# Who has ditched their entire CD collection? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 13, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390 "2009-11-13T00:53:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pulp\_Friction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2acd7d/32.png) [@Pulp\_Friction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pulp_Friction)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/1 "2009-11-13T00:53:53Z")
…and settled for just the digital versions? I see a lot of collections going up on ebay, and I assume that is what many of these folks have done. Makes sense, in a way; I could sell all my CDs, buy tons more with the proceeds, digitalize all these, rinse, lather, repeat. Problem is, I _like_ owning the discs. Not sure I would want to part with them. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/2 "2009-11-13T01:00:24Z")
I sold about half my collection a couple years ago. I sold a little more than half of the remaining collection a couple weeks ago. But I still do keep a few. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/3 "2009-11-13T01:02:18Z")
I haven’t actually ditched them but I’ve burned them all to mp3, and the physical copies sit in a box. Haven’t touched them in years. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/4 "2009-11-13T01:17:45Z")
I still have all the cds I own…somewhere. I think they’re in the garage. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/5 "2009-11-13T01:25:29Z")
I haven’t touched my CDs, but I prefer the MP3 versions on iPod now. I hang on to my CDs though, for a few reasons: [ul] [li]My wife is somewhat of a technological luddite. (Even though I’ve been a techno-geek for almost 30 years now, still love her to death). She prefers CDs (and I actually got her a clock radio with a CD player for her birthday once, and we wanted a car with a CD player in it when we went car shopping a few years ago).[/li][li]I like mix CDs. Most of my CDs (at least of the ones I listened to regularly) - heck even going back to my cassette tape days, were “mixes”. When I make mixes I like getting very creative with the cover art and track listings. Can’t do that on an MP3 collection. Sure, you can use the cover art on an iPod album listing (which I do, I don’t like the default “grey music note” graphic, I take that as a challenge! 😉 ) but if I get creative with the track listing (like making the track listing of my TV Themes CD look like a old-fashioned TV listings page, complete with channel numbers for tracks; or a CD of “road songs” with the track listing being a highway sign with the track numbers looking like state/provincial highway markers from 21 different states and provinces we’ve been to (one for each of the 21 tracks); or my CD of movie themes where the track listing is [made to resemble a movie theatre marquee](http://www.redkid.net/generator/marquee/sign.php). If iPod finds a way where we can make custom track listings, I’d be more amenable.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/6 "2009-11-13T01:29:49Z")
Are you kidding? I still have LPs. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/7 "2009-11-13T01:31:31Z")
We’re about to digitize them. Can I ask for advice? We have about fifteen hundred or so. In addition to commercial CDs, there are about six or seven hundred (legal) live CDs (Grateful Dead, Parliament, SCI … ). Most of them show up on CDDB, and most are lossless. Then there are a solid number of mix CDs, mostly MP3s. How to make the transfer? We’d really rather not spend the hundred or so hours ripping ourselves, but are unsure how to weight the various services out there. Make two or three piles (one for MP3s, one for lossless, one for mixes) and make three transactions? Are there services that will handle the live recordings? Any recommendations as to who? ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/8 "2009-11-13T01:41:27Z")
It’s funny you ask this - I’ve been having trouble because iTunes, my iPod and my QDrive external drive are not getting along well at the moment. I store everything on the external drive to save room on the hard drive of my computer; everything is saved in a CD-quality format. I need to (somehow) save the library information from iTunes (I have entered all the CD data by hand because I’m very particular about how everything should be filed.), uninstall and then reinstall iTunes. Not looking forward to this little task, but at present, iTunes will hang the entire laptop such that the only way to shut the computer down and start again is to hit and hold the power button. Not a good way to maintain the integrity of my music collection. All this is by way of saying, as I walked home tonight and J. J. Johnson’s Blue Note album was clicking and crunching at the beginning of several tracks, I found myself thinking “Thank God I’m not stupid enough to have got rid of the CDs or the vinyl. F^%$ng technology!” ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/9 "2009-11-13T01:49:20Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > We’re about to digitize them. Can I ask for advice? > > We have about fifteen hundred or so. In addition to commercial CDs, there are about six or seven hundred (legal) live CDs (Grateful Dead, Parliament, SCI … ). Most of them show up on CDDB, and most are lossless. Then there are a solid number of mix CDs, mostly MP3s. > > How to make the transfer? We’d really rather not spend the hundred or so hours ripping ourselves, but are unsure how to weight the various services out there. Make two or three piles (one for MP3s, one for lossless, one for mixes) and make three transactions? Are there services that will handle the live recordings? Any recommendations as to who? With Itunes on a Mac, all you have to do is put the disc in and make one click, and it will rip it for you. It tells you when it’s done with a chime noise. I imagine Itunes for Windows will do the same. They will even find the track names and artwork online automatically, for most common albums. I don’t really see any point in paying someone to do it, if that’s what you’re talking about. Just keep stacks of CDs next to the computer and do it in the background while you’re doing other stuff. You should rip at least to 128K AAC (if you’re using Itunes, Ipods etc) or 160 or 192K MP3 for a wider variety of devices. Higher if you have room to spare. An album in 128K AAC takes up between 30 and 60 megabytes. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/10 "2009-11-13T02:03:21Z")
I have my 400+ CDs ripped to Apple Lossless on our Mac Mini media system. I still have the CDs in storage. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/11 "2009-11-13T02:14:09Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Are you kidding? I still have LPs. 33s…45s…78s…Bah! [Edison cylinders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_cylinder') are the only way to go. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/12 "2009-11-13T02:19:01Z")
I keep mine–just in case, of the comp crashing or whatnot. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/13 "2009-11-13T05:12:54Z")
My original discs are all in cold storage. I’ve ripped pretty much everything to iTunes, but I’m a bit worried about that. I better back it all up on CDs to be safe. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/14 "2009-11-13T05:25:48Z")
I mostly have. If am going to collect a physical media version of something, that’s what vinyl is for. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/15 "2009-11-13T05:32:07Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I keep mine–just in case, of the comp crashing or whatnot. Heheh. I thought you were going to say in case of the zombie apocalypse. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/16 "2009-11-13T05:46:36Z")
> [@](#): > > 33s…45s…78s…Bah! Edison cylinders are the only way to go. You call that fidelity? I keep all my favorite musicians tied up in my basement so I can make them perform for me whenever I want. Except for the ones I keep in my trunk for when I’m driving. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/17 "2009-11-13T05:49:37Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Heheh. I thought you were going to say in case of the zombie apocalypse. Well, that too. Never know what you’ll need to hurl at zombies when they come for you. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/18 "2009-11-13T06:01:57Z")
I just listen to the radio. ---
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/19 "2009-11-13T06:56:42Z")
Got rid of all the cd’s and all the LP’s…and strangely enough, in that order. Once they’re gone, you don’t miss them. I’m strictly digital now. It’s all good. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390/20 "2009-11-13T07:03:27Z")
I haven’t, because the way Spanish copyright laws are set up, the easiest way to prove that my mp3 collection is legal is being able to take the pile of CDs to show to the cops. Given that there have been things like cops at traffic stops taking away home-copied CDs and MP3-filled disks, it’s… sort of like the Spanish version of keeping your tickets for tax purposes (which I don’t need to do). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-ditched-their-entire-cd-collection/517390.md?page=2)