-correct/590072/2 "2011-07-23T11:54:46Z")
You should be OK (with the proviso that off-site backup services have failed in the past). I wouldn’t be too optimistic about selling your CD collection, though. Because so many people have gone to MP3, the market for second-hand CDs has totally crashed. If you sell in bulk you might get the equivalent of $0.50 to $1 a CD, individually you should be able to get a little more on eBay or Amazon but you’ll have all the hassle of listing them. (I won’t go into the legal niceties of selling the CDs but keeping the music, but no doubt people will tell you it’s technically no different from piracy) ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-my-itunes-backed-up-sufficiently-correct/590072/3 "2011-07-23T17:00:31Z")
I’ll just say what Colophon didn’t: It is illegal to sell your CDs and keep all the music in another form. I couldn’t care less about that part and I doubt you do either. Nor is it likely that anyone will. But I still wouldn’t bother trying to sell the CDs. As he/she said nobody wants CDs anymore. Nobody. Secondhand doubly so. And since you already have them keep them for what they’ve become, a long term backup storage medium. Think of them as those big reel to reel tapes computer rooms used to library. Hard drives crash, local and ones in “the cloud” so the only way to be 100% safe is to keep copies on a nonvolatile medium. Aluminum OEM CDs won’t actually last forever (far from it) and burned CD-Rs even less so, but so far they seem to last a good while. So the best value they have for the foreseeable future is as backups… ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-my-itunes-backed-up-sufficiently-correct/590072/4 "2011-07-24T07:24:38Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > As he/she said nobody wants CDs anymore. Nobody. This is not true - there are plenty of collectors out there and regular music fans who would still rather buy a CD than an mp3. If “nobody wants CDs anymore” why are they still making them? As for how much the OP might get, I guess that depends on whether there’s any rare stuff in his/her collection. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-my-itunes-backed-up-sufficiently-correct/590072/5 "2011-07-24T09:24:18Z")
> [@multimediac17](#): > > This is not true - there are plenty of collectors out there and regular music fans who would still rather buy a CD than an mp3. If “nobody wants CDs anymore” why are they still making them? > > As for how much the OP might get, I guess that depends on whether there’s any rare stuff in his/her collection. It’s more that, unless they are rare or otherwise special, no one really wants secondhand CDs anymore. The people who are willing to pay more for a physical disk tend to not want to risk CDs that won’t play. ---
**Author:** ![velvetjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f9b8f/32.png) [@velvetjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velvetjones)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-my-itunes-backed-up-sufficiently-correct/590072/6 "2011-07-24T12:31:23Z")
My husband and I had a fairly large CD collection (300+) that we moved into two giant CD binders freeing up an enormous bookshelf. We still have the discs and the liner notes but not the jewel cases which take up all the space. He likes to have the artwork, etc. You might consider that as an alternative. ---
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-my-itunes-backed-up-sufficiently-correct/590072/7 "2011-07-24T13:43:19Z")
I didn’t realize that by copying them and selling them, I’m in essence pirating. Hmmm, well, I don’t want to throw them in the trash. Maybe I can donate them or something. I thought about losing the CD case and doing the album storage thing, but I have a feeling it would be one more thing I’d never bother with again. I’m not sure what the likelihood is that I would ever lose anything in my iTunes and have to replace it if I’m backing it all up 2 ways…