When one is faced with hundreds of CDs that need to be ripped into iTunes, every bit of time-savings helps. As usual, Apple has an option for users facing this daunting task.
A quick way to import CDs with the least amount of user effort:
In iTunes’ Preferences, go to the General section. Next to “On CD Insert,” use the drop-down menu to select “Import Songs and Eject.” With this option selected, iTunes will go out to the ‘Net and get the track names for the CD, import all the tracks, and eject the CD when it’s finished importing – without the user having to touch a thing.
Yes, you still have to feed the computer CDs, but this is all the user has to do with this method.
And don’t forget to download the free “Find Album Artwork with Google” AppleScript for iTunes by Brett O’Connor which performs a Google image search using an Album/Artist name to find album artwork online. It works very well. More info and download link here.
Have fun ripping!
More information about importing CDs with Apple’s iTunes here.
Oh great…I especially like this one:
“o RipDigital includes a unique identifying mark with each file to encourage responsible use of digital music. “
So instead of ripping our CDs for free we can pay someone to do it AND keep track of what we do with our music for us!
Macslut,
I think I understood what you meant. If I sent you the soundtrack to Eight Mile, and you had already ripped that particular CD and encoded it in the format I chose, you wouldn’t really need to re-rip the CD… if it weren’t for the music industry and their lawyers.
I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve been following the digital music scene enough to suspect that this would make them very nervous and litigious. I can think of no other reason that RipDigital would make an express point of the fact that they rip every single CD provided and don’t keep backup copies. It’s a strange industry, and they have already demonstrated their willingness to drag people to court.
Tom Robinson,
For similar reasons, RipDigital wants to remain in the good graces of the music industry. If they tag files with your identifying mark, they, 1) deter you from sharing the files illegally, and 2) provide an enforcement mechanism in the case that you do share them illegally.
Ripper,
Exactly.
Rippy,
You would have a valid point *if* we weren’t talking about music that was owned by both parties…I own the CD and the customer owns another CD. No bits are being transfered that aren’t already licensed by both parties. RipDigital makes the point *only* that they don’t keep back ups of people’s CDs or add them to their library.
There’s precedent for this. I did some work for a company that did something very similar that was server based back when virtual storage was all the rage.
So, if I own a scratched version of the Eight Mile soundtrack and I send it to you for ripping, you’ll send me the perfectly-ripped AACs that you have in your library? (Assuming you own an unscratched version of the disk.)
I’m not a lawyer, but I DO play one on TV.
Ok ok, I admit it. I posted as Scratchy.
The question I was trying to ask… “Do I have rights to own every encoded copy of a track just because I own a CD that contains that track? Or, do I only have rights to tracks encoded from my particular CD?”
I don’t know the answer, but it strikes me as the type of thing that the RIAA’s lawyers would love to argue about.
A “unique” identifier? Does that mean they put something in the Comments field? That’s not going to stop anybody from sharing those files.
Jim,
Nothing stops anybody from sharing any audio files. It simply is impossible to do. The laws of physics prohibit it. The idea is to show good faith effort, just like the iTMS.
Rippy Scratchy,
Yes, that’s exactly true. The company I consulted for back in the 90s created a system where you could insert a CD into your computer to prove ownership and then log in to their servers to listen to the music from any location. It failed for a variety of reasons, but legal action from the RIAA wasn’t one of them.
Macslut,
I believe that your employer negotiated for the right to do that from the RIAA or the labels themselves, in exchange for some form of consideration. I don’t believe that’s a right that you can simply assume.
Unless I’m wrong.
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Rippy, there was nothing more than the fact that people who owned a CD could get access to an encoded version of the CD on a server. The source was not their original CD. There was no payment, or any compensation or licensing required other than we had to have a copy of the CD, and all who accessed the encoded files from the server had to have a copy of the CD.
When you think about it logically for a second, you’ll realize it makes sense. There is no theft going on. No depriving of compensation. No copyright violation. No DMCA violation.
The company had a team of lawyers go over everything and potential risks resulted in a HUGE industry player not making an investment early on, but in the end the RIAA nor any labels did anything beyond their initial whining.
Unfortunately, the technology was seriously flawed, dot com go boom, and it couldn’t compete with all the free (yet illegal) P2P action. There were also a couple of other companies doing the same thing that went bust as well.