iLounge

Model:  An Introduction to CD Ripping Services

An Introduction to CD Ripping Services

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By Jeremy Horwitz

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge
Published: Monday, January 2, 2006
Category: CD Ripping Services

Turning old CDs into iPod-ready MP3s is called ripping. And ripping is the only bad part of buying an iPod. With a fast CD drive, rips take 6-10 minutes per disc - that’s 10-17 hours for 100 CDs, not including the time you’ll spend organizing all of the songs. If you have more than 100 CDs, it’s definitely worth something to have all your ripping done for you - but how much? And can you really trust just anyone with your CD collection?

Pick a Trustworthy Ripper: You’ve built your CD collection from nothing into huge stacks of jewel cases, paying thousands of dollars for music you’d like to hear on your iPod. Do you really want to turn over your discs to a stranger who’s working out of a college dorm room, using your collection to build his own master music collection? No. That’s why we seek out reputable CD rippers - professional and trustworthy companies with centralized ripping facilities. We look for companies that don’t use misleading advertising or other tricks to fool potential customers, and ones that are committed to protecting the rights of musicians: none of the companies on our list are willing to rip copied CDs or CDRs.

How We Test: We send 100 CDs to each of the companies we test. Each collection includes some “bad� discs: cracked, mixed data and audio, or seriously scuffed CDs, and we also toss in some CD-Rs to see whether the companies would rip them, despite their statements to the contrary. We use 224Kbps encoding from each company, and rate only based on standard included services.

For More Information: Read our individual reviews in our CD Ripping Services section, or download our complete comparison table, found in The Free iPod Book. The table provides both individual reviews and an overall look at this industry’s pros and cons.