Sunday CD to MP3 Rip-a-thon
So today I'm preparing to put my entire CD collection in storage. I have somewhere close to 1,000 physical disks though and since I decided to go all-digital for my music collection in 1999, I have most of them converted over. For some time since that processes started I would purchase new music on CD, rip them at high quality, and put them up on a shelf. I never used to buy music from iTunes because i refused (and still do) to buy and own media with DRM (copy protection) which, everyone knows does not prevent piracy. it is only serving to lock me into a particular device or software and that is a NO-go.
Its worth mentioning that I've always owned iPods, but because I want to, not because i have to. It is nice to know that if Sony came out with something cool (HAHAHAHA) I could switch.
As soon as Amazon started selling high quality DRM free MP3 files I was more or less done buying plastic discs. Since then iTunes has dropped DRM, so I do sometimes buy music from them, but I have not really moved away from Amazon since when i do bother to compare the prices are the same or cheaper.
Anyhow... I have too many CD's- 6 boxes like this:
*notice the treasured Jesus Jones: Doubt in the top right corner, nicely juxtaposed with Sparklehorse just to the left
Of course since I think I've ripped most of my CD's over the years, I'm mostly finding that there was a reason I never ripped them. No offense to "The Cassandra Complex" fans
*The Cassandra Complex: Satan, Bugs Bunny and Me
So the process goes like this, I open up a box of CD's and unless I'm sure its been ripped, I search in iTunes to see if i have it. If I don't, then I pop it into one of 3 available MacBooks.
The problem is that I'm starting to realize that even with 3 machines, this is going to take a century. I've been at it for an hour and I'm losing steam. But eventually, my CD's will be up in the loft of my garage and I can be free of plastic music distribution.
