Is everything (only) on your iPod now?

September 18, 2004 11:06 PM

Now that you've an Ipod, what have you done with your music collection? [MI]

Have you packed up all your CDs? Sold them? Do you transport your Ipod from room to room? Do you use itrip or plug it in? Have you converted all your vinyl? Does your whole collection fit on your Ipod?

posted by meech to Media & Arts (19 answers total)

I gave away about 20, and threw away 300. I kept the liner notes and ripped everything to Flac (a lossless format). This was about 8 months ago and there haven't been any problems so far.
When I buy a CD I rip it to Flac and then bin it after a week or two. It doesn't seem right to sell them if I've still got a copy.
posted by holloway at 11:23 PM on September 18, 2004

I keep them in a rack over in the corner of the room. People who I bring to my apartment for the first time invariably go and look at it to see what's there.
posted by SpecialK at 11:49 PM on September 18, 2004

I keep them just as I would had I not digitized them losslessly; that is, just on a CD rack. Who knows when my hard drive'll decide to be ass and dissipate all of my sweet, sweet music into nothingness? Plus, as SpecialK alluded to, most people expect a collection of some tangible music medium from someone whom they believe to be a music lover; and I'm anxious to have mine out in the open.

I only have a 5GB iPod, but my entire lossless collection would fit on a 40GB (I use ALE). I'd convert everything to 128kbps AAC, though, because the headphones I travel around with aren't good enough to warrant any higher bit rate.
posted by bitpart at 12:52 AM on September 19, 2004

I keep them in piles all over the place. It's so that if the federales bust my ass, I can just point to the piles and say, haha, I really own the music!
posted by wackybrit at 1:53 AM on September 19, 2004

I keep my CDs at my parents house. I haven't lived there for about 6 years, but my flat is really small, so every six months or so I box up stuff I'm not using and take it there. I've got a half-hearted plan to set up a cheap PC just for iTunes, with a flat screen, cool wireless mouse and the box hidden away, so people who come visit can still have that 'CD rack in the corner' moment.
posted by ascullion at 2:23 AM on September 19, 2004

Out of a couple of thousand CDs, I kept my favourite few hundred... I then took the rest to be sold, except they didn't accept all of them (obscure 90s indie doesn't go down too well apparently). So those that didn't get sold went to charity.

Then after a while I realised I wasn't listening to my favourite few hundred in CD format - so I've boxed them up and they're on a shelf. I might sell those, too.
posted by skylar at 2:34 AM on September 19, 2004

Do you transport your Ipod from room to room?

Ludite. What you need is a set of bluetooth speakers and a phone from which you can stream the tracks from your desktop PC.
posted by ed\26h at 5:12 AM on September 19, 2004

Wow, I'm amazed at you all. I've had an iPod for years, and I still have hundreds of CDs and hundreds of vinyl records. I still buy CDs all the time, and they get added to my collection. I love them, and I've never been satisfied with the sound quality of even lossless files when played from my iPod or Mac through to my stereo.

I say keep them!
posted by josh at 5:35 AM on September 19, 2004

You, sir, have a poor encoding codec!
That is all.
posted by squirrel at 7:19 AM on September 19, 2004

This is funny, because I've been going through this as well. I've weeded about 300 CDs out of my collection, kept about 75, ripped them all at 192 kpbs and plan to sell all but those 75. That's predicated on the twin ideas that I'd only miss those 75 CDs if I were to lose my iPod and computer, and that I have a burning need to hear one of other 300 again upon that loss, hey, there's the library. (The other presumption is that in most of my listening arenas, combined with the quality of my ear, it's not worth the additional hard drive space to go lossless.)

The truth is that music doesn't have the same time, space and importance in my life as it used to, and that this weeding would be pretty appropriate regardless of whether I had the iPod. I don't have any qualms about selling a lot of these old CDs now that I've ripped them, although if I were to buy something new, I wouldn't just rip and resell it.
posted by blueshammer at 7:19 AM on September 19, 2004

When I buy a CD I rip it to Flac and then bin it after a week or two. It doesn't seem right to sell them if I've still got a copy.

Uh, say, where do you live and when is trash day?
posted by mecran01 at 7:22 AM on September 19, 2004

I "only" have a few hundred CDs. After I ripped them all, for some reason I decided to store the CDs seperately from the cases and so I packed the discs into stacks of 100 that I then wrapped in plastic wrap and thorougly sealed inside clear tape. Why? Not sure. Gave me a good, secure feeling, though.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 7:28 AM on September 19, 2004

I gave them away in bits and pieces to friends, co-workers, etc. Wife thought I was nuts until I pointed out that I have them in five places: my Powerbook, my wife's iBook, my iPod, her iPod and on an external hard drive. What are the odds of all of them being wiped (don't answer that if it will make me nervous).
posted by tetsuo at 10:16 AM on September 19, 2004

Mine just sit on a shelf. Neatly organized in their jewel cases, though.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 10:58 AM on September 19, 2004

I bought some 10x10x6 boxes from an online box store. Each stores about 36 CDs. However, I do like Bligh's idea. Liner notes/packaging just don't seem all that important any more.
posted by mischief at 11:06 AM on September 19, 2004

We dumped 1200 jewel cases and put the CDs & covers in those big binders that hold 256 discs each or whatever.

The back covers are in a wooden box about the size of a shoebox.

I don't think either of us misses the two enormous bookcases that used to hold all the CDs.
posted by bcwinters at 11:23 AM on September 19, 2004

I don't have an iPod, but I have ripped all my music to a 2nd hard drive, and most of the time, I'm playing from that. I keep all the CDs in large binders with pockets for the CDs and booklets (like bcwinters)--I've found this is the most space-efficient and economical way to store them. I've got about 500 CDs.

I've had my hard drive go south on me once, and had to re-rip the whole collection. By the time my hard drive goes south again, I'm hoping to have a DVD writer, so I can save a step and archive my ripped music collection to DVD-Rs.
posted by adamrice at 12:57 PM on September 19, 2004

sold'em on half.com and made hundreds of dollars!
posted by john m at 2:56 PM on September 19, 2004

I ripped mine to lossless (and the ones i regularly play to 256 as well) and immediately backed up the lossless and the mp3s to DVD-R. Now I just have the 256s on my Powerbook drive, which I use as my parimary house stereo. I spindled the 1/3 of the CDs that I wanted to keep, and sold the rest at surprisingly high prices, (except the 80s pop, my secret shame).

Cool thread.
posted by squirrel at 9:07 PM on September 19, 2004