Current trend: selling original CDs but keeping the mp3s

[Kyo]

Before I go into this rant let me state that yes, I do own the occasional CD-R

of an album that has gone out of print and can't be easily bought. So I'm no

saint. But it really pisses me off to see people sell their CDs and publicly state

that they're happy just having the mp3s they made off the discs. WTF?! Either

you own the discs and are free to use those mp3s you made yourself or those

files are as good (or rather as bad) as any pirated mp3 you got off the net.

Some examples:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Clifford-Brown-The-Com...1QQcmdZViewItem

"I'm putting all my CDs on my computer (and my iPod) and selling off the albums themselves."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B...9174&sr=1-1

"used once to rip to I-pod"

I'm really no friend of the RIAA, but in these cases I wish someone would

give those guys' asses a good spanking (and a nice $$$ fine to go with it).

[7/4]

Sounds like a lot of work to keep it all backed up.

[Noj]

I'm doing exactly the opposite: upgrading my mp3s to CDs. Let them have their lame collections of mp3s! Dummies.

[Harold_Z]

Plus - I like the printed material - notes and photos - that come with the real thing.

[JohnS]

Can't understand it either.

[Kyo]

I'm doing exactly the opposite: upgrading my mp3s to CDs. Let them have their lame collections of mp3s! Dummies.

Me too, at least to some extent - I've been re-buying many of the OJCs that

have gone out of print recently. Many of those are only available in rather

lousy 128kbps quality from eMusic (where I got them initially) and I really

prefer to have the liner notes available when listening to the music.

[porcy62]

I think I am far beyond. I sold my cds when I found the vinyl. I kept only the cd with some worthing bonus tracks.

[Ron S]

I think I am far beyond. I sold my cds when I found the vinyl. I kept only the cd with some worthing bonus tracks.

Sounds like your next step is to sell all your vinyl, and pick up original acetate and lacquer discs and wax cylinders.

[porcy62]

I think I am far beyond. I sold my cds when I found the vinyl. I kept only the cd with some worthing bonus tracks.

Sounds like your next step is to sell all your vinyl, and pick up original acetate and lacquer discs and wax cylinders.

I'll go for the master tapes... I need only an insider at EMI.

[RDK]

I'm doing exactly the opposite: upgrading my mp3s to CDs. Let them have their lame collections of mp3s! Dummies.

Me too, at least to some extent - I've been re-buying many of the OJCs that

have gone out of print recently. Many of those are only available in rather

lousy 128kbps quality from eMusic (where I got them initially) and I really

prefer to have the liner notes available when listening to the music.

I'm doing much the same thing, but an FYI - nearly all of the early 128kbs mp3s from emusic have been upgraded over the years. They now sound much better and you can re-download them again for free if you still have or can sign up to your old account. Try that at iTunes!

[Noj]

I'm doing exactly the opposite: upgrading my mp3s to CDs. Let them have their lame collections of mp3s! Dummies.

Me too, at least to some extent - I've been re-buying many of the OJCs that

have gone out of print recently. Many of those are only available in rather

lousy 128kbps quality from eMusic (where I got them initially) and I really

prefer to have the liner notes available when listening to the music.

Agree completely. I love having the quality audio, liners, and album art. Anything less is second rate, like not actually having the album.

I'd like to do what porcy62's done, but it's financially out of the question for me.

[Robert J]

My loser brother in law is doing this. He's more into hard rock and pop and he absolutely loves the convenience of his Ipod.

So much so, that he's ripped all of his cd's (and will sell them) and is now using the Ipod as his main music player for his hi-fi system (that I helped recommend - NAD, Energy speakers, surround sound, good cabling, etc). As a result, he wants to also get rid of his NAD cd/dvd players. He can't seem to notice the difference between cd quality and mp3. He's also trashed using the nad dvd in favour of his PlayStation 3 because it plays Blue Ray.

The upside is maybe I'll be "gifted" the cd and dvd player

(did I mention he's a tax accountant)

[sidewinder]

I like all 3 - vinyl, CD and I-Pod. Each have their place.

Vinyl for those special recordings with glass of scotch in hand.

CD for everyday listening - can't beat it.

I-Pod for the car and at work. :rsmile:

[RDK]

While I don't aprove of the practice I can certainly understand the mentality behind it. Say one has 500 CDs - a good bookshelves' worth - and you rip them all and find yourself listening to your iPod far more than your CD player. What do you do with the physical discs? Yeah, the collector in us tells us to keep them, and ethically (legally?) we're required to as well... but practically, the discs take up a lot of space for something you're never gonna use again and you can get good money for what you now consider nothing more than junk...

Does the rule also apply to 20 to 50-year old LPs that I've bought new or second hand over the years and now want to burn to CD so that i can get rid of the albums and clear out my basement?

[WD45]

One of the wife's coworker's husbands is doing this. My boss did it as well. Nuts.

I find myself buying discs of things that I downloaded from emusic. I rather like the reasonable permanence of the CD or LP.

I agree with 7/4, seems like an awful lot of work to keep it all backed up properly.

I, too, think it is interesting that this does not often come up in conversations of copyright.

[Kyo]

I'm doing much the same thing, but an FYI - nearly all of the early 128kbs mp3s from emusic have been upgraded over the years. They now sound much better and you can re-download them again for free if you still have or can sign up to your old account. Try that at iTunes!

I got most of those 128k files quite recently, so it seems in many cases they

just haven't bothered to upgrade those files. Knowing that it can take them

over a year to replace a faulty mp3 with a flawless one I'm not surprised.

Going back to the original discussion, I don't have a problem with mp3s

and iPods myself - I actually use both quite extensively. It's the selling

and STILL USING of music that I have a problem with.

And the worst about this problem is not even that the above behaviour is

getting popular, it's the fact that people don't see anything wrong with it at all.

Edited February 14, 2008 by Kyo

[Noj]

I like how my little library of cds looks , even though I listen to my iPod all the time.

[Kyo]

the collector in us tells us to keep them, and ethically (legally?) we're required to as well...

Yes, the "legally" part here very much applies. An mp3 of a CD that you sold is an illegal copy, period.

[RDK]

I'm doing much the same thing, but an FYI - nearly all of the early 128kbs mp3s from emusic have been upgraded over the years. They now sound much better and you can re-download them again for free if you still have or can sign up to your old account. Try that at iTunes!

I got most of those 128k files quite recently, so it seems in many cases they

just haven't bothered to upgrade those files. Knowing that it can take them

over a year to replace a faulty mp3 with a flawless one I'm not surprised.

Going back to the original discussion, I don't have a problem with mp3s

and iPods myself - I actually use both quite extensively. It's the selling

and STILL USING of music that I have a problem with.

The only ones that emusic still have at 128kbs should be clearly labeled as such (and there aren't many). Everything else has been upgraded to VBR. Depending on what program/device you're using for playback, they might report the VBR files inconsistently - but they still sound much better than they did in the early years (5-6 years ago now).

[Kyo]

Yeah, they're mostly encoded at 128k VBR. But that's not much better and still far from really good.

Edited February 14, 2008 by Kyo

[Dan Gould]

The comparison to selling LPs after purchasing CDs is not apt because, at least at the time, and still for a lot of people, the CD was an upgrade. It is impossible to define an MP3 stored only on an electronic device as an upgrade from the CD.

I'm a little disappointed to hear that you can download new copies from emusic a second time. It would thrill me to no end to hear about people who have sold their CDs and had an I-pod or hard drive crash wipe out their "collection".

One other consolation: the perpetual use of headphones will mean that the I-Pod generation, like the owners of mobile vibration machines before them, will all go deaf soon enough. Then it won't matter if their music is all-digital or CDs. They won't be hearing none of it anyway.

And yes, get off my lawn while you're at it.

[A Lark Ascending]

Minority Report

Just to offer a different perspective - I'm not trying to start a fight!

a) I've not bought an LP in about 20 years - I've slowly been either replacing them with CDs or burning them to CD-R (more recently replacing some with downloads). The bulk of my LPs are in the loft where they'll never be played again. I associate vinyl with rice krispies, off centre discs, inner groove distortion, needle jumps etc. Probably a result of only ever having modest playback equipment - but I worshipped the CD from the moment it arrived.

b) Although I've had some downloads from commercial sites that have sounded poor, most I find hard to differentiate from a normal CD. I always burn to CD-R and play that way at present (habit, I suspect...I've not been able to get past the idea of an item with a specific, finite amount of music on it!). I've been perfectly happy with most from e-music. Recent downloads from classical labels like Gimmell (Tallis Scholars), Chandos and, more recently, the new DG site have been marvellous. Now I'm willing to accept that I lack either the discerning ears or the quality of playback equipment to tell the difference - but I'm pretty certain that it's only a matter of time before technology just eliminates any difference there. I'll have no difficulty to switching totally to downloads.

c) I always find the arguments about the packaging interesting, especially when coming from a body of people likely to get dismissive about the general public's addiction to packaging in other areas. I was very attached to the packaging up to a year or so back. E-music weened me off. I like a nice front cover and notes if they are informative (though usually they're waffle!) - a fair few online distributers are getting good at making those available (Gimmell is superb!). In fact, I've gone as far as ditching my jewel cases and general paperwork, keeping CD and main booklet in a PVC folder. Saves acres of shelf space!

I suspect that 5-10 years from now there will be companies running off 'audiophile' pressings of CDs as they do vinyl today. But the future lies in downloads (or whatever comes next!!!!). If I hear something on the radio today I want to buy, it will take me a day or more to get to a shop to buy it; ordering the CD online still imposes a time delay. The ready availability to purchase and be listening in half an hour at most is bound to win over the mass audience (and I'd include many people who enjoy specialist musics in that mass audience).

I loved going out on Saturday afternoons to record shops, browsing, buying an LP or two, gazing at the gatefold. But those days are long gone. I spent 30 years going record shopping nearly every week, often driving to cities 30 miles away for a different experience. In the last year I've gone shopping maybe six or seven times! An enjoyable experience lost...but I've won back so much time, much of which has become listening time!

Having said all that, I've no intention of ripping my existing CDs and then selling them!

Oh, and it's interesting to read the term 'CD quality' as an affirmative. Not too long ago that would have been an oxymoron!

[Big Al]

My feeling is the same as Bev's. Lately, I've been going thru a serious reconsideration of all the CDs I have to see which ones still trigger something in me; a lot of them I bought because of the mentality of "gotta have 'em all" or "get it now before it goes OOP" or "this is a classic and I should really have it in my collection." In all three cases, those discs rarely if ever get listened to.

Makes me wish I'd discovered Rhapsody a few months ago instead of just now; would've saved me about $300. I like it that for $13 a month, I can listen to any album I want as many times as I want. So now, a whole bunch of albums that were on my wish list have either been taken off (they weren't as good as I thought they would be) or will be listened to at some point, and if I like it then I might go get the CD.

I have no intention of selling my CDs if I ever save them to a hard drive of some sort. Apparently these folks who are doing so have never heard of a hard drive crash. I do have an external hard drive that keeps my source copies for music files I listen to in the car or on the computer at work, but I'm not getting rid of the original CDs.

Edited February 14, 2008 by Big Al

[Teasing the Korean]

An mp3 of a CD that you sold is an illegal copy, period.

Where have you heard this? Granted, the RIAA will try anything if the idea pops into their heads.

AFAIK, making a copy of something you legally own is your right if it's for your own use. If you try to sell the original later, that's your business.

Is there a legal precedent I'm not aware of?

[Noj]

You're allowed a copy of something you own for personal use. Once you no longer own the original, you're no longer allowed the copy.