I know a lot of you like to hold on to your cd cases for your antiquated sentimental and materialistic reasons, but I find myself increasingly turned off by the idea of buying even one more cd, especially now that my current shelf space is filled. Add to that the fact that I'm young and move yearly and that I do almost all of my music listening via my ipod now, and you've got a guy with very little incentive to hang on to jewel cases. I don't even look at the artwork after the first time I buy a cd.

So I've been thinking about various ways to go all-digital and ditch the plastic. All of the methods I have come up with have fairly serious downsides.

1. Keep everything on my iPod or another external storage medium

Pros:

• Potentially no need to spend extra money (already have the iPod, which holds my current collection plus some)
• Easy access (main storage repository == main listening device)
  
  Cons:
• Hard drives fail, and iPods are no exception, in fact with the abuse they get, they're probably more likely to prove the rule. So now all your music's lost AND you can't get it back even via the tedious rip-it-all-again method.
• Eventually you'll probably outgrow the storage/technological limitations of the device and have to transfer the music. Probably not a big deal since you'll likely own a computer that's equal to the task.

2. Store it all on a remote server with a hosting company who insures your data

Pros:

• Little need to worry about data loss, because commercial hosts routinely do massive backups and take measures to avoid needing them
• Have access to all of your music from anywhere you've got an internet connection
• Storage and technology grows with need
  
  Cons:
• Cost: hosting 30+ gigs of data will likely cost you upwards of $100/year (probably a good bit more for a really good host)
• Eventually will probably be supplanted by digital music services eliminating need to store any of your music anyway - may be better to just wait for these to mature (like a much more comprehensive version of Rhapsody that you can connect to with a portable device)

I was pretty excited about the latter idea until I thought a lot about those cons. It would be cool if a service existed that would allow you to confirm that you own a specific recording, then give you access to a copy of it on their servers so you never have to do all of the ripping and uploading. Unfortunately, it would be very difficult for such a service to verify that you had a legit copy, short of your mailing them the artwork, and even that's not foolproof.

Any other ideas you guys have had?

I'm so not hip, I don't even own an i-pod yet. Yet is the key word.

I vow to one day have a room entirely filled wall-to-wall with cd's & vinyl, regardless of the pain of storage.

i've definitely given thought to the iPod holding all my music, and the eventual fail of all that.

of course, i don't even have an iPod yet...

anyways, instead of relying on other things, i have most of the stuff that i've ripped on backup CDs. which is sort of another way to make sure you don't have to rip it again. however, as time shows, burnable CDs are not the most reliable as they end up with errors and such. i've even had to back up some of the back up CDs.

just a thought.

It's absolutely possible to go completely digital but I still love going to the record store and buying an album. Something very satisfying about it and as a music lover it's part of the fun.

Strangley enough I tend to be more patient with music if I have the case or even a cdr case with track listings on it. I can follow along with it. If it's just a burned disc with no case I may be more entitled to just let it fall by the wayside. I'm an idiot though.

Yeah, me too. It's almost a social event for me, especially since I've come to know the manager and many of the employees of the local record store. I really only buy online if I need to.

Going all digital is not something I consider doing (especially with the number of CDs, LPs, and cassettes I've accumulated), but I know it's appealing to a lot of people. I'm with Pumachik: I'm working on having wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling music. If I remember I'll post a pic later.

Having said that, why not have an external drive as a dedicated music storage device? You could basically have all (or most) of it on your iPod, but if the iPod craps out or you lose it, you still have a back up. Then if you do fill up the iPod, you can change what's on it if you like. Are you talking MP3s or some other (read: larger) types of files?

for me, i like the fact that i am mostly digital, because it is putting less wear and tear on my albums and cds - which then serve me well as a long term hard back-up. in addition to the certainty that at some time i will have a horrid and irrevocable information loss with one of my computers, i have a need for the art of album packaging.

<------- old-fashioned.

np: sonic youth - Theresa's Sound World

I backed my entire mp3 collection up on 4 DVD's
I probably could fill a 5th one by now.

My only fear is that disc rot thing.

I think it's possible if you are willing to forego the aforementioned psychological ties to buying music conventionally. However, to me, the CD is more adaptable than the MP3, WMA, AAC or whichever digital format you choose. Technology moves quickly, and until there is a real standard that has shown some stability, reliability and flexibility to last more than a number of years, you may be stuck with an iPod full of 21st century 8-tracks.

i'm almost completely digital. i buy cds now only to burn an mp3 copy. i sell my least-favs back to ebay/half.com. All mp3's are on 1 hard drive now, each album backed-up to cd-r. (Hopefully backed up to dvd-r next year.)

cd-r rot does exist. A year+ ago i completed my transfer of cd to mp3/cd-r when i bought a new computer & hard drive. Bringing out 3 year old cd-rs, i found some albums were unreadable, so i had to re-rip those. That's the main problem.

i don't know if dvd-r's have the same problem, but the suggestion would be to continually create new backup copies on some sort of annual basis.

i haven't tried the subscription thing yet, but with the limited research i did on this, no company has a good model for this yet, and i want exactly what i want when i want it as i want it -- i'm a bit too picky for online subscription/streaming yet.

I have no interest in digital music. In fact if music went completely digital (which it never will) music and me would be over.

I mainly listen to music at home. Through proper speakers and through a proper amp and not through shitty little white gay-boy headphones.

I've thought about getting an I-Pod but once you get past the "gee this is cool" factor I have no use for one. I like street noise.

Im thinking of getting rid of jewel cases too, but keeping the cd and packaging in one of those clear plastic sleeves labels use to send out promo's though...i'd save a ton of space.

This is just a semantic twist, though. CD's are digital recordings, just with an attached (and rather inconvenient) physical medium. If I cared much about the allure of the physical representation, I'd rather have cassettes than CD's - that satisfying click of putting the tape in the player is second to none. But the recordings deteriorate too quickly. Digital recordings can be backed up, and eventually if you buy a recording from an online store, you'll be able to download a new one for free if yours gets lost, removing the backup/storage burden from your shoulders. Thass'a nice.

im completely digital, although i dont have an ipod. i use my computer for all music related activities, and it suits me fine. it was either this or take all my cds with me to edmonton, where im going to university, which would be a huge hassle. i think that at this point it has a lot of advantages, but it wont be a no brainer until someone comes up with a lossless codec that can rival mp3 in storage space. plus, i do miss the tangible aspects of cds, like being able to hold it in your hand, but ive pretty much gotten over it.

I find it really really hard to buy cd's these days as well. The only time I do it is to support a local artist or if I see a show and the band really impresses me then I will shell out for their cd and put my money directly into their hands that way.

Instead of going all digital, I find myself going half digital and half analog. I do like packaging and holding something in my hands so in that sense there is nothing better than an LP.

What about that feeling of dropping a slab o wax onto the turntable?

So to sum up. I'm half digital, half analog. One step to the future, one going back to the past.

<-------------- antiquated, sentimental, and materialistic

I only do the digital thing when I'm in front of the computer since I don't have an Ipod...I have a little IRiver "workout-sized" MP3 player, so I'm digital at the gym too...that's about it

That's exactly what I do. I have a 200 GB Maxtor One Touch external hard drive as the primary repository for my entire collection. I also have everything burned to CD, and backed up to other sources, like me wife's PC at home. I feel very comfortable having my music stored digitially, as long as it's backed up in at least one place. That way, if my Maxtor craps out, I can simply copy the files from one of the other sources (like my wife's PC).

It's all about redundancy. Everything's ball bearings nowadays.

I love You!

I have to have the product, have thousands of CD’s, three crates of vinyl, and cassettes everywhere that I have not played in years and may never play again (Carnage Visors, the Cure). Don’t care its music and it’s mine. When it’s just files it has never felt like I actually own it, it just becomes product. TV is product, music is different!

We just moved - & I now have the setup described above, for the first time ever. I've got all my books, music, stereo equipment, & PC in the 2nd bedroom of our new apt.

And yes, part of the deal is the Wall Of CD's.

I'm too old school to ever give up the physical thing, & too paranoid about anything "virtual" . Not to mention the fact that I don't have the friggin' time to zap over 1700 CD's ( not to mention 300 + some pieces of vinyl ) onto some other host.

Bang.

Although I do know that if I copied all my vinyl over to CDRs, I might actually get around to listening to them every once in a while.

I don't even know wat antiquated means. I am sure it has something to do with oldness. I spend most of my time listening to music while I am driving. I think that cd's are it for me until I have the money or the resources to have some sort of digital equipment like an ipod in my car. I rarely exercise or clean my apartment so this undoubtedly reduces my need for an ipod at this present moment. the only thing I could use an ipod for presently would be my rather infrequent flights across the country to see my family. It's not worth it to me yet.

About the site that could give you a free copy of music you own with the little metaphorical cardboard cutout "proof of purchase", I think it would be a great idea, except I am too lazy to do anything like that. Besides, you all mentioned the lovely sound of the tape clicking in the player....to add to that, I certainly enjoy to no end the sound of all the celaphane(sp) wrappers crunching under my feet in my car from the post-tearing-open, almost pagan, ritual I go through after purchasing a brand new compact disc

interesting article about this today from the ny times online site:

http://nytimes.com/2004/11/10/technolog ... r=homepage

so i was thinking about this today, because i have pretty much decided that music on a physical medium has no value to me whatsoever as i use the ipod or other harddisk to play my music anyway and i'd rather have the physical space back (and i'm a cold and souless bastard). it occured to me that part of ths phenomena is due to the cost of storage media. i figure that if i bought everything on itunes at a buck a song, it would cost me $10K at 25 cents a meg to fill my ipod. no one would ever do that, leading me to believe that their price point for digital music sales is still way, way too high to compete with rampant file-sharing, and that is as it should be.

edit- the point being that falling costs of storage media are going to drive the cash value of music even lower.

I think this would be pretty sweet but I've thought of another con. If you have a hosting company or some internet service they can always screw with pricing and you could eventually get locked in to some service and paying more money than it's worth to hold your music for you. You mentioned the $100/year it would cost now and I'm sure it wouldn't cost THAT much in the future but I still don't like giving something of mine to a service that can jack their prices and leave me deciding between losing all of my music or paying a high price to keep it around.

Personally, I'm attached to physical copies of albums as well. I enjoy going to the record store and being able to let people borrow a CD if they want. On the other hand we have the technology and I rarely, if ever, look at the CD booklet anymore. I don't even know the names of songs, just track numbers. If there were a way to go all digital and be sure I wouldn't lose the music I purchased, I'd probably do it.

I likes the vinyl, wouldn't have it any other way. Unless there's an old 78 that costs over $100 and I could just buy the cd for a tenth of the price.

I enjoy the superior sound quality that CDs offer (compared to MP3s - we'll leave the "CD vs. vinyl" debate for another day). Until I can store my entire music collection in a lossless format for a reasonable price, the CDs are staying. Even if I can't tell the difference between an MP3 encoded at a very high bitrate and an actual CD (I've never actually done a side-by-side test), the thought of listening to MP3s when I have/had the "real" thing is just too painful to deal with.