What should I do with my collection of audio CDs?

[Qs Laptop]

The first time I made a flash drive of 1600 songs I found out that my car couldn't go past 999

The solution was to make 2 folders A-L and M-Z. But then if you were looking for a song you had to scroll forever. So I made folders for every letter plus the numbers (38 Special, 54-40, etc). So 27 folders making it a lot easier to find a particular band or song.

Not sure how many folders I have. Maybe 50-75? It's not that hard or distracting to scroll through them while driving, though I rarely try unless I'm in light traffic or at a light. I see about 5 folders at a time while viewing folders in my Subaru Forester. I put a new head unit in my old Miata a few years back and I can't view folders by name, so I just put a bunch of singles on a memory card and use random order. I don't take long trips in that car anyway.

Overall I'm very happy with this system, and it's a lot better than finding and swapping CDs.

Scrolling through songs? I guess I'm spoiled by the UConnect system in my Ram 1500 pickup. I press a button on my steering wheel and say, "Play Another Brick in the Wall" (plays that song), or "Play album The Wall" (plays the entire album in proper song order) or "Play artist Pink Floyd" (plays all songs by Pink Floyd in alphabetical order) or "Play genre Cool Jazz", etc.

It's to the point when I need to replace my truck I will look at the entertainment system in the potential new vehicle and check it out for having these features, including what formats of audio files it can handle. While not a pressing priority, it will figure in my decision.

 

[RunningBum]

My '14 Subie doesn't read the track # tag. I think I did rename the tracks with the number first. I think my issue with the track title is that whatever I used I rip it named track something like "Pink Floyd - The Wall Disc 1 01 In the Flesh" and my car's player doesn't read far enough to get to the track number. It was something like that, and I'm pretty sure I did fix it your way.

No voice control in my 2014 Subie either. Something to look forward to when I get a new one, but that could be awhile.

 

[JohnnyG]

If you like Apple Music, just stick with that and give them away to friends and family. Alternatively, you can build your own iTunes library and use the Apple Music service to complement your collection. When you hear something new that you like, buy it and download it to your library. This supports the artists far better than subscriptions alone. AND, since you own the content, you can take it with you on multiple devices and play offline if you cannot connect to the internet.

 

[KT1R]

Rip Them

I had the same problem, so I "ripped" the CDs to MP3 on a USB stick. Now I can plug it into my GMC USB port and listen to all my favorites. Easy to rip these days. Google how.

 

[rk911]

I've been collecting music CD's since the 80's. I have around 200 CDs that have been sitting in a closet for close to a decade untouched.

My Tesla does not have a CD player. I don't have a single CD player anywhere in my house. I pay $99/year for Apple Music, which gives me access to virtually every album ever produced, so there is no reason for me to ever want to go back and listen to any of those CDs.

I tried going to the site www.decluttr.com to sell my CDs to them. When I scan them in, about half they have no interest in. The other half have a value of between .17-.22 cents. So if I go to the trouble of scanning them all in and packing them up, I might get $20 for my efforts. It's not worth the trouble to me.

Can anyone provide advice on what to do with these? Would any charity organization want them? Should I just throw them out? Is it possible that many years from now they will become collector's items and will sell for a lot of money again, like some really old vintage vinyl records?

donate them to Goodwill. they're one of our fav charities.

 

[tenant13]

I actually still collect CDs: but to make it hard on myself, only Japanese DJ mixes. And I have thousands of them. It’s kind of insane (I have a very addictive personality) but it’s my hobby so I shrug it off as harmless.

The other day I looked around my place and realized I could walk out with a carry on and not look back at anything else except my collection... Which makes me want to pack them up, hide them in a mini storage for a year or two and then stop paying because I wouldn’t care any longer (out of sight... ).

 

[Skitso999]

Part of the reason people with their music on a hard drive don't listen to them, is that it's much more entertaining to leaf through the CD boxes and see what hits your fancy at that moment and then play it!!

KEEP your CDs, and start listening to them! Put them on a bookshelf or in trays so you can take them out and see a bunch at one time! I have mine stored on an old VHS rack, and it only takes up about three feet of wall space for hundreds of CDs.

I also have a CD-capable boombox that I take to wherever I am, and listen to them there. I find that any computer or laptop with a CD drive has terrible speakers that never get loud enough.

 

[frank62]

You should see what they're worth first, I'm a music seller on Discogs, it's a music site for selling albums (records) and cds. I just sold a single cd for $125 a few weeks ago. Most cds can sell up to $10 to $25, Then there's the mostly commercial pop cds that sold a lot. Those will probable sell for $1. You should check out ebay and Discogs first before you make a move but if you don't care about the money, drop them off at a Goodwill store. My records vinyl sell very well, many people through them in the garbage when cds came out, I have records that are in the hundreds of dollars now. Streming music doesn't sound as good as cds or vinly.

 

[samm]

Salvation Army or Goodwill would be happy to take them.

Many public libraries accept them

 

[ddoorn]

FreeCycle.org or NextDoor.com

Years ago I dumped my vinyl through Freecycle. More recently I gave up on CDs (mostly, still hanging onto a few, around 20) through my neighborhood app, NextDoor.com.

 

[statsman]

I had the same problem, so I "ripped" the CDs to MP3 on a USB stick. Now I can plug it into my GMC USB port and listen to all my favorites. Easy to rip these days. Google how.

Exactly what I did for our Buick 2015 SUV, except the Infotainment software in the vehicle's audio head unit sucks (and probably does for other GM SUVs around the same vintage). The volume levels of the USB and Bluetooth sources are vastly lower than the radio stations (XM/FM/AM). And that's with maximizing the volume levels within the MP3 files without hitting distortion levels.

Forget to lower the volume substantially before switching from USB/Bluetooth to a radio station, and the vehicle's speakers, along with my ears, suffer from blasted sounds. Forget to switch away from USB/Bluetooth when turning off the vehicle, in conjunction to not lowering the volume control, and the vehicle will many times start back up with the last played radio station blaring.

This definitely could be filed under "Pet Peeve of the Day/Year/Last 5 years".

 

[WWDog]

I used to hang CDs from a wire from the trees in my yard to scare off squirrels or at least make them nervous. Got a metal roof and hardy plank last year so I don't need to scare them off anymore. It also helps reflect the heat here in San Antonio.

 

[wet_eagle]

Try going to Freecycle.org and join your nearest group. Then post an Offer and you are very likely to find someone who will take them off your hands. Sales are not allowed on Freecycle, just give-aways, with the objective of keeping things out of the landfill.

 

[kraxnsepp]

CDs

I would keep them: I'd buy sleeve books, throw away the jewelcases and rip them one by one, keeping the cd as backup, here's why.



If you still like your music collection, it is far simpler to play the 80% of music you like without paying subscription service fees. you may enjoy purchasing a Brennan B2, which lets you rip the cd and looks up the content and catalogues it, and acts as a server (you can access it anywhere). On the B2 and on any pc with windows 10, a cdrom drive, and windows media player, you could spend 10 evenings ripping 20 cds in high / nearly lossless mp3 quality and being platform independent, and being able to label / relabel the music the way you like it.
I switched from iphone to samsung smartphone specifically for the ability to have 500gb of additional storage, an agnostic music player (mediamonkey) and carry my entire collection with me.
On a side note, if you ever thought you can host a party with your tunes, it's now easier than ever - you can now fit your entire playlists on a few SD cards and purchase a GODJ device, a dj / musicplayer with 2 virtual turntables and autodj function, that is almost pocket-size. Also, those same SD cards fit in most SD holders for many cars. Or you pop your entire 200 cd collection on an external drive and hook it up to your car system.


In order to be platform independent and do all that stuff, you need your music (files) ownership, which is why I still keep old school cds as "backup" in several bins, even though I hardly use them, once digitized.

 

[bzribee]

I got part way through downloading my CD's then got distracted for a few years. I still have CD players but rarely think of listening. Worse, I have about 600 cassettes, mostly homemade, so about 2.5 albums on each one. It's really hard to let go of these but again, I hardly ever listen to them. So many great albums. My long distance driving album was Alan Parsons Project. I guess I can find that online.

I've had great success giving things away on FB Marketplace and Freecycle (now an "io" group?).

Some great ideas I'll use from you all: taking a picture of the lined up cassette titles (mostly as a momento) then dumping those would kickstart me on the rest of the decluttering I need to do. Then finding the service someone mentioned to copy the CD's for me. And, someone somewhere might want my 5 disk changer CD player. As soon as I Marie Kondo my clothes...

 

[Closet_Gamer]

Sent all of mine to a recycler so they would be disposed of properly.

Signed up for a family Spotify account that covers myself, dw, dd1 and dd2.

Done.

 

[Rosedala]

I've been collecting music CD's since the 80's. I have around 200 CDs that have been sitting in a closet for close to a decade untouched.

My Tesla does not have a CD player. I don't have a single CD player anywhere in my house. I pay $99/year for Apple Music, which gives me access to virtually every album ever produced, so there is no reason for me to ever want to go back and listen to any of those CDs.

I tried going to the site www.decluttr.com to sell my CDs to them. When I scan them in, about half they have no interest in. The other half have a value of between .17-.22 cents. So if I go to the trouble of scanning them all in and packing them up, I might get $20 for my efforts. It's not worth the trouble to me.

Can anyone provide advice on what to do with these? Would any charity organization want them? Should I just throw them out? Is it possible that many years from now they will become collector's items and will sell for a lot of money again, like some really old vintage vinyl records?

Hi Ready, I would donate them to Senior Citizens Communities in your area to give them something better and different from the usual bingo and other such childish things.

 

[The HalfBreed]

I didn't read all the pages upon pages of posts, but, you can digitize them and turn them into MP3's.
Windows 10 Media Player will do it for you, and once you set it up, it's automatic. Research the topic, coz it's easy to do and you already own them.

There's a checkbox in the "Options" section where Windows Media Player will label the album, and the songs, and you should ensure the finished product goes into your "My Music" Folder.

I digitized my vinyl albums (had to clean them up, clicks, pops, etc) then I put all my CD's into MP3 format so I can listen to them on my I-pod.

I think each CD took about 5 min to complete, and it's automatically ejected when it's done.

 

[Ready]

I ended up donating the CDs to Goodwill. I’m not sure how excited they were to take them in but they did accept them. I’ve had them in my IPod library for years but I never listen to them any more because I have an Apple Music subscription which lets me listen to virtually any song ever produced. I guess if you don’t want to pay for a music subscription they still may have value to you for for $99/year I’d rather not have to think about it.

 

[ajs56]

Part of the reason people with their music on a hard drive don't listen to them, is that it's much more entertaining to leaf through the CD boxes and see what hits your fancy at that moment and then play it!!

KEEP your CDs, and start listening to them! Put them on a bookshelf or in trays so you can take them out and see a bunch at one time! I have mine stored on an old VHS rack, and it only takes up about three feet of wall space for hundreds of CDs.

I also have a CD-capable boombox that I take to wherever I am, and listen to them there. I find that any computer or laptop with a CD drive has terrible speakers that never get loud enough.

+100

 

[ransil]

I have started selling my CD collection on eBay averaging about $3 each, listing them grouped by band 3 or 4 per week as it takes time to inspect them and get em listed.

 

[ransil]

Ebay so far
Sold 96 CD's average is $4.00 per CD
Highest $9.33 ( 6 in the set)
lowest $ 2.33 (3 in the set)

lots of dead beats bidding and not paying, the first set I listed is still here after listing twice and no payment.

It is some effort getting them looked over, pictures, descriptions then finding boxes ect but its middle of winter and not doing much else.