I was never into music much prior to MP3s entering my life. When I buy a CD, I immediately rip it, put the CD in my bookcase and only touch it again if there’s something I need beneath it. The storage situation is now such that I don’t buy CDs that I want because I have to put them somewhere after ripping. So what do I do?
Sell them? Doesn’t seem ethical, and where I am it would be illegal to keep the MP3s afterwards.
Throw them away? Seems kinda… wrong. Burning a few might be entertaining but I imagine it would lose its luster rather quickly.
Or [url=http//www.operationquietcomfort.com. They’re always looking for CDs to include with toiletry bags for wounded soldiers. My emil is in my profile; PM me and I can give you directions on where to send them if you’d like.
Donate them to your public library. If you do this soon after you buy them and you itemize on your taxes, you may be able to deduct the full cost of the CDs from your taxes as a charitable deduction. Check with your tax advisor, though, as YMMV. And if you ever need to re-rip them again, why, just go to the library and check them out. BTW, you might circumvent the whole “buying a CD” process by checking your library’s collection for CDs you might want.
If you donate them or give them away, doesn’t that still make it illegal to have the MP3s? I think if anyone else has the use of the CDs then you don’t have the right to use the MP3s, so you need to either lock them away where no one else can access them or destroy them.
Probably. Not to promote illegal activities or anything, but while I would consider it wrong to sell them on, donating them… I could live with that, I think.
There are CD binders available at places that sell CDs or electronics stores. They’re three-ring binders with pockets that will hold the discs and booklets. You can get them in various storage capacities. The ones that hold 100-120 CDs are not much larger than the kind of three-ring binder kids carry to school, and take up a LOT less space than jewel boxes. If you recycle plastics, you can get rid of the jewel boxes that way.
The MP3s are still only legal while you are in possession of the originals. My advice? Stop buying CDs. Stash the ones you have in storage somewhere and start buying online. iTunes, eMusic, whatever. I subscribed to eMusic a few months back, and while they don’t have the license to sell from the big record companies (because they won’t agree to their per-song costs or high subscription fee requirements) they have tons of smaller labels on board and I’ve discovered quite a bit of cool stuff I’d never have discovered otherwise. And no CDs to deal with. Granted, no cool liner notes or anything, but I can usually find those along with cover art and stuff online through discogs.com or places like that. It keeps my iPod fed and happy, anyway.
