Having lived through the era of the music “tape”, yes this relatively small plastic device that stored musical lyrics was the technological advance and answer to the ancient and now antique “record”. I must admit I was slow to repurchase and discard my useless tapes for CD’s. But inevitably the tapes that I had played hundreds of times didn’t echo the same quality sound they once did and I’m sure most of us have experienced the all too familiar act of trying to reel the tape back into itself with a pencil. Even if you were successful at this your music just didn’t sound quite the same; which leads me to the conclusion that the CD was a great technological advance.
The CD saved space. How did you use to store your tapes and records? In a box under your bed, or perhaps scattered amongst the clutter of an already messy adolescent room. Most of the time the tape covers broke into pieces and if you were lucky you would be able to save the music covers. The revolution of the CD brought forth a new organizing challenge however. Although the CD was more convenient in many respects, like being able to store new music, quickly navigate from one song to another, fast forward and rewind parts of a song and yeah you didn’t even have to use a pencil! The CD was still cumbersome.
I used to be an avid runner, running from three to five miles every single day. I was thrilled when I received my very first walk man. Listening to music while running only enhanced my passion to do more of it, like most exercise feine’s listening to music while working out, gives me a sense of inspiration that not only motivates but inspires. One small problem however; the walkman and the CD versions were bulky and cumbersome. It was difficult to carry around and when you were running it was downright annoying.
This brings me to the digital world of the MP3, an MP3 is patented digital audio encoding that greatly reduces the amount of data required to record audio information, about one-tenth that of a CD. So, what does this all mean? This means that you no longer have to store bulky CD’s, cassette tapes, or records. A revolution is certainly upon us when it comes to the storage and deliverance of music. Hence, the MP3 player, the I-phone are small handheld devices that store and incredible amount of audio information. In fact, you could store your entire CD collection on your MP3 player.
What to do with those old CD’s once you’ve gone digital?
If you want to truly save space, I recommend that you transfer all your physical CD’s to digital format. That means ripping them to iTunes (or any other digital media application) and backing them up on a hard drive. ITunes will back up all of your music and will recover it if it is lost. However, it is a good idea to back up your music yourself. I would suggest purchasing an external hard drive to back up your music collection. You have several options when it comes to getting rid of the CD’s themselves.
1.Recycle-you may choose to have them destroyed and recycled
2.Donate- choose to donate your old CD’s to a local music shop or local community center. In some cases you can receive store credit and or money for your old collection.
3.Gift-give your old CD’s to friends or family members.
4.Store them in binders-ok you aren’t ready to part with your CD’s just yet. Throw away the jewel case and store your CD’s in binders. That way your CD’s are the backup for your digital music collection.
