Tip-O-The-Day: CDs, WTF To Do w/ Them?!

Hi!

Sooooo, are you sitting near a book case right now, or better yet, a CD stand just filled with all your most prized (and dated) music? If you're under 25, maybe not. But if you had any income throughout the 90's, I'm betting you have a fair amount of music on disc.

Now that you're all teched up and out with your ipod/iphone/imac/itunes/ipad and ibrain - what are you going to do with those stacks and stacks of discs?
There are three questions to address here:
1. Can you really get any money at Amoeba for them?
2. Can you even give them up, or at least give up their cases and the idea of ever selling them?
3. How the hell and who the hell has time to download 500 CDs onto a computer?

Well, I can tell you how I answered these questions when I moved from San Francisco in 2004 and did NOT want to lug three shelves of CDs with me.

1. I didn't have a this mac, or a computer of this millennia yet, so I didn't have a man-enough machine to download them all.
2. Since I needed to keep them, I paranoid-ly decided my taste in music was not cool enough to ever sell them, so I went to Target, bought two giant CD books and rolled out the blue bin to disassemble and recycle all the cases. I was afraid they wouldn't get recycled if the jacket covers were still attached. But some friends were horrified that I didn't care to keep the band info & lyrics, etc.... If you're one of these special romantics, you can keep the paper covers and put them in pocket of the CD book with corresponding CD.  Whatever spins your record (I just made that up, as you can tell).  So once my CDs were out of their cases, into the books they went.

3. When I did get a download-worthy computer, I made a home-made spindle out of a wax pencil and a candle holder. I put as many CDs on it as fit and set it on my desk next to my computer and just started popping them in over and over whenever I was home. While puttering, while watching movies, while cooking, while talking on the phone, while cleaning, while writing.  On the way out for an errand? Popped one in. Going next door to see my Girls (my neighbors are now indispensable friends) - Popped another one in. It took a week maybe, and when one was done, I'd just put it directly back in the book. BUT if that's not an easy option, you can make two spindles and have one on the other side of your desk for "loaded" CDs.  Just choose one method or the other for putting them away, otherwise you end up with them sliding all over your desk and getting ruined, not to mention in the way.

That is how one can tackle this seemingly endless or daunting task - it's not undoable (= doable), it's not impossible, and you don't even have to give up your CDs!

Tapes, on the other hand....Brothers and Sisters, give up the ghost. Really.

Thanks for reading!

xo ruby