Anybody digitize their entire CD collection?
 

I'm about to start the process of converting all of my CD's (and some old albums) to mp3, even bought a new hard drive for the sole purpose of archiving all of these files. I want to eventually sell off my collection to make more room (they currently spill over into the baby's room). Then, if I ever want to listen to one of the CD's, just burn it to a CD-RW so I can erase and burn another when I get tired of it. Has anyone else done this? Would this be legal? I bought the music initially, so am I not entitled to keep it via MP3?

Nope. Once you sell it, you no longer own the original recording and shouldn't have the "copy" you made.

No, if you sell it you lose the license to have the mp3, so it's technically illegal.

I've digitized almost my whole collection (just a few live albums I haven't got around too yet).

I have no intentions of getting rid of the cds though as they simply sound better, are nice for the car, and I like having the actual disc and booklet.

....I haven't gotten rid of my collection, simply because cd's sound better than mp3's. But I have digitized it all, even had to get an external hard-drive. Right now I'm at about 138 Gigs total.

I recently bought an external hard drive and did this as well. Took forever. I would take about 20-25 cd's to work everyday and rip them. I have close to 1,000 so it took a few weeks.

I have my entire CD collection on my 40GB mp3 player, and have no intention of getting rid of my CD's, for the reasons mentioned above.

That and hard drives can get corrupted or crash. The you would left with absolutely nothing at all. The CD's are the backup, not the files.

It took me about a month or so to do it two years ago. I have about 50GB worth(bout 500-600 discs).

I keep about 400 in boxes in my closet. I'm going to start whittling that other 200 down to about 75-100 of my most played discs. The less clutter lying around the better.

I actually have my music ripped and copied to two external drives. Ripping them all was such a hassle I would hate to see that HD crash w/o a backup. I use the second one at work. Everytime I buy a new cd I rip it to both, that way if one crashes I still have the other.

I do remember reading about an online service that will do it for you. Pretty handy if you don't want to mess with it.

no - but I have thrown almost all of the jewel cases away, they were simply taking up way to much space.

I'm about 75% done digitizing my CDs. I'm also getting rid of the jewel cases and putting the CDs in binders, to keep as backups.

Hmm, placing the CD's in binders may be my solution as well. Where can you buy CD sleeves in bulk for 3 ring binders?

Yep, just recently did this and hooked it up to my home theater. Love having every song at the tip of my fingers without having to go through my collection and load cd's.

This is my goal someday too. Would you mind sharing some more details of how you did this? I'm good with computers but not with merging them with a stereo system. :)

-Gunshy

I have over 300 CDs, all of em now are on my Mac and I listen to my entire collection on random, pretty much anytime I'm home. When I buy a new CD, first thing I do is put it in iTunes :) I listen to the CD itself in the car for a while, but thanks to my iPod, my collection comes with me in the car too. I still don't mind buying CDs but they really are just collecting dust now :( Plus I need em for backups in case my hard drive dies :)

I have a 400 disc CD changer, which is also collecting dust now.

I kinda wonder sometimes if there'd be an interest in my collection if I were to ebay it. But, there's a lot of discs that are way out of print and prolly never coming back, and I'd hate to part with em.

Do you mean how I hooked it up to my HT? If so, all I did was output a digital coaxial cable from my sound card to my receiver. Not all sound cards have a digital out, but they should have an analog output if not a digital.

I'm not good at that tech stuff either. The easiest, most low tech way to do it (which you're probably already aware of) is to just get an iPod, Dell DJ, Creative Nomad or other high capacity hard drive based mp3 player, by a headphone to RCA plugs cable and just hook that up to your receiver.

You can also get a headphone extension cable so you can reach the mp3 player to the couch or whatever.

Works great for me and no hassling with a PC in the home theater or streaming it there and what not.

I have all my CDs archived in mp3 and uncompressed wav

You must either have not that many CDs or a ridiculous amount of HD space :)

Tivo man! It ain't just for recording anymore.

Things needed:

Tivo - Series 2 and subscription networked to:
PC/Mac - running Tivo desktop software available on their site

That's it. I hooked mine up with a wireless USB adapter and works perfectly.

I've ripped all 550 CDs that I have to MP3 and backed up to about 50 CD-R.

Wow, some of you guys must have tons of CDs. I've got about 150 at most.

I've got all 900 of mine digitized. It took a long, long time.

I have about 90% of mine on the pc. I'm just waiting for an iPod now so I can take it all with me :up:.

I've ripped almost everything to an external hard drive in mp3 format. Once I get either another hard drive or a dvd burner, I'll back up all of those mp3's. I will also keep all of my cd's, as there are times I like the better quality and mobility.