converting CDs to digital media (2 Viewers)

[mr. furley]

what is the easiest way to convert CDs to some digital medium that i can then play in my car?

car has a CD player. CD player doesn't work. allegedly it has bluetooth capability but i've never been able to connect any device to it.


i've got an old iPod mini with music loaded to it that i can plug in and play but the iPod mini cable does not connect to any Apple device so adding more music to it is out.

 

[B Maverick]

Good question. Do not want to sit and download every CD to iTunes, would take too long.

Looking for a way to get all CDs and even DVDs downloaded easily and quickly.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Good question. Do not want to sit and download every CD to iTunes, would take too long.

Looking for a way to get all CDs and even DVDs downloaded easily and quickly.

From a legal stand point, you have to rip the cd's/dvd's one by one

If you don't care about that, you could torrent your entire collection.

 

[mr. furley]

Good question. Do not want to sit and download every CD to iTunes, would take too long.

Looking for a way to get all CDs and even DVDs downloaded easily and quickly.

From a legal stand point, you have to rip the cd's/dvd's one by one

If you don't care about that, you could torrent your entire collection.

how to get the music from CD to... the cloud... or whatever?

 

[Jaysus]

use your computer!

thumbs up emoji

 

[NewlyRetired]

Good question. Do not want to sit and download every CD to iTunes, would take too long.

Looking for a way to get all CDs and even DVDs downloaded easily and quickly.

From a legal stand point, you have to rip the cd's/dvd's one by one

If you don't care about that, you could torrent your entire collection.

how to get the music from CD to... the cloud... or whatever?

Rip it and then store it where ever you like.

 

[B Maverick]

I was afraid that was the answer. Have a decent collection of both CDs and DVDs which will be time consuming. Which is why I haven't and they are taking up space in bins in the garage

 

[kupcho1]

Why not use Spotify (or another streaming service)?
Shoot the lock off the wallet. You'll save hours and hours of time and have much more music to choose from to boot.

ETA: I did a double take when I saw the timestamp on this post. I thought I'd stumbled across an orphan thread from old yeller.

 

[mr. furley]

use your computer!

thumbs up emoji

my computer doesn't have any holes in it. it's just some buttons and a screen. do i just throw CDs at it and then the magic happens?

TIA

 

[urbanhack]

magic

 

[mr. furley]

Why not use Spotify (or another streaming service)?
Shoot the lock off the wallet. You'll save hours and hours of time and have much more music to choose from to boot.

ETA: I did a double take when I saw the timestamp on this post. I thought I'd stumbled across an orphan thread from old yeller.

the age old argument

i don't want to pay a monthly service fee to listen to music i already own.

 

[B Maverick]

Why not use Spotify (or another streaming service)?
Shoot the lock off the wallet. You'll save hours and hours of time and have much more music to choose from to boot.

ETA: I did a double take when I saw the timestamp on this post. I thought I'd stumbled across an orphan thread from old yeller.

Mostly I just don't want to lose access to all the albums I bought over the years, and am tired of them taking up space.
And not all the movies I have on DVD are available on streaming.

 

[belljr]

Dad?

 

[kupcho1]

use your computer!

thumbs up emoji

my computer doesn't have any holes in it. it's just some buttons and a screen. do i just throw CDs at it and then the magic happens?

TIA

When you say it doesn't have any holes, does that include USB slots? If not, try this

 

[Andy Dufresne]

ITunes will rip the CD to your computer. You can select just about any format you like (MP3, WAV, M4A) and quality (FLAC/Lossless, etc).

I read an article that says Lossless is pretty bogus. So I would recommend ripping MP3 at high quality. Then it's an easy matter to transfer to your iPod.

I'll look for a link that best shows how to do all that. I actually just went through this to put CDs on an external drive - which you could also plug into your vehicle if it has a port for it.

 

[mr. furley]

Dad?

NOT IN FRONT OF THE KIDS! WE TALKED ABOUT THIS!

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Apple has segmented their "iTunes" idea a bit. Their actual iTunes application is really intended mostly for podcasts and such. But it is also what you use to rip CDs. The Apple Music app is separate and does play music but doesn't rip.

When you open iTunes, go to Edit/Preferences and note the option "When you insert a CD:".

I keep "Ask to Import CD". That way you can deselect the tracks you don't want.

Click on "Import Settings" and IMO select MP3 Encoder and select your quality. I don't think Higher uses all that much more space so I usually select that.

The Advanced tab will let you choose which directory to place the rip into.

When you insert the CD, iTunes should find the album info for you - i.e. it should display what album you're importing. Then just click on the "Import CD" button.

 

[Mister CIA]

Why not use Spotify (or another streaming service)?
Shoot the lock off the wallet. You'll save hours and hours of time and have much more music to choose from to boot.

ETA: I did a double take when I saw the timestamp on this post. I thought I'd stumbled across an orphan thread from old yeller.

the age old argument

i don't want to pay a monthly service fee to listen to music i already own.

Do you still spend money on new CDs? I have not bought a CD in probably 10 years, but back in my CD buying days I spent way more that the $120/yr it cost to switch to a streaming service. Have a look at YouTube Premium. For $13.99/month you can stream anything you want; 100% ad-free YouTube (can't ever go back after a taste of this); can download videos to your device; and background play. Link

For me it's a time saver and a money saver. Plus I have basically every song ever recorded at my fingertips.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Why not use Spotify (or another streaming service)?
Shoot the lock off the wallet. You'll save hours and hours of time and have much more music to choose from to boot.

ETA: I did a double take when I saw the timestamp on this post. I thought I'd stumbled across an orphan thread from old yeller.

the age old argument

i don't want to pay a monthly service fee to listen to music i already own.

Do you still spend money on new CDs? I have not bought a CD in probably 10 years, but back in my CD buying days I spent way more that the $120/yr it cost to switch to a streaming service. Have a look at YouTube Premium. For $13.99/month you can stream anything you want; 100% ad-free YouTube (can't ever go back after a taste of this); can download videos to your device; and background play. Link

For me it's a time saver and a money saver. Plus I have basically every song ever recorded at my fingertips.

That's not really the point. A lot of people, especially the older FBG crowd, already own most of the music we're interested in listening to. So why buy it again...and again?

I've even heard of people checking out CDs from the library and ripping them. But I would NEVER endorse such a thing.

 

[El Floppo]

Spotify has a free option, scrooge.

There's services that will do this en masse if you send your collection.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Spotify has a free option, scrooge.

There's services that will do this en masse if you send your collection.

But then you have to endure the same inane commercials, over and over again, every two songs

 

[shuke]

What year is this?

 

[The Gator]

use your computer!

thumbs up emoji

my computer doesn't have any holes in it. it's just some buttons and a screen. do i just throw CDs at it and then the magic happens?

TIA

 

[El Floppo]

Spotify has a free option, scrooge.

There's services that will do this en masse if you send your collection.

But then you have to endure the same inane commercials, over and over again, every two songs

Somebody doesn't want to pay for stuff. That's what he gets. And then he gets all music beyond his own limited collection.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

If your computer doesn't have a CD drive

 

[Drunken knight]

i was just visiting my parents a week or so ago and my father asked about this. Our issue was that no computer had equipment to load a CD

 

[Joe Schmo]

spotify ad-free premium is &10.99+tax/month. I too have a large cd collection in a bin in my basement that I no longer have need for so spotify works great for me. Don't get me started on the dvd's I have instorage either! Dvd player is in one my closets somewhere probably taking up the space from my vhs player that I got rid of two years ago.

Anyone want any memorex vhs blanks?? 2 for 5$!! Or maybe a vhs with video of my wedding to my now ex from back in 1991? That I'm adding as a bonus to whomever buys my blanks!

 

[belljr]

If you rip music you can load it into YouTube music. My whole collection is there. And it used to be free. Only problem is if I wanted to download i think I needed a monthly fee. All my music is currently on my Chromebook

 

[Andy Dufresne]

spotify ad-free premium is &10.99+tax/month. I too have a large cd collection in a bin in my basement that I no longer have need for so spotify works great for me. Don't get me started on the dvd's I have instorage either! Dvd player is in one my closets somewhere probably taking up the space from my vhs player that I got rid of two years ago.

Anyone want any memorex vhs blanks?? 2 for 5$!! Or maybe a vhs with video of my wedding to my now ex from back in 1991? That I'm adding as a bonus to whomever buys my blanks!

Those can be converted to SD/HD digital copies through Fandango at Home (formerly VUDU) for $2/$5 each. Just use the app to scan the barcode on the back of the DVD case.

 

[Mister CIA]

Why not use Spotify (or another streaming service)?
Shoot the lock off the wallet. You'll save hours and hours of time and have much more music to choose from to boot.

ETA: I did a double take when I saw the timestamp on this post. I thought I'd stumbled across an orphan thread from old yeller.

the age old argument

i don't want to pay a monthly service fee to listen to music i already own.

Do you still spend money on new CDs? I have not bought a CD in probably 10 years, but back in my CD buying days I spent way more that the $120/yr it cost to switch to a streaming service. Have a look at YouTube Premium. For $13.99/month you can stream anything you want; 100% ad-free YouTube (can't ever go back after a taste of this); can download videos to your device; and background play. Link

For me it's a time saver and a money saver. Plus I have basically every song ever recorded at my fingertips.

That's not really the point. A lot of people, especially the older FBG crowd, already own most of the music we're interested in listening to. So why buy it again...and again?

I've even heard of people checking out CDs from the library and ripping them. But I would NEVER endorse such a thing.

That's why I asked, "Do you still spend money on new CDs?"

 

[Mr.Pack]

Apple has segmented their "iTunes" idea a bit. Their actual iTunes application is really intended mostly for podcasts and such. But it is also what you use to rip CDs. The Apple Music app is separate and does play music but doesn't rip.

When you open iTunes, go to Edit/Preferences and note the option "When you insert a CD:".

I keep "Ask to Import CD". That way you can deselect the tracks you don't want.

Click on "Import Settings" and IMO select MP3 Encoder and select your quality. I don't think Higher uses all that much more space so I usually select that.

The Advanced tab will let you choose which directory to place the rip into.

When you insert the CD, iTunes should find the album info for you - i.e. it should display what album you're importing. Then just click on the "Import CD" button.

.

 

[Osaurus]

I forget what app I used for conversion, but there are plenty of open source programs out there. I did over 800 a long time ago. I also shipped the CDs to many people on this board after they were converted to high-quality MP3s. Anyone still have any of those CD’s? I got a lot of requests and off the CDs went.

I sort of remember sending classical music to @General Malaise. Debussy? Mozart? Beethoven? Don’t remember the specifics

 

[belljr]

spotify ad-free premium is &10.99+tax/month. I too have a large cd collection in a bin in my basement that I no longer have need for so spotify works great for me. Don't get me started on the dvd's I have instorage either! Dvd player is in one my closets somewhere probably taking up the space from my vhs player that I got rid of two years ago.

Anyone want any memorex vhs blanks?? 2 for 5$!! Or maybe a vhs with video of my wedding to my now ex from back in 1991? That I'm adding as a bonus to whomever buys my blanks!

Those can be converted to SD/HD digital copies through Fandango at Home (formerly VUDU) for $2/$5 each. Just use the app to scan the barcode on the back of the DVD case.

How do you watch them on a TV?

 

[mr. furley]

Spotify has a free option, scrooge.

There's services that will do this en masse if you send your collection.

But then you have to endure the same inane commercials, over and over again, every two songs

my kids have free Spotify and as much as they are inured to commercials they freaking HATE Spotify commercials. they seem to interrupt even in the middle of songs, etc. they want us to pay for premium service but we're not there yet.

 

[mr. furley]

If you rip music you can load it into YouTube music. My whole collection is there. And it used to be free. Only problem is if I wanted to download i think I needed a monthly fee. All my music is currently on my Chromebook

this is one of the things i know is coming

i have the music on cassette/vinyl/cd. can't play cassettes and vinyl in a car. my car still has a cd player but it's malfunctioning. most cars don't have cd players in them anymore.

i've paid for the music. i can pay to have my current stock ripped to a cloud service and pay a fee up front and eventually a monthly fee.. and anytime that service decides, additional fees to move to a different service.. or even just to access what i'm already paying for. or the service shuts down without an easy way to move my music to a different platform and i lose some/most/all, wash, rinse, repeat.

in just the last, say, 20 years the "best" way to listen to music has changed, what, a dozen times? and every time people say "just switch, it's easy! it's the best new thing!". then 6 months later you have to move to another new service, etc. not interested in chasing. when the option no longer exists to listen to the music i like because the players don't exist, i just won't listen to music anymore

 

[Andy Dufresne]

spotify ad-free premium is &10.99+tax/month. I too have a large cd collection in a bin in my basement that I no longer have need for so spotify works great for me. Don't get me started on the dvd's I have instorage either! Dvd player is in one my closets somewhere probably taking up the space from my vhs player that I got rid of two years ago.

Anyone want any memorex vhs blanks?? 2 for 5$!! Or maybe a vhs with video of my wedding to my now ex from back in 1991? That I'm adding as a bonus to whomever buys my blanks!

Those can be converted to SD/HD digital copies through Fandango at Home (formerly VUDU) for $2/$5 each. Just use the app to scan the barcode on the back of the DVD case.

How do you watch them on a TV?

Fandango at Home is an app on Smart TVs/Roku/Fire/Apple TV devices.

If you set up a Movies Anywhere account, most digital copies that are added at FaH or AppleTV also simultaneously add to your MA account once you link them. Which ultimately means all streaming apps access almost all your digital movies regardless of where you purchased them.

 

[SWC]

i feel like a lot of people in this thread still have a vcr that is blinking 1200 24 hours a day take that to the bank bromigos

 

[Sand]

i have the music on cassette/vinyl/cd. can't play cassettes and vinyl in a car.

Have this installed.

There are a number of CD rippers that will ID the CD and label the MP3 files for you. Pretty painless. If you don't have a CD ROM they're like $20.

 

[gianmarco]

Yeah, at this point, using a music streaming service just seems like a no brainer. You'll have access to everything you own plus millions more, no need to go through time and hassle of converting everything, in a simplified interface that works with everything.

Since we are heavy into the Amazon ecosystem (Echos and Alexa, etc, Amazon Prime), doing Amazon Unlimited is a no brainer for us.

 

[audiophile]

I am of a similar ilk to the OP. I have over 5,000 CD's and I loathe paying monthly subscriptions.

While my 2018 Acura does have a working factory CD player, I still mostly listen to music via my iphone, due to the ability to easily create lengthy playlists. Back in the day, I used to create playlists on the computer and then burn a CD to play in the car, but the CD-R can't hold as many songs/lists as the phone.

I use an older MacBook w/iTunes that has a built-in optical drive to import the CD's. If you have a newer computer without an optical drive, you'll need an external drive, but they're cheap and certainly cheaper than Spotify for a year, every year.

Next I create the playlist I want on the Mac. It's much simpler/faster to create the playlist on the computer vs. the phone. Then I attach my phone to the Mac via the USB port and drag the entire playlist to my phone. When I'm in the car, I attach the phone via USB to the stereo and start the playlist.

It's all very simple, with the only drawback being the time it takes to import the CD's. The import time doesn't really bother me, though, because once it's started I can leave it and go multitask. HTH

 

[urbanhack]

Spotify has a free option, scrooge.

There's services that will do this en masse if you send your collection.

But then you have to endure the same inane commercials, over and over again, every two songs

my kids have free Spotify and as much as they are inured to commercials they freaking HATE Spotify commercials. they seem to interrupt even in the middle of songs, etc. they want us to pay for premium service but we're not there yet.

SHOOT THE LOCK OFF THE WALLET

 

[urbanhack]

If you rip music you can load it into YouTube music. My whole collection is there. And it used to be free. Only problem is if I wanted to download i think I needed a monthly fee. All my music is currently on my Chromebook

this is one of the things i know is coming

i have the music on cassette/vinyl/cd. can't play cassettes and vinyl in a car. my car still has a cd player but it's malfunctioning. most cars don't have cd players in them anymore.

i've paid for the music. i can pay to have my current stock ripped to a cloud service and pay a fee up front and eventually a monthly fee.. and anytime that service decides, additional fees to move to a different service.. or even just to access what i'm already paying for. or the service shuts down without an easy way to move my music to a different platform and i lose some/most/all, wash, rinse, repeat.

in just the last, say, 20 years the "best" way to listen to music has changed, what, a dozen times? and every time people say "just switch, it's easy! it's the best new thing!". then 6 months later you have to move to another new service, etc. not interested in chasing. when the option no longer exists to listen to the music i like because the players don't exist, i just won't listen to music anymore

CAN YOU FAX ME ONE OF YOUR MIX TAPES?

 

[SWC]

i think pandora is like 5 or 10 bucks a month but i get it no one here wastes 5 or 10 bucks a month and obviously no one here earns nearly that much per hour so it makes total sense to find some service and spend 100 hours burning your complete nickelback and limp bizkit collections onto a thumb drives and as a fair warning when you meganerds are hunkered down watching a progress bar on your computer the old swcer is going to be the guy driving away with your papershaker while brandy by looking glass blasts out of my original 8 tracker and there aint a damn thing you can do about it take that to the bank brochachos

 

[mr. furley]

If you rip music you can load it into YouTube music. My whole collection is there. And it used to be free. Only problem is if I wanted to download i think I needed a monthly fee. All my music is currently on my Chromebook

this is one of the things i know is coming

i have the music on cassette/vinyl/cd. can't play cassettes and vinyl in a car. my car still has a cd player but it's malfunctioning. most cars don't have cd players in them anymore.

i've paid for the music. i can pay to have my current stock ripped to a cloud service and pay a fee up front and eventually a monthly fee.. and anytime that service decides, additional fees to move to a different service.. or even just to access what i'm already paying for. or the service shuts down without an easy way to move my music to a different platform and i lose some/most/all, wash, rinse, repeat.

in just the last, say, 20 years the "best" way to listen to music has changed, what, a dozen times? and every time people say "just switch, it's easy! it's the best new thing!". then 6 months later you have to move to another new service, etc. not interested in chasing. when the option no longer exists to listen to the music i like because the players don't exist, i just won't listen to music anymore

CAN YOU FAX ME ONE OF YOUR MIX TAPES?

USPS DOWN??

 

[mr. furley]

join me in fighting against subscription service fees, boys!

if not, i'll gladly be the last person who isn't paying a daily subscription fee to open his own front door.

 

[belljr]

join me in fighting against subscription service fees, boys!

if not, i'll gladly be the last person who isn't paying a daily subscription fee to open his own front door.

Lol. I don't pay any fees.

 

[mr. furley]

join me in fighting against subscription service fees, boys!

if not, i'll gladly be the last person who isn't paying a daily subscription fee to open his own front door.

Lol. I don't pay any fees.

I'M GONNA FEE YOU BUT GOOD IF YOU KEEP IT UP

 

[Bottomfeeder Sports]

As someone who long ago ripped a couple of thousand CDs to MP3 and then followed a few years later to flac and then placed them on a media server to serve up to TVs and cell phones (which is still running), I'd say don't bother. Unless you get satisfaction in collecting things and maintain such collections, there is no payoff in 2024. I'd recommend to give up the fight and enjoy the benefits that streaming services offer. While on the music side others might be better able to address this, I think at least some of the music services allow you to supplement their offerings with your obscure stuff. That would be for me the only reason to rip anything in 2024.

 

[Peggy]

dBpoweramp is the software I used over a decade ago right before I tossed all the CDs out into the garage sale for people like Furley to buy.

Yeah it's one CD at a time, but dBpoweramp uses all the processor cores to rip multiple songs at the same time. Much faster per CD.

 

[mr. furley]

As someone who long ago ripped a couple of thousand CDs to MP3 and then followed a few years later to flac and then placed them on a media server to serve up to TVs and cell phones (which is still running), I'd say don't bother. Unless you get satisfaction in collecting things and maintain such collections, there is no payoff in 2024. I'd recommend to give up the fight and enjoy the benefits that streaming services offer. While on the music side others might be better able to address this, I think at least some of the music services allow you to supplement their offerings with your obscure stuff. That would be for me the only reason to rip anything in 2024.

i do enjoy having the physical media. probably why i still have physical books and photos.

years ago i sold the majority of my cassette collection because "CDs are the future!" and had major regrets about it petty quickly. lost a lot of music that i wish i still had in that process. when everything went digital i kept my CDs and i intend to have them to pass on to my kids like they are cattle and land.

MY PEOPLE WILL LIVE WELL FOR GENERATIONS