Love 2 Rip CDs (own your media or streaming services will end up owning you)

On Valentine’s Day I made a big purchase at Micro Center, in the form of a recordable CD / DVD / Blu-ray drive and a 5TB portable hard drive (and some BAWLS).

This was mostly to back up the CDs that my wife and I have had in storage for years. There are a few reasons for this:

1. I wanted music stored locally to listen to over the sound in games I’ve been playing regularly: Diablo II and WoW. Just like how I played them in 2004!
2. I wanted FLAC backups of everything we own in a convenient, semi-permanent, transferable place. This is both for ownership reasons and in case I ever decide to unsubscribe to Apple Music (my preferred music streaming platform, mostly due to convenience and history).
3. CDs are just cool. I like looking at the disc art and flipping through the booklets. Having them back on shelves in my office sparks joy. CDs are cheaper than vinyl and take up far less space. Also, a fun thing to look for when thrifting!
4. We have a few CDs that aren’t available on streaming services. I know YouTube is an option, but I try to avoid that place as much as possible.

I decided to go with the nicest disc reader/writer they had at Micro Center because eventually I may want to start backing up my Blu-rays. I’ll have to get a separate, larger hard drive for that, but in the meantime it’s just nice to have the option to watch Blu-rays on my PC in my office.

Converting these 50 or so full lengths to FLAC has taken up 20GB of the 5TB drive. We still have a lot of CDs to rip, and I’ll probably end up buying more now that I have this system in place. We’ll see how full the drive gets!

As far as software goes, I tried Exact Audio Copy, but found it a bit too complex and finicky for what I wanted to do, so I’ve been using the more straight-forward dBpoweramp CD Ripper, which has been excellent. I’ve linked the drive to a Plex server and that’s been a solid way to keep things organized (while giving me the option to stream my library down the road).

Here are some of the CDs I’ve ripped that are not available on Apple Music:

I’m finding the process of digitizing physical CDs weirdly satisfying, and I’m excited to continue to add to the drive in the future.

And if Tim Cook continues to embarrass himself and Apple to the point that I cancel my Music subscription, well, at least I’ll have plenty to listen to as the world continues to get shittier.

(and no, Spotify is not a viable option to me, for many reasons)

Compact Discs Forever