Redbook Keeps Surprising

For those of you who are ripping your CD's to hard drives, and then either donating the CD's to thrift stores, or selling them cheap at garage sales or to used record stores, my friends and I would like to say THANK YOU.  

+1 to oregonpapa.

I haunt the local thrift stores and have added about 60 CDs’ to the collection in the past year at prices ranging from 50-cents to $2.00 per disc. Many of those CDs’ feature artists and titles that I’m not familiar with and my curiosity has been richly rewarded many times over. It’s allowed me to explore new genres and expand my musical tastes and preferences.

So I say ’Thank you’ as well...and keep ’em coming guys’.

This leads to another consideration--do you prefer to listen to your digital music via files, or do you like to have the physical media playing in your system?  My dealer was playing music via his MacBook into a DAC, and I remarked on how good it sounded.  He said yes--with the reservation that the file may not be as bit perfect as the actual disc. 

@ oregonpapa et al.
I presume that you realize that ripping and then reselling, even donating, the physical CD is a flagrant violation of the fair-use provisions of the copyright law. You MUST have physical possession of the original CD, LP, DVD whatever, or you must delete it from your system. (A purchased download is, of course, a different matter.) Everyone knows all that, I presume, but georgelifi is absolutely correct. Ripping CDs and ripping-off the artist is NOT in *YOUR* best interest, either. Not only is it simply unethical (but I guess you can live with that...), it has over the years had a notably adverse effect on musicians and music production in general, especially on those with limited audiences and distribution. It also necessarily keeps prices higher. Lastly, when one disposes of the CD, one disposes of the frequently worthwhile "liner notes" and artwork as well.

I'm not saying I've never purchased a "used" CD, but when I do, it is never sold by anyone again. Moreover, I'll often make an effort to buy CDs directly from the musicians themselves whenever possible. I guess I think of it as noblesse oblige. In any case, if folks in these parts can lay down ridiculous money for cabling and other exotic gear, at the very least they can reasonably support the musicians and others without whom the rest is for naught.