Digitising CDs

gwen80

Hello

I'm having a bit of a clear out and want to get rid of all my CDs (probably should have done this a long time ago...).  However, I heard that you can digitise your CDs.  From what I've read so far, I don't think I have any need to do this.  I plan on just making a list of the CDs before I get rid of them all (in case I ever want to remind myself of what I had), but not sure if I'm missing something?  If I don't want to digitise the CDs for quality reasons, is there any other reason to digitise it?

Thank you

TadleyBaggie

I digitise my recent (since 2010 or so) CDs strictly for convenience and sound quality reasons. I always rip used a lossless codec.

I still keep all the CDs as backup, in fact I still have the first `CD I ever bought in 1984.

gwen80

TadleyBaggie said:

I digitise my recent (since 2010 or so) CDs strictly for convenience and sound quality reasons. I always rip used a lossless codec.

I still keep all the CDs as backup, in fact I still have the first `CD I ever bought in 1984.

Thanks for your reply.  Realistically I won't use the CDs again (they definitely aren't convenient anymore and I stream music these days).  I just wasn't sure if there was any other reason to keep them.  I'm trying to declutter, so if there isn't a good reason to keep them or digitise, I'll just list out what I have, then get rid of them.

TadleyBaggie

The quality of most streams is very low, if you are OK with that then fine.

debitcardmayhem

Hmm CD's are digital already, sorry just being pedantic.

gwen80

TadleyBaggie said:

The quality of most streams is very low, if you are OK with that then fine.

Ah ok. Maybe I want to find my favourite CDs and the ones I'm most likely to listen to in the future and digitise them then.  

Thanks!

gwen80

debitcardmayhem said:

Hmm CD's are digital already, sorry just being pedantic.

Apologies, I'm not very techie! 

Neil_Jones

gwen80 said:

TadleyBaggie said:

I digitise my recent (since 2010 or so) CDs strictly for convenience and sound quality reasons. I always rip used a lossless codec.

I still keep all the CDs as backup, in fact I still have the first `CD I ever bought in 1984.

Thanks for your reply.  Realistically I won't use the CDs again (they definitely aren't convenient anymore and I stream music these days).  I just wasn't sure if there was any other reason to keep them.  I'm trying to declutter, so if there isn't a good reason to keep them or digitise, I'll just list out what I have, then get rid of them.

Unless you happen to have a rare album, or something that ended up as limited distribution, the bulk of it will be worthless.  Sometimes you get a different music cut of a song that doesn't appear anywhere else for whatever reason, but that's much the exception to the rule/

Ripping CDs is a double edged sword; if you have stuff that isn't on Spotify or Prime or whatever, it may be worth it.  However most commercial music will appear on no end of music compilations and ultimately on the streaming service (save for maybe album tracks that were never released as single).

Whitefiver

You could experiment with Freeac.

Ozzig

I used dBpoweramp CD Ripper - full features included for the first 21 days.

It worked exceptionally well, to the point I considered paying for it after the 21 days, but I'd ripped almost all my collection by then.

I have kept all my CDs but chucked them in storage, accessing them from my NAS (hard disk under the stairs ) as not sure on the legalities of ripping my own CD and then no longer owning it, if that makes sense. 

facade

You can simply rip CDs with windows media player- it definitely works on win 10

You just open windows media player, put the CD in the drive, wait for it to figure out what the cd is and then click the picture of the CD, click rip settings and pick what you want. then click Rip Cd, answer the questions about copyright and protection then just have a coffee or something while it does it.

I assume it should sort out the track names by itself, the only CD I could find appears to be the one CD in the Entire World that isn't on the database.