I've got about 120 CDs ripped to MP3 on my local hard drive. That's about 6GB worth. I used to think that was a lot of storage, but now I look at my playlist (every CD I've ripped, organized alphabetically by artist), and I see it's not that big after all. The 10GB iPod and 20GB Rio jukeboxes are starting to look interesting.
Why keep all 120 CD's worth online at once? Because it makes for an interesting mix. I'm usually not in the mood to listen to more a dozen or so different CDs at any given point in time, and having a wide range available means that I've got something to listen to. The reviewers and pundits who look askance at the large-capacity MP3 players don't get this simple fact of life: many people have a large music library and wide-ranging tastes; while you might be in a jazz mood today, tomorrow it could be some obscure classic rock, and the next day it could be some droning dance beats. Having all of that nearby makes music interesting again (like Brewster Kahle said, things get interesting when you just throw down the gauntlet and just try to "do it all" like AltaVista, Google or the wayback machine).
When I add CDs to my catalog, I run a Perl script over the directory to build playlists -- one per album and one of everything on the HD. I've got to come up with a better system, because the segue from the Velvet Underground to Vivaldi, or the Dead Kennedys to Django Reinheart is just too striking.
Re:Indeed
ziggy on 2002-05-20T21:40:35
I've started doing that, mostly because I'm getting bored with some of my newer CDs....I can start ripping a lot of my older CDs. :-) It hit me today that I'm surprised at what I'm still listening to now, vs. what I'm not listening to anymore. Some of these CDs I've had for 15 years, and I have no desire to hear them again (except possibly for nostalgia, sometime in the next 5-10 years). Some of these CDs I got on a lark (Dread Zeppelin), and wonderful to hear them again (this week; probably won't feel the same after I've heard them once or twice this month).
