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home ›   tip library ›   Music Downloads

Tired of alphabetizing and dusting your CD collection?

The Bite

With the ability to download music now, you can eliminate the need to purchase CDs (and the B-side songs and plastic waste that comes along with them)!

The Benefits

  • Get rid of unwanted titles in your collection. Every month approximately 100,000 pounds of CDs become outdated, useless or unwanted.
  • Eliminate the need for the resource-intensive process of production, packaging and distribution of disks.
  • Make someone happy by selling your CDs or giving them to friends/charity.
  • Get only the music you want. Download single tracks for $0.99 instead of buying a whole album.

Personally Speaking

With her small apartment and iPod obsession, Heather hasn't bought an actual CD in more than 2 years. Jen received an iPod and a speaker docking station for her birthday but still listens to the radio while dreaming of finding the time to set it up.

Wanna Try?

Even if you don't have an iPod, you can switch to downloaded music on your computer (assuming you have speakers). Simply install one of the following programs, upload your CD collection and voila! - digital music:

Can't live without 'em? Keep your disks out of extreme conditions and use a mild abrasive (like toothpaste) to fix scratches, and your collection can last a long time.

Sep 16,2005


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Rubbernecking Celebrity Playlists

Labor Day weekend. Beautiful beach in Connecticut. Friend turns to me and says "Imagine what the aliens must think - seeing all these people with white wires hanging out of their ears all the time."

Aliens aside, yes, we live in a time where we are becoming iPod junkies.

Because I have a mad obsession with my iPod and find myself downloading too much music, I like to latch onto any justification I can find for my insanity. Thus, I prefer to think about the fact that I am getting music that doesn't require any plastic CD cases or shipping, and that also doesn't require that I brave the lines at the Virgin Megastore.

Another killer thing about downloading music? Celebrity playlists. Feel incredibly voyeuristic as you see what "mix tapes" your favorite artists make and listen to.

Songs to download:

  • Portions for Foxes - Rilo Kiley
  • Some of Them are Nice Days - The Honey Brothers
  • Better Together - Jack Johnson

-Heather... off to make playlists for class tonight...


Biter Comments...
I just wanted to follow up with this mornings tip by giving you this website. www.obviously.com/recycle/guides/hard.html This information has changed since the last time that I looked at it, but locally cities might have more locations to recycle these. While the idea is great to use ipods, folks should encourage the manufacturer to make it with batteries that can be replaced. I have avoided buying this expensive musical outlet since its life span is about 2 1/2 year. Info. from above site: Damaged CD's can be repaired, and repair or reuse is definitely a better environmental option than recycling. You have some chance of repairing small numbers of obvious scratches with a mild abrasive such as toothpaste. Work only on the non-label side, with strokes radially out from the center. Professional refinishers such as AuralTech CD Refinishing will repair disks for about $3 each and guarantee the results. If you just don't like the CD's, give or trade them at a music store or donate them to charity. Obsolete or unrepairable CD's and cases can be recycled. Recordable CD-R's have about 20mg of gold that can be recovered, and some processors can actually remove the data layer, and reuse the plastic disc. If you are worried about proprietary data, you can cut them with a pair of heavy duty tin shears, or place them in a microwave oven with a small glass of water (for one disc, 5 seconds on medium does a fantastic job, and creates a spectacular light show) Since CD's are not very valuable, nobody will pay you for recycling. Send pre-paid by UPS Ground, third-class mail, freight or other surface transportation to NESAR Systems, 420 Ashwood Road, Darlington, PA 16115 (724)827-8172 or Digital Audio Disk Corporation, Attention: Disc Recycling Program, 1800 Fruitridge Ave., Terre Haute, IN 47804-1788, (812) 462-8323a

Posted by: Kathy | September 16, 2005 at 10:24 AM

Kathy has some nice points there. (In a sense it's handier to know how to recycle CDs than it is too hear how damaging they are when obsolete.) Mine are of a slightly more audiophile perspective: 1) Quality – I have yet too see these online music stores offer none lossy format, CD quality audio. (Mostly the quality ranges from 128kbs AAC/WMA to 192kbs MP3. Not as high as it could be.) 2) DRM Restrictions. There are no major online music stores that offer none DRMed music. DRM = A pain in the arse, pardon my french. only (smaller) indie record labels have offered none DRMed downloads ... The restrictions are usually tied to a certain brand of player, restricting the consumer further. So downloads have their pros and for many far to many cons. (Until one can download music in CD quality without restrictions, downloading is not an equal option.) And when it comes to packaging; It's part of the art, usually. Cheers! -Tim

Posted by: Tim | September 16, 2005 at 11:56 AM

Tim - my brother would SOOOO agree with you. I am pretty lax in my music expectations. (I always drove him crazy when I'd make mix tapes that cut off songs halfway through or didn't record at the highest possible sound setting (whatever all that meant)). I agree - music purists are a LONG way from being able to be happy with downloadable music quality - but as with everything, we're getting there. As for the art/packaging - a lot of downloaded albums are now starting to include special PDF downloads of the pictures, lyrics and covers for the albums -and many include special content and songs that you can't get anywhere else, so I feel like the art needle is moving toward the downloaded versions as well. Time will tell. Kathy - I'm terrified at the idea of microwaving CDs, but love the repairing/recycling information. Keep on commenting - we really loved both your insights here.

Posted by: Heather | September 19, 2005 at 09:11 AM

Have you tried listening to podcasts? I think you might find "More Hip than Hippie" a good one to start your podcast experience. www.morehipthanhippie.com is their website.

Posted by: Jrich9 | September 19, 2005 at 07:45 PM

Heather; Now I doubt that I am by far a purist, I just like to hear the thing that the artist intended me to hear, not a version where half the highs and lows are cut off by an algorythm. ;) But I've been aware of the ITMS PDF feature, I in part use iTunes to catagorize, sort and store my PDFs. Hehe. :) But like digital books, they still can't beat the feel of the real thing in your hands. (Although I must admit I feel guilty about the amount of trees that are sacrificed ... Any thoughts on doing a bite on paper recyling?) Anyway, the commenting will continue when I have something too add. :) Cheers! PS: Here's a small page on microwaving CDs that I found ... : http://apache.airnet.com.au/~fastinfo/microwave/cd/ Seems like rather a bit of fun. Hehe. But I doubt it's very practical otherwise. :)

Posted by: Tim | September 20, 2005 at 05:41 AM

What can be done with old political buttons?

Posted by: Paul Thompson | February 08, 2007 at 04:43 AM

our band released our cd digital only to reduce the waste associated with replicating cd's on a mass scale.

Posted by: mojavemusic.ca | November 06, 2007 at 03:36 PM

the life of a celeb playlist is always going http://www.hotcelebrityimages.com/

Posted by: Celebrity | June 12, 2008 at 06:53 PM

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