What does one do with CDs that have been added to an iTunes collection?
24-inch iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
What do you mean? Are you asking what you should do after they have been imported to iTunes? I would just store them somewhere if you aren't using them anymore.
Music access and organization are certainly more convenient than with physical CDs. Does storing them suggest the concern that iTunes might lose them, that a computer drive might fail? Do they have greater value to oneself and others if donated to a public or college library?
I wasn't suggesting of iTunes losing them or a Hard-Drive fail. Having them stored on an external drive as a backup would be the solution in that case. It's comes down to what you want to do with them, I was merely making a suggestion.
Not sure how one would donate to a library, how and if they accept them. You could always ask if that's the route you want to go.
I do not borrow any many CDs from libraries as others (some people all but refuse to buy what they can borrow for the price of tax dollard they have paid already).
But everytime I have looked, there gaps in the more popular music -- sometimes slim pickings, in short.
Any library would likey welcome the donations once it is shown they still play and are not illegally obtained.
And I may be overthinking that "illegal" part.
If you donate them, you don't get to keep the music you RIP'd from them. You'd have to delete them as the physical CD is the license.
So I was mis-thinking the illegal part,
My bad.
Keep them as another form of backup for your music.
I would only discard them once you've made at least a FLAC or ALAC copy of the disc, and backed those up sufficently. You've only compressed it when you've added it to iTunes as an MP3, so you'd be losing some data. Would the average person need an uncompressed copy? Probably not, but that's what you paid for originally, and what is still contained on them.
Do they have greater value to oneself and others if donated to a public or college library?
Except for a few rare selections, used CDs are fairly inexpensive, since demand is dropping quickly. However, if you'd like to donate them, go ahead.
If you do decide to store the CDs, note that most of the bulk is in the plastic jewel cases. If you discard the cases, you can store 100's of CDs in relatively little space. However, do not do this for anything that may have collector value; those should be kept as intact as possible.
Richard, On second thought, here is a much better idea for your old CDs:
http://www.countrycalifornia.com/local-man-arrested-for-merchandise-tampering-at -area-walmart/
🙂
What to do with CDs?
