Going over the the dark side? (MP3s)

smudge2006

Hi techie people

I've suddenly realised that my house is being taken over by my CDs. At last count, I had about 400. So I came up with a plan:

1) Buy a basic MP3 player big enough to put all my CDs on to.
2) Sell all my CD's (apart from say 30 that I really really love) to pay for the above mp3 player.
3) Get a FM transmitter thingy so I can listen to them all in the car or round the house.

Is this a sensible plan or are there any techie drawbacks? Any advice would be very much appreciated as I don't know much about all this. Looking at mp3 players, they all seem to be compatible with different websites etc

isofa

Some FM transmitters can be a bit hit and miss, they are ok, but you won't get the best quality.

You'd be better off ripping them onto a decent PC or Mac, and then streaming them to other parts of your house using some wi-fi technology, there are all sorts of options about, but all will be more expensive than a basic MP3 player and transmitter!

PS - might be worth pointing out that technically if you rip the CDs and then sell them you are effectively pirating the music, so you might want to consider that! Also if you screw up your library in some way or loose the backup, you'll not be able to re-rip the CDs to MP3 again either...

smudge2006

I'm breaking the law by copying my own CDs for myself?? Weird!

Red_Rose_Exile

IANAL but no, you are not breaking the law by copying them on to a cd, pc or any other device, so long as you own the original source, and the original source of the music is still in your possession.

If the original source is no longer in your possession, you no longer have any rights to use it or any copies of it.


btw a basic MP3 player big enough to hold all your cds would probably be need to have at least 20Gb drive, unless you saved them in low quality format

xJonny

Red_Rose_Exile wrote: »

IANAL but no, you are not breaking the law by copying them on to a cd, pc or any other device, so long as you own the original source, and the original source of the music is still in your possession.

If the original source is no longer in your possession, you no longer have any rights to use it or any copies of it.


btw a basic MP3 player big enough to hold all your cds would probably be need to have at least 20Gb drive, unless you saved them in low quality format

Well summed up. The MP3 player size really depends if those cds are albums or singles, and rip quality.

BillScarab

Red_Rose_Exile wrote: »

IANAL but no, you are not breaking the law by copying them on to a cd, pc or any other device, so long as you own the original source, and the original source of the music is still in your possession.

If the original source is no longer in your possession, you no longer have any rights to use it or any copies of it.

No, you are breaking the law even if you still own the original CD's. There is no fair use clause in British Law as there is in some countries. However you've probbaly got more chance of winnign the lottery than being charged for copying CDs you own, even the BPI think it's ridiculous.

Mind you copying them and selling the CDs would definatley be frowned upon.

xJonny

BillScarab wrote: »

No, you are breaking the law even if you still own the original CD's. There is no fair use clause in British Law as there is in some countries. However you've probbaly got more chance of winnign the lottery than being charged for copying CDs you own, even the BPI think it's ridiculous.

Mind you copying them and selling the CDs would definatley be frowned upon.

Yeah, and if the OP feels necessary, the CDs could be sold and then buy mp3s off an online music store.

BillScarab

Personally I'd rip the CD's to a large Hard Drive attached to a PC and store the CD's somewhere out of the way. Then you can just copy whichever ones you want to an MP3 player and/or stream them from your hard disk around your house. At least then if you lose the MP3s for whatever reason you've still got the original CDs to rip again.

You don't need a particularly fast PC to store them on and tream them from. A colleague at work uses Ubuntu Linux on an old PC for his music server attached to 1.5 Tb of MP3s on a mix of internal and external drives.

amcluesent

>At last count, I had about 400.<

You could store the in space-saving sleeves - http://ssl.adhost.com/jazzloft/baskets/sleeves.cfm I have about 2,500 CD stored in these sleeves.

BTW, you'll regret ripping to MP3. Use FLAC then you'll always have the choice of recoding to MP3/ACC etc. or whatever comes along next.

Red_Rose_Exile

Yes I jumped the gun on the Gower Report which calls for this fair usage, but this is a fairly influential report and a fair usage clause is expected in future legislation

bubblesbonbon

If you are feeling flush then this may fit the bill..

Plenty of connections, including a network port but still pricey.

Dixons were doing them for just under £400 but I think Amazon are cheaper this week

:cool: