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Selling the original CDs means you also sold your license to the music that was contained on them and should therefore delete the MP3s you ripped.

Ooooooh beware the RIAA!

Ummm, yeah..I am sure they'll get right on that!

I'm not debating whether the law is good or not, I'm simply pointing out that their (very public) advice is likely illegal for most readers of this site.

good grief

I love this. Sometimes stuff takes a lifetime to see on half.com.

I'll definately use the money for new stuff!

My husband started on a similar project. The My Book he ripped everything to died a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, we still have all our cds.

Well, if you're worried about your computer crashing (or just being cautious/smart) you should try ripping your entire collection to a computer and then backing the files up using either blank backup CD's or a flash drive (or 3... depending on the size of your collection =p ).

Hope you ripped to FLAC or another lossless format instead of MP3.

What do they do with the old discs?

I don't understand the loading of music onto a computer and hoping for the best. Computers die, especially laptops. And then you're making a "back-up" copy? Why not just keep the CDs then?

Monkeyme, there is some question as to how long data will last on CDs as well. It's not like a vinyl disc, where the information is there as long as the disc is kept in good condition. Someday all our cds and dvds are going to become corrupted or blank, the only question is how long they will last.

awesome! i've been wondering what to do with all my CDs. i went digital in 03, but still have about 400 discs collecting dust in boxes. i'll definitely be looking into this.

for those that wonder about backups.... i have a laptop, an ipod, an external hard drive, and DVDs all with my music library on them (55GB). while i may be worried one of them might die, i'm hardly afraid that i'll lose my entire library because of numerous backups.

Cheers,
M

You can always back up to a cheap mirrored RAID drive like the mybook world edition etc. At lossless (FLAC) you can cram about 30 typical music CDs into every 10 GB ... or about 300 CDs for every 100 GB. A 1TB raid (2TB total size) would cost you around $500, and would hold at least 3000 CDs (or, $6000 worth of used CDs if you sold the original media at an average of $2 each). You'd only need to sell 250 CDs (less than 100 GB worth) to pay for the backup drive. The drive would be redundant, so the chance of total failure is pretty slim (though you would need to invest in a replacement drive if this happens).

You could also opt to back up to another optical media - Blue Ray Disc (50 GB) - which would hold about 60 lossless CDs per disc... this is still slightly pricey (but you should still be able to deflect the cost by offloading the used CDs if their average value is $2 each). The burners cost $400-$500 and the media $40-$50 per disc.

Transfer of ownership means transfer of right to possess the music, but if you aren't sharing your music with the world at large there is little cause for concern. And you typically paid a premium for the original media (5 times the resale value, and probably price fixed and gauged by the labels in the first place) so as a consumer it is fair to say you have the right to keep a less than ideal version of the original, lobbyist-driven laws aside.

I just donate them to my local library. That way, the whole community rather than a single household can benefit. And it might lessen the chance of my CD/book/DVD ending up in a landfill, no?

I'm most pleased that you're keeping your Pulp CDs! It's nice to know that someone aside from me still cares!! :)

This is pretty cool actually. Does anyone know if there's something similar in the UK or do I have to stick with eBay for now?

FYI in case anyone stumbles upon this post. DO NOT USE SPUN.COM!!!!!!
I sent in over $200 worth of items in a single box. They received the package then claimed that most of the items were missing!!! How could they be missing if everything was in a single box? In total I have only received $46 of my $200 because of 'my' mistake not including the items. Absolutely riduculous!! STAY AWAY FROM THIS SCAM COMPANY!!