Those old enough to remember vinyl records know how important the album cover used to be. Album covers could become iconic, an important part of the listening experience. 12.375 inches by 12.375 inches presented a lot of real estate to pack a punch.

Cassettes temporarily dulled the album cover because the size was so much smaller but I remember album covers mattering again when I started building up my CD collection in the late 80s and early 90s. You knew your music by these covers. Cover art was important.

About five years ago I decided to box up my CDs and go completely digital with my music collection. This transition, which I wrote about extensively in these entries, killed the album cover for me. Songs become intangible bits and bytes, audio that was transferred from one medium to another. The album cover art didn't come into play... at least not the way I organized my music.

Now, thanks to my new iPod Touch, the album cover has made a complete comeback in my life. A couple of years ago I sensed this day was coming and I started to embed album cover art into the .mp3's metadata. Now, when I sync my music to my iPod Touch, I can browse by album covers with a flick of my finger. This is fantastic... I browse and browse, coming face to face with album covers I thought I may never see again. Welcome back, Spencer Elden.

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Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced new copyright legislation that is meant to deal with "iPod Nation". There's a component of this new legislation that really has me concerned. It's has to do with the ripping of store-bought CDs to MP3.

I'm a ripping machine. For the past five years I've been digitizing music from legally purchased store-bought CDs. I personally place the CD in my drive and rip each track to MP3 as per my preferred specifications using a piece of software called Audiograbber. I even have a script that automatically updates this web page with the names and tracks from every disc I rip. If you want to read more about this passion of mine, check out my MP3 collection category.

This new legislation being introduced by our Conservative government will make it illegal to copy a compact disc or DVD to a personal digital device such as an iPod - even if a consumer has already paid for the CD or DVD – if it involves breaking a so-called digital lock to make the copy. People caught hacking digital locks would face penalties of up to $20,000.

$20,000 because you took the new Foo Fighters CD you bought at HMV and ripped it to MP3 for use on your iPod. That's some scary shit.

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I used to write an update every time I updated my MP3 collection. I'd list the newly ripped albums and tally it all up.

I just did a massive update, but I don't have time to list what's new. I will tally things up, though. I'm now at 1744 complete albums which consumes 134GB and would take 72.6 days to hear.

While we're talking music, I've brought back my last.fm music profile after an eight month absence. Monitor what I'm listening to in real time at http://www.last.fm/user/mikeboon/.

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My MP3 collection is a huge part of my life. It's in good shape right now, but it had a modest beginning. Let's step into the time machine and revisit this entry I wrote four years ago today.

I'm in the process of digitalizing my entire CD collection. Since I left behind good ol' cassette tapes for CDs back in the 80s, I've amassed hundreds of discs and kept them in various CD racks to I could easily access whatever I was in the mood for. Some time last week I had an epiphany of sorts. I realized I needed to digitalize my entire collection.

This is no small task. There was much to consider. What format did I want my songs stored in? Where would I store them? What's an acceptable bit rate? What software would I use to rip my CDs? I decided to rip them as MP3s with a bit rate of 128kbps. I'm using Audiograbber and BladeEnc's MP3 DLL to up the bit rate. I've decided not to rip every CD I own, merely the ones I may actually listen to from time to time. When it comes down to that CD with only one song I like, I'm only ripping the one song. I'm storing the MP3s on my home PC's 40GB hard drive until I save up enough to buy a 2nd hard drive of at least 120 GB that will be used for all my multimedia. If I run out of room before then, I'm going to archive my less frequently listened to tunes on CDRs. Once I've got every CD I care about ripped into MP3 and organized nicely on my new hard drive, I will be finished. With my entire collection digitalized, I can grab what I want for whatever purpose. I envision one day owning a portable MP3 player and even an MP3 player in my car. Until then, it's simple to create an audio CD with the songs I want. As I've written before, the compact disc as a medium is quickly becoming obsolete.

I've been ripping steadily for a few days now and I've only scratched the surface. It's going to be weeks before I'm finished this phase of the project. I've already taken all the CDs off the CD racks in the living room and moved them to the basement. When I'm complete, they will be stored away some place in case I ever require the source material again.

I should have done this long ago. The freedom this gives me is rather liberating. Hey, I want to hear Liberate from Disturbed. It's only a click away...

That was four years ago, but I remember those early ripping days. I ended up upping the bit rate to 192 and I did indeed store away all my CDs. I decided to rip every one of my CDs and then some. I haven't seen them since.

I've neglected the growth of my collection the past few months but I'm looking forward to adding to it over the next few weeks. 1623 albums and counting...

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Every once in a while I get an email from someone wondering how they can download the MP3s listed here. Arnaz just asked that question so I thought I'd spell it out for everyone.

For fun, I maintain a list of the 1600+ albums in my personal MP3 collection. As you'll see, you can drill down and see the individual tracks in each album. It's merely a collection of the song titles sorted by album and artist. I'm not actually hosting my collection on the web so there's no way for you to download the songs.

Back in the day when I used to have the guest blog form I received this rather angry guest blog from Bob who was pretty pissed that I'd list songs without hosting the MP3 files for anyone to grab. Here's how I responded back then and the same applies today, except now my collection is 130+ GB.

Bob, Bob, Bob. Don't you realize you'll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar? If you had nicely written me and told me what you were looking for, I would have been happy to help you any way I can. Instead, you chose to ball me out because I'm not hosting 30+ GB of copywritten files so ungrateful wastes of time like yourself can drain all of my bandwidth while pleasuring yourselves in the fruits of my labour.

Sometimes a list is just a list.

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I've added 348 new CDs to my MP3 collection. That's no typo. You can understand why I'm not about to list the new additions.

That's 1623 complete albums, 24605 individual songs and 66 days worth of uninterrupted tunes. Check it out.

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When you've got 1275 discs ripped to MP3, you're going to have some duplicate songs. iTunes makes it easy to isolate these dupes, so I can tell you that if I just played such songs I could could listen non-stop for eight days. As a random example, I have The Tragically Hip's "Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park" on In Between Evolution, Yer Favourites and the 92nd Grey Cup Commemorative CD.

You might be able to guess where I'm going with this. What song is repeated the most often in my collection? That song is "Black" by Pearl Jam which appears on 11 albums. Upon further review, a number of Pearl Jam songs appear 8, 9 and 10 times due to the many official bootlegs they've released recently. That's not really fair, is it?

If I disqualify live recordings, the song that appears on the most albums in my collection is "Respect" by Aretha Franklin. It appears five times on the following discs.

• The Soul Train 25th Anniversary Hall of Fame Box Set
• Aretha Franklin's 30 Greatest Hits
• Akeelah and the Bee Soundtrack
• The Ultimate Soul Collection
• Forrest Gump Soundtrack

I've also got a copy of the Otis Redding original.

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I've added 10 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• k-os - Atlantis: Hymns for Disco
• Tegan and Sara - If It Was You
• Various Artists - Garden State Soundtrack
• Various Artists - The Kings of Hip Hop (Discs 1 & 2)
• The Irish Rovers - The Best Of The Irish Rovers
• Corinne Bailey Rae - Corinne Bailey Rae
• Stompin' Tom Connors - 25 of the Best Stompin' Tom Souvenirs
• Tom Cochrane & Red Rider - Trapeze (Discs 1 & 2)

That's 1275 complete albums, 19738 individual songs and 52.6 days worth of uninterrupted tunes. Check it out.

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I've added 33 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder
• Roberts, Sam - Chemical City
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
• Weakerthans, The - Left and Leaving
• Weakerthans, The - Reconstruction Site
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium [Jupiter]
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium [Mars]
• Flaming Lips, The - At War With The Mystics
• Oasis - Definitely Maybe
• Oasis - Be Here Now
• Brand New - Deja Entendu
• Poison - Poison's Greatest Hits 1986-1996
• The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
• My Morning Jacket - Acoustic Citsuoca
• My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
• My Morning Jacket - Z
• Joel Plaskett Emergency - La De Da
• Joel Plaskett Emergency - Truthfully Truthfully (Disc 1)
• Joel Plaskett Emergency - Truthfully Truthfully (Disc 2)
• Joel Plaskett Emergency - Down At The Khyber
• Various Artists - Arts & Crafts - Adventures in Advertising
• GnarlsBarkley - St Elsewhere
• Gryner, Emm - Public
• Gryner, Emm - The Original Leap Year
• Gryner, Emm - Asianblue
• Gryner, Emm - Science Fair
• Gryner, Emm - Girl Versions
• Gryner, Emm - Dead Relatives
• Gryner, Emm - The Great Lakes
• Gryner, Emm - The Summer of High Hopes
• Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3
• Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness

That's 1265 complete albums, 19559 individual songs and 52.1 days worth of uninterrupted tunes. Check it out.

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So I've got this MP3 collection I'm rather proud of. It's quite a few years in the making and it brings joy to my life daily. Lately I've been perfecting the meta data and now it's time to bring in the album covers.

The album cover is the one thing I've missed. When playing Nirvana's In Bloom, it's nice to see that baby going for the cash. It just enriches the whole experience. Using a free tool called MediaMonkey, it's pretty easy to select an album at a time and download the album cover. The trick is to change the options so you save the image to tag. That's key.

At 1232 albums and counting, this isn't a thirty minute task. I've been chipping away at it on weeknights and I'm at albums that start with 'J". If you want specifics on the most efficient way to do this with your collection, ping me. For more boring crap about my collection, go here.

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I just realized that I know a lot of Mike's. I suppose with a name that popular, everyone knows a lot of Mike's, I probably just notice it more because I am a Mike.

Mike Kic, I'll let you know when I'm dropping by to peruse the goods. I know that neck of the woods very well. Mike Hollick, this entry was inspired by something you said a few years ago. Let's get to it, I've got a game to watch.

Almost three years ago I wrote about how I've never owned a mobile phone. This fact remains true today. I don't want a cell phone that's just a phone. I've always said I'd buy one when there was a phone on the market that would do everything I felt it should. I'm looking for a mobile device that's not only a phone but a decent digital camera, an MP3 player with acceptable storage space and has an operating system that would allow me to jump on another desktop and use it as I would a lap top. I've yet to see such a device that nailed all these fine points but I've been reading quite a bit about the Apple iPhone. I think the Apple iPhone is the one.

While excitedly telling Taryn about everything the iPhone will do I was deflated by her lack of enthusiasm. She told me she just wanted a phone to be a phone and didn't care about the other stuff. That reminded me of when I had my epiphany back in 2003. I was looking at the towers of CDs in our living room and I realized I had to digitize the entire collection and get the disks themselves out of sight. She fought me on that too, telling me CDs were fine and there was no need to rip them and free ourselves from the inherent limitations of such a medium.

That got me thinking about 2003 when I started ripping the first of 1232 complete albums and 19123 individual songs. Like someone who had just found religion, I was preaching to everyone I knew about how this was the future and we wouldn't truly be free until our music was digitized and everywhere on demand. Mike Hollick disagreed. He couldn't foresee a time when he'd have to do the same. He had his CDs and thought I was crazy for wanting more. Recently, at an Argos game, he admitted he was wrong. I forgave him as I've forgiven Taryn. Some people just need a little more time to realize what they thought was freedom was actually an oppressive state of format slavery.

The neo-luddism revolution will be televised, and I'll probably be watching it on my iPhone.

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It's been a while, but I've added 18 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• The Tragically Hip - World Container
• Rusty - Fluke
• Hayden - Skyscraper National Park
• Hayden - Moving Careful
• Audioslave - Revelations
• Various Artists - Hear & Now: The Best of the East Coast's Independent Bands
• Ben Folds - Ben Folds Live
• The Presidents Of The United States Of America
• The Juliana Hatfield Three - Become What You Are
• Irish Rovers - An Irish Christmas
• Daft Punk - Homework
• Various Artists - Help: a Day in the Life
• Humble And Fred - #1 in '97
• Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
• Nat King Cole - Anthology (Discs 1 & 2)
• The Best Of Pooh And Heffalumps Too
• Grover - A Celebration Of Me, Grover

That's 1232 complete albums, 19123 individual songs and 50.9 days worth of uninterrupted tunes. Check it out.

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Alain Levy, chairman and CEO of EMI Music, says the music CD is dead. He notes that the majority of people just use CDs to rip their music on their computers to transfer the songs to digital music players.

Back in September 2003 I first wrote about the demise of the traditional music CD. Later that year, I had an epiphany. I didn't want to see my CD collection anymore. I had no use for it. I started ripping every CD in my collection and never looked back. The CD has been dead to me for three years except for a few minutes when I'm ripping the files to high quality DRM-free MP3 files. Once they're digitized, I'm in charge. They're playing off my computers or they're playing on my iRiver. I'm at 1214 complete albums and I can't imagine going back.

So yes Mr. Levy, the CD is dead. It has been for quite some time.

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I've added 14 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• LCD Soundsystem - Discs 1 & 2
• Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
• Brian Wilson - Smile
• Blood, Sweat & Tears - Greatest Hits
• Fatboy Slim - Palookaville
• Various Artists - The Ladies Of Swing
• Various Artists - Cool Britannia
• Various Artists - Juno Awards 2006
• Staggered Crossing - Staggered Crossing
• Fastball - All The Pain Money Can Buy
• Great Big Sea - Something Beautiful
• Dixie Chicks - Wide Open Spaces
• Dixie Chicks - Home

Again, the Dixie Chicks is for my wife and mother. Heck, they're even off to see them this fall at the ACC. That's 1214 complete albums, 17871 individual songs and 48.4 days worth of uninterrupted tunes. Check it out.

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I've added 6 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
• Billy Talent - II
• Fall Out Boy - From Under The Cork Tree
• Seether - One Cold Night
• Three Days Grace - One-X
• Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way

I assure you, the Dixie Chicks is for my wife and mother. That's 1200 complete albums! Check it out.

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I've added 4 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
• Ministry - Rio Grande Blood
• Revolting Cocks - Cocked and Loaded
• Jack Johnson - Sing-A-Longs And Lullabies For The Film Curious George

That's 1194 complete albums, 17,973 songs and 47.7 days of tunage. Check it out.

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I've added 8 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• The Strokes - First Impressions Of Earth
• Green Day - Bullet In A Bible (Live)
• Linkin Park - Live in Texas
• OST - Six Feet Under: Everything Ends
• The Living End - The Living End
• Staind - Chapter V
• OST - Walk The Line
• OST - Team America

That's 1190 complete albums, 17,896 songs and 47.5 days of tunage. Check it out.

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I've added 15 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
• The Little Willies - The Little Willies
• Bob & Doug McKenzie - Great White North
• Tori Amos - Under The Pink
• The Beatles - 1962 - 1966 (Discs 1 & 2)
• The Beatles - 1967-1970 (Discs 1 & 2)
• OST - Akeelah and the Bee
• OST - Footloose
• OST - Dirty Dancing
• OST - Cocktail
• Beach Boys - Endless Summer
• Harry Connick, Jr. - When Harry Met Sally...
• Il Divo - Ancora

That's 1182 complete albums, 17,773 songs and 47.2 days of tunage. Check it out.

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I've added 26 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Tears For Fears - Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92)
• Billie Holiday - The Complete Decca Recordings (Discs 1 & 2)
• Steve Earle - Copperhead Road
• Eddie Money - The Best Of Eddie Money
• OST - Shaft
• Various Artists - Soul Train 25th Anniversary Hall Of Fame (Discs 1-3)
• Various Artists - 100 Jukebox Hits: 50's & 60's (Discs 1-8)
• Alicia Keys - The Diary Of Alicia Keys
• Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor
• Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody: Best of Righteous Brothers
• Lead Belly - Absolutely the Best
• Various Artists - O'Bluegrass (Discs 1 & 2)
• Various Artists - History Of The Blues - Part 1
• Raffi - Corner Grocery Store
• Raffi - Singable Songs For The Very Young

That's 1167 complete albums, 17,424 songs and 46.3 days of tunage. Check it out.

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I've added 4 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• K. D. Lang - Hymns Of The 49th Parallel
• Robbie Robertson - Robbie Robertson
• House of Pain - Same As It Ever Was
• Culture Club - The Best of Culture Club

That's 1141 complete albums, 17,024 songs and 45.4 days of tunage. Check it out.

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I've added 18 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
• Death From Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine Remixed
• Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
• Metric - Live It Out
• System Of A Down - Hypnotize
• Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
• Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
• The Tragically Hip - Yer Favourites (Discs 1 & 2)
• Various Artists - Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack
• Sarah Harmer - I'm A Mountain
• Beck - Guerolito
• Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
• Damien Rice - O
• Public Enemy - Power To The People And The Beats
• City and Colour - Sometimes
• Eminem - Curtain Call: The Hits
• Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve and Other Stories

That's 1137 complete albums, 16,763 songs and 45.1 days of tunage. Check it out.

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I've added 5 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Christmas Music - Vince Guaraldi Trio's A Charlie Brown
• Christmas Music - Music for the Wholidays
• Christmas Music - A Lump of Coal
• Christmas Music - A Very Special Christmas
• Christmas Music - Loreena McKennitt's A Winter Garden (Five Songs for the Season)

That's 1119 complete albums, 16,466 songs and 44.4 days of tunage. Check it out.

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I've added 21 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Korn - See You On The Other Side
• Christmas Music - Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics
• Christmas Music - Elvis Presley's Christmas Peace (Discs 1 & 2)
• Johnny Cash - The Legend Of Johnny Cash
• Various Artists - The Ongoing History of New Music (Volume 2)
• Various Artists - Spirit Of The Edge (Volume 1)
• Various Artists - CFNY 102.1 New Music Search 1994
• Various Artists - Free At Last 1
• Various Artists - Free At Last 2
• Various Artists - Free At Last 3
• Various Artists - Chef Aid: The South Park Album
• OST - South Park - Bigger, Longer & Uncut
• Elvis Presley - Artist Of The Century (Discs 1, 2 & 3)
• Various Artists - Frosh 2
• Various Artists - Frosh 3
• Various Artists - The One And Only 80's Album
• Various Artists - Maxi-Music
• Shania Twain - Up! (Disc 2)

That's 1114 complete albums, 16,380 songs and 44 days of tunage. Check it out.

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I've added 47 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Lowest of the Low - Shakespeare My Butt
• Lowest of the Low - Hallucigenia
• The Dears - No Cities Left
• The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
• The Flaming Lips - Fight Test
• Matthew Good - In a Coma
• The Waltons - Lik My Trakter
• Rheostatics - Introducing Happiness
• Treble Charger - Wide Awake Bored
• Blue Rodeo - Just Like A Vacation (Discs 1 & 2)
• Hawksley Workman - Lover/Fighter
• Ashley MacIsaac - Hi^TM How Are You Today?
• Ashley MacIsaac - Close To The Floor
• Great Big Sea - Turn
• Great Big Sea - Up
• Great Big Sea - Play
• Great Big Sea - Great Big Sea
• Odds - Bedbugs
• Fine Young Cannibals - The Finest
• Various Artists - Triple J Hottest 100 Volume 9 (Discs 1 & 2)
• Various Artists - Triple J Hottest 100 Volume 8 (Discs 1 & 2)
• Spirit Of The West - Open Heart Symphony
• Spirit Of The West - Save This House
• Spirit Of The West - Faithlift
• Skydiggers - Restless
• Sarah McLachlan - Solace
• R.E.M. - Document
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way
• The Rolling Stones - Jump Back: The Best Of The Rolling
• Various Artists - Singalongs & Shanties
• The Beautiful South - Carry On Up The Charts The Best Of The Beautiful South
• Michael Jackson - The Essential Michael Jackson (Discs 1 & 2)
• Aerosmith - Big Ones
• Chantal Kreviazuk - Colour Moving and Still (Discs 1 & 2)
• The Irish Descendants - Gypsies & Lovers
• The Irish Descendants - Livin' on the Edge
• Garbage - Version 2.0
• Counting Crows - August and Everything After
• Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
• Shania Twain - The Woman In Me
• Boney M - Gold - 20 Super Hits
• Ernest Ranglin - Below The Bassline

That's 1093 complete albums, 15,932 songs and 43 days of tunage. Check it out.

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I've added 13 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington - The Great Summit - The Master Takes
• Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington - The Making Of The Great Summit
• Louis Armstrong - Louis Armstrong's All Time Greatest Hits
• Louis Armstrong - Louis and The Good Book
• Billy Idol - Greatest Hits
• Jethro Tull - 20 Years Of Jethro Tull
• Gladys Knight And The Pips - Greatest Hits
• Steely Dan - A Decade Of Steely Dan
• Al Green - Greatest Hits
• Various Artists - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Blondie - Atomic: The Very Best Of Blondie
• Supertramp - Crime of the Century
• Duke Ellington and Count Basie - First Time! The Count Meets The Duke

That's 1047 complete albums, 15,333 songs and 41.5 days of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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A bunch of Sony BMG Music Entertainment CDs were recently sold with copy-protection technology that not only hides the copy protection from view, but also leaves open a hole that could hide other malicious software. The software is intended to prevent us from burning too many copies of the CD or ripping the songs to DRM-free MP3s. It's spyware, it's malware and it's bullshit.

Sony says they'll no longer produce CDs with this First 4 Internet software but for many it's too late. Because this software hides itself so well on a PC, virus writers are piggy backing on this gaping security hole and wreaking havoc just as far under the covers. Even your anti-virus software can't find it. This is totally irresponsible and worthy of one massive class action lawsuit.

Here's a list of the Sony rootkit CDs. You'll notice Our Lady Peace's Healthy In Paranoid Times on that list. I already teed off on this disc because I couldn't rip the thing to MP3 without my AnyDVD solution. Ironically, the fact these are paranoid times prevented me from installing Sony's rootkit. Long ago I disabled autorun and swore never to install a music company's proprietary software to play the tunes because it's never worth it.

If you think you've played one of these infected Sony CDs on your PC, go here and install the patch that unhides this crudware. If you don't have the software on your PC, it will tell you right away and you will sleep better at nights.

With companies like Sony aiding the bad guys, it's almost impossible to stay healthy in paranoid times.

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I've added 5 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Leonard Cohen - Dear Heather
• Neil Young - Prairie Wind
• Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
• Neil Young - Neil Young
• Neil Young - Life

That's 1034 complete albums, 15,219 songs and 40.8 days of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I've added 18 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• The Distillers - Coral Fang
• L7 - Bricks Are Heavy
• L7 - Hungry For Stink
• Depeche Mode - The Singles 81-85
• Depeche Mode - The Singles 86-98 (Discs 1 & 2)
• Slipknot - 870621345
• Various Artists - WaxTrax! Black Box: The First 13 Years (Discs 1 & 2)
• Digital Underground - No Nose Job
• Matthew Good - White Light Rock & Roll Review
• Billy Joel - The Essential Billy Joel (Discs 1 & 2)
• Roy Orbison - The All-Time Greatest Hits Of Roy Orbison
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Greatest Hits
• Phil Collins - ...Hits
• Various Artists - The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience
• Various Artists - Reggae Anthems

That's 1029 complete albums, 15,142 songs and 40.6 days of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I've added 39 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Feist - Let It Die
• Transplants - Transplants
• Hayden - Live @ Convocation Hall (Discs 1 & 2)
• Hayden - Elk-Lake Serenade
• Ramones - Smash You - Live '85
• Ramones - Loud, Fast Ramones
• Sam Roberts - We Were Born In A Flame
• Bif Naked - Essentially Naked
• Headstones - The Greatest Fits
• Gorillaz - Gorillaz
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - So Far
• Crosby, Stills & Nash - Greatest Hits
• The Cure - Galore (The Hit Singles 1987-1997)
• Odds - Singles - Individually Wrapped
• Grateful Dead - The Very Best Of Grateful Dead
• Peter Gabriel - Hit
• Peter Gabriel - Miss
• The Trews - Den Of Thieves
• INXS - The Best of INXS
• 54-40 - Radio Love Songs: The Singles Collection
• Bryan Adams - The Best of Me
• Earth Wind & Fire - Greatest Hits
• Bob Segar & The Silver Bullet Band - Greatest Hits
• Peter Frampton - Anthology: The History of Peter Frampton
• Paul McCartney & Wings - Wingspan: Hits And History (Discs 1 & 2)
• Chicago - The Very Best Of Chicago - Only The Beginning (Discs 1 & 2)
• George Michael - Ladies And Gentlemen: The Best Of George Michael (Discs 1 & 2)
• John Denver - Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits (Discs 1 & 2)
• Dave Brubeck - The Essential Dave Brubeck (Discs 1 & 2)
• Scorpions - Best Of Rockers 'N' Ballads
• Scorpions - The Best Of Scorpions
• Cher - The Very Best Of Cher (Discs 1 & 2)

That's 1013 complete albums, 14,817 songs and 40 days of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I had a blast at the Pearl Jam concert and was lucky enough to witness first hand "Rockin' in the Free World" with Ed and Bono taking turns on the mic. It truly was one of those moments.

Back in August I wrote about Pearl Jam's decision to release 192 kbps non-DRM digital downloads of their live shows for $9.99 USD. Today, I decided to give this process a whirl and download a copy of my show.

I had to download an application that runs in Java, but it was very easy to use and it took me seconds to order the show from September 19, enter my credit card info and begin the download. The entire 259 MB download only took a few minutes and along with my 192 kbps non-DRM MP3s I got a number of high quality pictures like this one and liner notes / covers in PDF.

Had these not been DRM-free, high quality MP3s, I'd have taken a pass. The Tragically Hip offered a similar deal but they opted to make their MP3s available as 128 kbps MP3s. Close, but no cigar. Pearl Jam just seems to get it.

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I've added 23 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Sonic Youth - Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star
• Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
• Revolting Cocks - Linger Ficken' Good
• Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
• The Beatles - White Album (Discs 1 & 2)
• Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing
• Various Artists - WaxTrax! Black Box: The First 13 Years (Discs 1 & 2)
• Primus - Tales From The Punchbowl
• Primus - Pork Soda
• The Sisters Of Mercy - A Slight Case Of Overbombing
• Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
• Aqua - Aquarium
• Ace Of Base - The Sign
• Manhattan Transfer - The Best Of Manhattan Transfer
• Billy Joel - Piano Man
• Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club
• The Eagles - Hotel California
• Concrete Blonde - Boodletting
• Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time
• The Bangles - Greatest Hits

That's 974 complete albums, 14,272 songs and 38.2 days of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I've ripped 951 CDs with Audiograbber and only twice have I had difficulty. The first time was with the recent Foo Fighters double disc which I discussed in Foo Frustration. I managed to rip that sucker to MP3 thanks to software called AnyDVD and I wrote about that solution in Foo Solution.

Just last week I was stumped for the second time. Our Lady Peace's latest disc is a DualDisc and that spells trouble for rippers. Again, AnyDVD saved the day and I've got my music in the format I want them in so I can hear them where I want and how I want.

Take that, DualDisc!

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I've added 46 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• Death Cab For Cutie - Plans
• Kanye West - Late Registration
• Sarah Harmer - All Of Our Names
• Sarah Harmer - You Were Here
• Our Lady Peace - Healthy In Paranoid Times
• Our Lady Peace - Spiritual Machines
• The Clash - The Essential Clash (Discs 1 & 2)
• The Cult - Pure Cult, The Singles 1984-1995
• Joni Mitchell - Hits
• Jeff Buckley - Grace
• The Pixies - Doolittle
• Kid Rock - Cocky
• The Game - The Documentary
• Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt
• Jay-Z - In My Lifetime, Vol. 1
• Jay-Z - Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life
• Jay-Z - Vol. 3... Life And Times Of S. Carter
• Jay-Z - The Dynasty Roc la Familia
• Jay-Z - The Blueprint - The Curse
• Jay-Z - The Blueprint - The Gift
• Silverchair - Neon Ballroom
• Silverchair - Freak Show
• Scarface - Mr. Scarface Greatest Hits
• Scarface - The Fix
• 50 Cent - The Massacre
• 50 Cent - Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
• David Gray - Life in Slow Motion
• James Blunt - Back to Bedlam
• Classified - Boy-Cott-In The Industry
• Handsome Boy Modeling School - White People
• Lou Reed - NYC Man: The Collection (Discs 1 & 2)
• Carly Simon - Anthonlogy (Discs 1 & 2)
• Moby - Play
• Various Artists - Women & Songs
• Daniel Powter - dp
• Geto Boys - Greatest Hits
• Geto Boys - The Geto Boys
• Led Zeppelin - Latter Days: The Best Of Led Zeppelin
• Ol' Dirty Bastard - The Dirty Story: The Best Of ODB
• Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked For The Holidays
• Kenny Rogers - 42 Ultimate Hits (Discs 1 & 2)
• N.E.R.D. - In Search Of...

That's 951 complete albums, 13,971 songs and 37.4 days of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I've got the new Our Lady Peace album "Healthy In Paranoid Times" and now I'd like to rip it to MP3. Once I have it in MP3 like the rest of my collection, I can hear it wherever I want in my iRiver and add it to playlists on my computers.

This cd is a DualDisc. That means one side of the disc is DVD which has high quality sound files but must be played in a DVD player and can't be ripped by my software and the other side has grossly inadequate sound files that play in a proprietary player and sound like junk when ripped with my software. This is the first DualDisc I've encountered and I hope it's the last.

Pearl Jam, a band I'm seeing Monday night, are releasing high quality DRM-free MP3s of their concerts the same night, a move I whole heartedly applaud as one that's extremely fan friendly. Our Lady Peace, meanwhile, is frustrating the hell out of this fan and leaving a sour taste in my mouth. I just want my music my way, dammit!

I don't yet know how the new album is, but I already doubt "Healthy In Paranoid Times" is worth the trouble.

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I've added 26 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are, divided into two convenient categories.

My stuff...

• Death From Above 1979 - You're A Woman, I'm A Machine
• Arcade Fire - The Arcade Fire
• Stars - Set Yourself On Fire
• NOFX - The Greatest Songs Ever Written
• K-OS - Exit
• Dr. Dre - 2001
• Dr. Dre - The Chronic
• Jakalope - It Dreams
• Van Halen - The Best Of Both Worlds (Discs 1 & 2)
• Various Artists - Dr. Dre Presents... The Aftermath
• Lo Fidelity Allstars - Don't Be Afraid of Love
• Dire Straits - The Very Best of Dire Straits
• Tony Bennett - The Essential Tony Bennett (Discs 1 & 2)
• Dean Martin - The Very Best Of Dean Martin
• The Jackson 5 - Anthology (Discs 1 & 2)
• Harry Belafonte - Very Best of Harry Belafonte
• Nina Simone - Anthology (Discs 1 & 2)
• Café Del Mar - The Best Of (Discs 1 & 2)

Taryn's stuff...

• Avril Lavigne - Let Go
• Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin
• Pink - Missundaztood

That's 905 complete albums, 13,244 songs and 35.4 days of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I've added 87 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are, divided into three convenient categories.

New stuff...

• Hot Hot Heat - Elevator
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
• System Of A Down - Steal This Album!
• The Von Bondies - Pawn Shoppe Heart
• Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around
• 2pac - Until the End of Time (Discs 1 & 2)
• 2pac - Resurrection
• 2pac - The Rose That Grew From Concrete - Volume 1
• 2pac - All Eyez On Me (Discs 1 & 2)
• 2pac - Nu-Mixx Klazzics
• 2pac - R U Still Down? [Remember Me] (Discs 1 & 2)
• 2pac - Live
• 2pac - Loyal To The Game
• 2pac - Better Dayz
• 2pac - Greatest Hits (Discs 1 & 2)
• Makaveli - 7 Day Theory
• Outkast - The Love Below
• Outkast - Speakerboxxx
• Outkast - Stankonia
• Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
• De La Soul - Timeless: The Singles Collection
• Moby - 18
• Alice in Chains - Greatest Hits
• The Chemical Brothers - Singles '93 - '03
• The 2 Live Crew - Greatest Hits
• Run DMC - Ultimate Run DMC
• Faith No More - This Is It: The Best Of Faith No More
• Everclear - Ten Years Gone: The Best of Everclear 1994-2004
• Sugar Ray - The Best of Sugar Ray
• N.W.A. - Greatest Hits
• Creed - Greatest Hits
• Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of
• Bjork - Greatest Hits
• Motley Crue - Red, White & Crue (Discs 1 & 2)
• The Pogues - The Very Best Of The Pogues
• Ray Charles - The Definitive Ray Charles (Discs 1 & 2)
• Santana - The Essential Santana (Discs 1 & 2)
• James - The Best Of James
• Kanye West - The College Dropout
• Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Clan's Greatest Hits
• Stars - Heart
• Eric B. & Rakim - The Best of Eric B. & Rakim
• Gordon Lightfoot - Complete Greatest Hits
• Linkin Park - Reanimation
• Frank Sinatra - The Best Of Frank Sinatra (Discs 1 & 2)
• NaS - It Was Written
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - What Hits!?
• AC-DC - Who Made Who
• Beastie Boys - The Sounds of Science (Discs 1 & 2)
• Neil Diamond - The Essential Neil Diamond (Discs 1 & 2)

Taryn's stuff...

• ABBA - Gold - Greatest Hits
• Sarah Slean - Night Bugs
• Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
• John Prine - Prime Prine - The Best of John Prine
• Nelly Furtado - Folklore
• Nelly Furtado - Whoa, Nelly!
• The Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels
• The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
• The Rolling Stones - Stripped
• The Rolling Stones - Goats Head Soup
• Beyonce - Dangerously In Love
• Counting Crows - Recovering The Satellites
• The Eagles - Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
• Lost Dakotas - Last Train to Kipling
• The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues
• The Wallflowers - Bringing Down The Horse
• World Party - Egyptology

Stuff I could have ripped a long time ago but didn't because I was ashamed...

• Various Artists - Dance Mix 92
• Various Artists - Chris Sheppard Presents The Techno Trip
• M.C. Hammer - Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em
• Vanilla Ice - To The Extreme
• Various Artists - St. Elmo's Fire Soundtrack
• Bell Biv Devoe - Poison
• Bobby Brown - Don't Be Cruel
• C + C Music Factory - Gonna Make You Sweat
• Apache Indian - No Reservations

That's 879 complete albums, 12,840 songs and 824 hours, 41 minutes and 23 seconds of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I simply can't make up my mind. I proudly maintain this alphabetical list of albums in my MP3 collection, but a friend has advised me that my naming convention is all wrong. There are two issues that I'm on the fence about, and I need your help.

The first issue involves bands like "The Flaming Lips". I currently file them under "T" for "The". Apparently, I should be listing them as "Flaming Lips, The" and filing them under "F" for "Flaming". At this moment, there are 39 such "The" bands in my collection. Do I alphabetize them as "The Flaming Lips" or "Flaming Lips, The"?

The other issue involves solo artists like "Neil Young". I currently file him under "N" for "Neil". Should I instead by listing him as "Young, Neil" and putting him in "Y"?

I've been dwelling on this all week and I can't make up my mind. Please advise.

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I've added 60 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Here they are...

• K-OS - Joyful Rebellion
• Metric - Old World Underground, Where Are You
• Hot Hot Heat - Make Up The Breakdown
• The White Stripes - The White Stripes
• Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth
• Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
• Beck - Sea Change
• Beck - Mutations
• Beck - Midnite Vultures
• Jay-Z - The Blueprint
• Kasabian - Kasabian
• The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium
• Goldfinger - The Best of Goldfinger
• Gorillaz - Demon Days
• A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
• A Perfect Circle - eMOTIVe
• Headstones - Smile & Wave
• Radiohead - Pablo Honey
• David Gray - White Ladder
• The Postal Service - Give Up
• Cake - Pressure Chief
• Cake - Prolonging The Magic
• Cake - Comfort Eagle
• Powerman 5000 - Tonight The Stars Revolt!
• Larry The Cable Guy - Lord, I Apologize
• Lit - Platinum & Gold Collection
• Adam Sandler - Shhh...Don't Tell
• Huey Lewis & The News - Time Flies... The Best Of Huey Lewis
• Danny Elfman - Music For A Darkened Theatre
• John Williams - John Williams: Greatest Hits 1969-1999 (Discs 1 and 2)
• Whale - Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe
• Crash Test Dummies - God Shuffled His Feet
• Blink 182 - Take Off Your Pants And Jacket
• U2 - The Best Of and B-Sides of 1990-2000
• U2 - The Best Of and B-Sides of 1980-1990
• U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind
• U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
• Rancid - ...And Out Come The Wolves
• The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives
• Travis - 12 Memories
• Jack Johnson - On and On
• Jack Johnson - Brushfire Fairytales
• Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams
• Incubus - Make Yourself
• Norah Jones - Feels Like Home
• No Doubt - The Singles 1992-2003
• Keane - Hopes and Fears
• Matt Mays & El Torpedo - Matt Mays & El Torpedo
• St. Germain - Tourist
• Various Artists - Purple Rainbows
• Various Artists - The Matrix
• Various Artists - Back To The Future
• Various Artists - The X-Files: The Album
• Various Artists - The Best Beer Drinking Album In The World Ever The Second Round
• Various Artists - The X Files: Songs in the Key of X
• Various Artists - The Cable Guy
• Various Artists - Batman Forever

That's 792 complete albums, 11563 songs and 744 hours, 15 minutes and 29 seconds of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I've added 14 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Four of them I was heavily anticipating while the others just sort of showed up at the door and I let them in. The Celine Dion addition is tied to a rather long story I should remember to share some time soon.

• Foo Fighters - In Your Honor (Discs 1 & 2)
• The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
• Coldplay - X&Y
• Morcheeba - Who Can You Trust?
• Morcheeba - Big Calm
• The Notting Hillbillies - Missing...Presumed Having A Good Time
• Macy Gray - On How Life Is
• Various Artists - The Sopranos: Music From The HBO Original Series
• Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell
• Janet Jackson - Design of a Decade 1986/1996
• Barry White - The Icon Is Love
• Sting & The Police - The Very Best Of Sting & The Police
• Celine Dion - All the Way: A Decade of Song

That's 732 complete albums, 10820 songs and 690 hours, 49 minutes and 08 seconds of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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Earlier today I bitched about the Foo frustration I was feeling trying to rip "In Your Honor" to MP3. I mentioned I had a few tricks up my sleeve, and one of them just worked.

I had a friend rip them with AnyDVD, which celebrates the fact it can play, copy and rip protected Audio CDs. It worked wonderfully and produced some fine sounding files. I finally have my Foo.

I should read the archives of my own site more often. It turns out I've been down this road before. Back in October I had a similar experience with the Beastie Boys' "To The 5 Boroughs". It too refused to play on my home PC because of copy control software. At work, however, I had no problems ripping that CD whereas I couldn't get "In Your Honor" to rip properly without the assistance of AnyDVD.

In my honour indeed.

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I've been looking forward to hearing the new double album from the Foo Fighters for a while now. Yesterday, I got the CD and excitedly put it in my CD ROM drive on my personal computer and heard absolutely nothing. Even if I explored the CD ROM drive it wouldn't recognize the disc. This was the case for both "In Your Honor" CDs.

I managed to read the disc on my work PC and decided to rip it to MP3. First of all, this copy protected CD tried to install some piece of crap software on my system that would play the tunes. When I cancelled this installation, the CD ejected. If I wanted to play the disc, I had to install the piece of crap software. I managed to rip the discs to MP3 without installing the software, but when I played the files back the songs stuttered as if they were skipping. Not one MP3 was salvagable. Whatever that piece of crap copy protection software they've got on "In Your Honor" is, it prevents me creating a decent MP3 from it. What a frustrating turn of events. There has got to be a better way. If you shell out $20 for a CD, you should be able to rip it to MP3 to play on your MP3 player.

I've ripped 718 discs successfully, and I'm not about to be beat by Sony and the Foo Fighters. I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve and I'll share the results here. I want my Foo and I want my Foo in MP3.

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I've added 9 new CDs to my MP3 collection. A couple of new ones, a bunch of Bob Marley for the summer and a couple of Michael Jackson. I hear it's going to be a big week for him.

• Audioslave - Out Of Exile
• Oasis - Don't Believe the Truth
• Bob Marley & The Wailers - Talkin' Blues
• Bob Marley & The Wailers - Confrontation
• Bob Marley & The Wailers - Live!
• Bob Marley & The Wailers - Survival
• Bob Marley & The Wailers - Kaya
• Michael Jackson - Thriller
• Michael Jackson - Bad

That's 718 complete albums, 10663 songs and 678 hours, 53 minutes and 55 seconds of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I have two digital collections I don't ever want to lose. One is my collection of digital photographs I've taken of my children since I got my digital camera last June. These are irreplaceable and I cherish each one. The second is my MP3 collection which has taken about eighteen months to get to this point. It's not just the files but the meta data embedded within that is now exactly to my liking. I employ a very strict back up strategy when it comes to these two collections.

For starters, both collections reside on two physical hard drives on my home PC. There's a copy on my primary drive and secondary drive. Hard drive failures happen and I'm ready. Next, I periodically back everything up on DVD and store the DVDs at an undisclosed location. If my home PC is stolen or destroyed, I can restore my new drive with the DVD back ups. In fact, I backed everything up earlier today. Finally, and this is a newly added component of my back up strategy, I'm going to keep a copy of these files on another PC that won't reside in the same building as my home computer. This is as insurance against the unliklihood that my home PC would disappear and the back up DVDs fail. Ya never know.

So, with a copy of every file on three different physical hard drives and two different PCs at two separate locations and another copy of every file on DVDs kept at yet another location, I sleep well at night.

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I've added 16 new CDs to my MP3 collection. Most are greatest hits compilations with a few jazzy gems thrown in the mix for those times I'm in a jazzy mood.

• Leonard Cohen - More Best of Leonard Cohen
• Aretha Franklin - 30 Greatest Hits (Disc 1)
• Aretha Franklin - 30 Greatest Hits (Disc 2)
• John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman - John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
• Eric Clapton - The Cream of Clapton
• The Doors - The Doors
• Prince - The Hits (Disc 1)
• Prince - The Hits (Disc 2)
• George Thorogood & The Destroyers - Thorogood Live
• Curtis Mayfield - The Very Best Of Curtis Mayfield
• Bill Withers - Lean On Me: The Best of Bill Withers
• Sly And The Family Stone - Anthology
• Cassandra Wilson - New Moon Daughter
• Madeleine Peyroux - Dreamland
• Various Artists - Divas of Jazz - Studio
• Various Artists - Divas of Jazz

That's 709 complete albums, 10561 songs and 672 hours, 10 minutes and 31 seconds of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I've added a whole bunch of new CDs to my MP3 collection. Some brand new, some a little older. The first three listed rank amongst the best albums I've ever heard.

• System of a Down - Mezmerize
• Arcade Fire - Funeral
• The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
• Beck - Guero
• Weezer - Make Believe
• Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Ella & Louis
• Leonard Cohen - Ten New Songs
• Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
• Leonard Cohen - Songs From a Room
• Robert Johnson - King Of The Delta Blues
• Bruce Springsteen - Live In New York City (Discs 1 and 2)
• Ray Charles - Genius Loves Company
• Tom Cochrane - Mad Mad World
• Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Black Music For White People
• Paul Simon - Graceland
• Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
• Woody Guthrie - Pastures Of Plenty
• Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome
• Enigma - Love Sensuality Devotion - Greatest Hits
• Various Artists - Progression - A Progressive Rock Anthology
• Various Artists - The Number 1 70's Rock Album (Discs 1 and 2)
• Various Artists - Driving Rock (Discs 1 and 2)
• Various Artists - The Best Rock Album In The World...Ever! (Discs 1 and 2)
• Simple Minds - Street Fighting Years
• 10CC - Greatest Hits 1972-1978
• Sting - Fields of Gold - The Best of Sting 1984-1994

That's 693 complete albums, 10325 songs and 655 hours, 35 minutes and 53 seconds of tunage. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I've added a whole bunch of new CDs to my MP3 collection. There's some stuff I actually wanted, but a whole lot more I added for the benefit of others.

Stuff For Me:

• AC~DC - The Razors Edge
• The Beatles - 1
• The Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic
• The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
• The Flaming Lips - Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
• The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
• Deep Purple - Machine Head
• George Thorogood And The Destroyers - The Baddest Of George Thorogood And The Destroyers
• Jann Arden - Greatest Hurts
• Aerosmith - Greatest Hits
• Sarah Mclachlan - Mirrorball
• Sarah Mclachlan - Afterglow
• Sarah Mclachlan - Rarities, B-sides and Other Stuff
• Fiona Apple - Tidal
• Various Artists - Romeo + Juliet: Music from the Motion Picture
• Dido - No Angel
• Travis - The Man Who
• Buffalo Springfield - Retrospective: The Best Of Buffalo Springfield
• Cat Stevens - The Very Best Of Cat Stevens
• Steppenwolf - The Best Of Steppenwolf
• Simon and Garfunkel - The Definitive Collection
• Sex Pistols - Kiss This
• Rush - Chronicles (Discs 1 & 2)
• Led Zeppelin - Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin
• Bran Van 3000 - Glee
• Foghat - The Best Of Foghat
• Three Dog Night - The 20 Original Hits

For The Benefit Of Others:

• Tina Turner - Simply The Best
• Burton Cummings - The Burton Cummings Collection
• Blue Oyster Cult - Super Hits
• Harry Chapin - Greatest Stories Live
• Chiliwack - Greatest Hits
• The Bee Gees - The Very Best Of The Bee Gees
• Black Sabbath - The Best Of Black Sabbath
• Robert Palmer - Very Best Of Robert Palmer
• Bread - Anthology Of Bread
• Seals and Crofts - Greatest Hits
• Nazareth - Greatest Hits
• Gary Numan - Selection
• Diana Ross - One Woman: The Ultimate Collection
• Lionel Richie - The Definitive Collection
• The Police - Greatest Hits
• The Mama And The Papas - The Best Of The Mama And The Papas
• The Monkees - Greatest Hits
• Go Go's - Go Go's Greatest

That's 662 complete albums and 9870 songs. Check it out.

If you want to peak behind the curtain and see how I do it, read this detailed account as to how you can rip your CD collection to MP3 like me.

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I've added a whole bunch of new CDs to my MP3 collection. It's probably best I break down these new additions into three groups: stuff I really wanted, stuff I thought I should have around and for Taryn.

Stuff I Really Wanted:

• Queens of the Stone Age - Lullabies To Paralyze
• Custom - Fast
• Neil Young - Greatest Hits
• Leonard Cohen - The Best Of Leonard Cohen
• Ozzy Osbourne - The Ozzman Cometh (Discs 1 and 2)
• Crowded House - The Very Best of Crowded House

Stuff I Thought I Should Have Around:

• Tommy James and the Shondells - Anthology
• Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music - The Ultimate Collection
• Enya - Best Of Enya (Paint The Sky With Stars)
• John Denver - Greatest Hits
• Kraftwerk - The Mix
• Emerson, Lake and Palmer - The Very Best Of Emerson, Lake and Palmer

For Taryn:

• Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
• Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
• Eurythmics - Greatest Hits
• Elton John - The Very Best of Elton John (Discs 1 and 2)

That's 617 complete albums and 9191 songs. Check it out.

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I've added eight new CDs to my MP3 collection. The new additions are Broken Social Scene's "You Forgot It In People", Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' "The Best Of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds", Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's two CDs from "Amadeus", Stevie Wonder's two volumes of "Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection", The Door's "The Best of The Doors" and Smokin Suckaz Wit Logic's "Playin' foolz".

That's 599 complete albums and 8922 songs. Check it out.

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Last weekend, I started using iTunes to organize and play my MP3s. iTunes makes sorting really easy and gives you access to some interesting facts. Here's what I learned by glancing at my iTunes player.

First song when sorted alphabetically: #9 Dream - John Lennon
Last song when sorted alphabetically: Zooropa - U2
First artist when sorted alphabetically: 10CC
Last artist when sorted alphabetically: ZZ Top
Shortest song, excluding songs of silence: Jim Backus - 3rd Bass @ 0:04
Longest song, excluding songs with large periods of silence within: Echoes - Pink Floyd @ 23:27
First album when sorted alphabetically: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? - Oasis
Last album when sorted alphabetically: Zooropa - U2
Total number of songs in my collection: 8840
Time required to play entire collection without repeating a song: 23 days

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I've added nine new CDs to my MP3 collection. The new additions are Pink Floyd's "The Wall Part 1" and "The Wall Part 2", Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' "No More Shall We Part" and "The Boatman's Call", The Pretenders' "Learning To Crawl", Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player", INXS' "Kick" and R.E.M.'s "Automatic For The People".

That's 588 complete albums and 8857 songs. Check it out.

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I've added 21 new CDs to my MP3 collection. The new additions are Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", "Meddle", "The Division Bell" and "Dark Side of the Moon", Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain: 25 Years" four disc box set, Bruce Cockburn's "Anything Anytime Anywhere", Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" and "60 Minutes With...", Ray Charles' "16 Greatest Hits" and "His Greatest Hits, Volume 2", the Oh What A Feeling 2 four CD box set, "The Wired CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share.", "No Alternative" The Rankin Family's "Fare Thee Well Love" and "It's Christmas Time" featuring seasonal tunes from Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.

That's 579 complete albums and 8729 songs. Check it out.

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I've added eight new CDs to my MP3 collection. The new additions are The Strokes' "Room On Fire", Bob Geldof & The Boomtown Rats' "Great Songs of Indifference - The Best Of ...", Modest Mouse's "The Moon & Antarctica", Neil Young's "Rust Never Sleeps", The Libertines' "Up the Bracket", Patti Smith's "Land (1975 - 2002) - Discs 1 & 2" and The Clash's "London Calling".

That's 556 complete albums and 8417 songs. Check it out.

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I've been getting a lot of questions lately from people wondering exactly what I use to rip my CDs to MP3s and what steps are involved in the process. Below is a step-by-step guide for a newbie who wants to assemble an MP3 collection based on CDs they already possess.

1. Download Audiograbber - I realize there are various applications that will convert your CDs to MP3s, but I use Audiograbber. It's free and I've been quite pleased with its performance. Visit the download page and download Audiograbber 1.83 build 1 from one of the listed locations...perhaps this one.
   
   Now that you've downloaded Audiograbber, open the .exe file and install it.
2. Download the LAME MP3 Encoder - Although Audiograbber will enable you to rip your CDs to MP3s by itself, you'll want to increase the quality of your MP3 and that's where the LAME MP3 encoder comes in. Visit the download page and download lame-3.96.1 from one of the listed mirrors...perhaps this one.
   
   It's a compressed zip folder, so you'll have to unzip it. Windows XP comes with a utility that will do this automatically when you open the file, but other Windows users will need to use Winzip to unzip the dll. Once you've unzipped this file, simply put the contents into your Audiograbber directory. You now have an internal MP3 encoder.
3. Configure Audiograbber - On the Audiograbber toolbar under "Settings", select "General Settings". I'm comfortable with all the defaults here, but everyone will want the folders and songs named differently. I personally like a folder for each artist and within that folder a folder for each album name and then within that folder an MP3 for each track in the format 01 - Artist Name - Song Name. There's also an option on this tab to select the directory you want your files to write to. I've found it's easier for me to organize everything if Audiograbber places the folders in my Audiograbber directory until I'm ready to copy them over to my music folder. View this screen cap of how my General Settings are configured and mimic it if you want the same results.
   
   Next, on the Audiograbber toolbar under "Settings", select "MP3 Settings". Here you determine how you want Audiograbber to rip your CDs and at what bitrate. This is a very important step in configuring Audiograbber. I've chosen to grab to "MP3 file via intermediate wav file. Delete the wav file". Also, I've selected "Internal Encoder" and used the drop down arrow to select the LameEnc DLL I downloaded and dropped in the Audiograbber directory in step #2. Finally, I've dragged the selector under "Constant Bitrate" to 192 Kbit/s. I like the quality of sound I get from ripping to a 192 bitrate, but feel free to bump this up as high as you wish, if you can afford the hard drive space. View this screen cap to see how my MP3 Settings are configured and mimic it if you want the same results.
4. Get Album Details and Rip to MP3 - Now that Audiograbber has been downloaded and installed, your LAME MP3 Encoder has been downloaded, unzipped and copied to your Audiograbber directory and Audiograbber is configured to rip to your specifications, you're ready to rock. Place your CD in your CD Rom drive and open Audiograbber. You'll see one of the menu options on the top reads "Freedb" and is accompanied by a penguin icon. If you're connected to the Internet, click this icon and artist, album and song details will be automatically downloaded to Audiograbber. There's no need to ever type in song names or any such detail. View this screen cap to see what happens when I click the penguin after placing the Almost Famous soundtrack in my CD rom.
   
   If you're happy with what you see, click "Grab!" which is the option accompanied by a hand. Audiograbber will begin converting the tracks on your CD to MP3 as you specified in step #3. It's that easy. Once Audiograbber is finished, you'll find the folders in the directory you set in that step. If you've chosen to have everything terminate to your Audiograbber directory, navigate there, cut the Artist folder containing the CD title folder and subsequent tracks, and copy it to your permanent music folder. Follow these steps for every CD in your collection and your music folder will resemble my music folder.
5. Tips and Tricks - Depending on how the information comes back from the Freedb, the artist name may be listed as "The Beatles" or "Beatles" or even "Beatles, The". You'll want to keep this consistent throughout your collection so pick a format and stick to it. That way, all of your Beatles albums will remain under the same folder instead of having some filed under "The Beatles" and others filed under "Beatles".
   
   In a similar vein, you'll most likely have numerous compilation CDs in your collections that won't be filed under a particular artists name. The details coming back from the Freedb may have the album listed under a directory entitled "Various Artists", "Various", "Compilation" or some variant thereof. Again, pick a format and stick to it so everything remains nicely organized on your PC.
   
   The speed at which this ripping takes place depends upon the resources available to you. If your machine isn't up to snuff, it would probably be best that you don't do anything else while Audiograbber is doing its thing. And speaking of resources available to you, hosting your entire CD collection on MP3 requires a good chunk of hard drive space. Ripping at a 192 bitrate, Eminem's Encore takes up 105 MB of space. Do the math and ensure you have sufficient space.
   
   And finally, if you've got a good sized CD collection, ripping it all to MP3 will take up a great deal of your time. You'll be popping discs in and out of your PC for hours and hours on end. I started my digitization project back in December 2003 and I didn't finish it until this past spring. It's a massive job and you don't want to do it more than once if you can help it. Do yourself a favour and back up your music. Hard drive failures happen, computers can get stolen or destroyed, shit happens, so burn your files to CD or DVD and sleep well knowing they're there when you need them. I know I do.

That's it in a nutshell. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me. I can tell you from experience, once your collection is digitized into MP3s you'll truly be able to access your music, your way. You'll feel liberated, listening to tracks you haven't heard in years, creating eclectic playlists in Winamp, burning massive MP3 mixes and burning audio CDs when MP3 mixes are insufficient. It will be glorious.

Enjoy the music.

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I've added a whole bunch of new CDs to my MP3 collection. It's probably best I break down these new additions into three groups: recent releases, old favourites and for Taryn.

Recent Releases:

• Eminem - Encore
• Marilyn Manson - Lest We Forget (The Best Of)
• The Tragically Hip - 92nd Grey Cup Commemorative CD
• Pearl Jam - Rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991-2003) Up Side (Disc 1)
• Pearl Jam - Rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991-2003) Down Side (Disc 2)
• Sum 41 - Chuck
• Jimmy Eat World - Futures

Old Favourites:

• Bruce Springsteen - Greatest Hits
• Crash Test Dummies - The Ghosts That Haunt Me
• Tripping Daisy - I Am An Elastic Firecracker
• Various Artists - CFNY: The New Music Search 1993
• Rusty - Sophomoric
• Odds - Good Weird Feeling
• Pet Shop Boys - Discography
• Moist - Silver
• Treble Charger - Maybe It's Me
• Various Artists - 102.1 The Edge Campus Tour Sampler 96
• Kenny Rogers - Greatest Hits
• Various Artists - Almost Famous Soundtrack
• Kid N' Play - Funhouse
• Maestro Fresh-Wes - The Black Tie Affair
• Kris Kross - Totally Krossed Out
• Positive K - The Skills Dat Pay Da Bills
• Technotronic - Trip On This -The Remixes
• Various Artists - It's Christmas Time
• Various Artists - Favourite Christmas Carols
• Various Artists - Christmas With A Kick II
• Various Artists - NOW Christmas: Traditional (Disc 1)
• Various Artists - NOW Christmas: Contemporary (Disc 2)

For Taryn:

• Shania Twain - Up!
• Shania Twain - Come On Over
• John Mellencamp - American Fool
• Ian Hunter - Shades Of Ian Hunter
• Cyndi Lauper - Twelve Deadly Cyns ...And Then Some

That's 548 complete albums and 8302 songs. Check it out.

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I've added six new CDs to my MP3 collection. The new additions are Eminem's "Encore", Marilyn Manson's "Lest We Forget", Sum 41's "Chuck", Jimmy Eat World's "Futures" the Beastie Boys' "To The 5 Boroughs" and Bruce Springsteen's "Greatest Hits".

That's 519 complete albums and 7885 songs. Check it out.

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I've added seven new CDs to my MP3 collection. The new additions are Franz Ferdinand's "Franz Ferdinand", Modest Mouse's "Good News For People Who Love Bad News", The Killer's "Hot Fuss", Papa Roach's "Getting Away With Murder", Green Day's "American Idiot", 311's "Greatest Hits '93-'03" and Cream's "Strange Brew - The Very Best of Cream".

That's 511 complete albums and 7894 songs. Check it out.

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I've added four new CDs to my MP3 collection. The new additions are Velvet Revolver's Contraband, The Tragically Hip's In Between Evolution and the two new acoustic Pearl Jam CDs, Live At Benaroya Hall, October 22, 2003. All four are awesome.

That's 503 complete albums and 7766 songs. Check it out.

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I just added nine new albums to my collection of MP3s. I added...

1. The Punisher Soundtrack
2. Billy Talent's Billy Talent
3. Rage Against The Machine's Live At The Grand Olympic Auditorium
4. Hype Soundtrack
5. Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits
6. Kill Bill Volume 2 Soundtrack
7. Stray Cats' Greatest Hits
8. Ben Folds' Rockin' The Suburbs