Filling your MP3 player with music isn’t just about downloading songs from the Internet – you can also use MP3 ripping software to transfer music you currently own such as your CD collection on to your audio player.
This is a real easy way to build up a digital music collection on one player. Some players have such a large memory capacity that you can, quite literally, transfer thousands of CDs on to them. This really does allow you to have access to music at your fingertips!
The actual process of a CD rip can be extremely fast and simple. You’ll need a specially designed software package to do it but you’ll find that most players will come with their own software to let you copy, save, download and manage your digital music and your audio player.
If you don’t buy a player with a software package then the Internet will provide a solution – there are hundreds of general ripping programs out there. Some will cost you a small fee and some are free – it really depends on what you want the software to do for you whether you pay for it or not.
In most cases all you need to do to rip a CD to your player is to open up your player’s software or the package you’ve opted to use and then put the CD into your CD-ROM drive. The software will read the CD and you’ll then be able to transfer it to your player. This can take just a minute or so (or even just a few seconds) with the best packages.
Many will even have an automatic link to a music recognition URL so they’ll be able to work out which CD you want to rip and name all the tracks for you – we’re talking minimum effort here!
The majority of CD ripping software that comes with players will also allow you to do other stuff too. For example, you can build a music library and manage your digital music via your PC. Some software will allow you to change the file format of tracks (i.e. from MP3 to WMA and so on) and some will allow you to burn CDs as well from your music library.
One thing to be aware of is that some CDs are protected – record companies want to cut back on people copying their products so they have them rights protected. This can often mean that you can’t actually rip certain CDs with some software packages. And, as with any software, some CD ripping packages are better than others. Some are very basic and some will simply not get on with your computer (or with you!). If this is the case you might be better off investing in an independent software package to get the features and ease of use that you want.
Check out more information on legal music downloads .