What should I do with my CDs?

Sell them as a job lot ?

keep them, in 20 years they will be worth someting (like records) especially if you have first edition albums ect.
I prefer records even though I am 18 and hardly got to experience them- not because there sound is better just becuase of the album artwork ect. there was a lot more of it than there is now, on mp3 you just get some low resolution image.

KEEP THE CD's

Please let me know if you wish to sell large collection in one go.
Nothing more exhilarating then spending 48 hours exploring someone else taste.

keep a colourful collection of CDs with interesting artwork and collectable value or get rid of them for basic digital media, no artwork, less quality, nothing collectable, just data on a computer.

I think the answer is simple

Keep 'em. There are people who swear that their sound quality is superior to downloads and they may make a "comeback" like vinyl is doing here in the USA. If you have any music that was ripped from them, don't get rid of them in case a file gets corrupted. I had that happen once and iTunes only had the album as a partial so I had to buy the CD again. Furthermore, it's a legal issue that you must possess the CD in which you ripped music from or you have to delete the music.

I'd keep 'em - they're physical & tangible - digital media is basically in the ether!

I download a lot at the moment from Youtube via the converter software BUT I burn it all to disc...

Remember that people were quick to sling out their old vinyl and many ended up regretting it!

Anybody don't want 'em.
Let me know.
I'll collect!

Sell them at FOPP records, they will give you a pound for every cd to spend instore, you can buy new music fairly cheaply stick it on your ipod then go and do it all again(and again and again) roughly 40 cds will get about 12-15 cds. they resell yours for 2 quid so you can add loads of new music to your collection. This is the best money you'll get for your cds and it is easy to do.

Trade in at 50 pence per item at some HMV stores - they sell them for 2 quid.By my reckoning thats £1.50 to rip and burn - a lot less than a download.

I would hang on to them. I made the big mistake of dumping my vinyl years ago. If you really want to get rid I would sell the higher value ones on Amazon/Ebay whatever and take the rest to your local charity shop and put them to a good cause.

like lp's 78's etc, keep them, i have a basie lp with the original artwork work, worth over £600!

BS

Make a sculpture out of them and display that. Type "cd sculpture" into google images for some ideas.

I don't understand why anyone who loves music would rather have a file instead of a physical copy. Nothing beats having a collection of cds and vinyls. If I pay for music I want something to show for it, even if I didn't have a stereo to listen on I would still be able to own and hold a cd. Without a pc/mp3 player/something to play a file on, I have nothing, cannot see anything, cannot hold anything, it's just data in space

i agree, especially with rock and metal. there is a lot of original interesting artwork to show for it, usually digipaks, plus dont forget the booklet, with metal they have the lyrics and usually photos of the band etc, its timeless. Pop is bland, usually just a picture of the band posing and no lyrics so that doesnt seem as bad downloading. digital media is ok but as long as it doesnt replace physical media, ripping a cd is cool to MP3 as long as you keep the CD's, getting rid of them makes the files seem worthless.

I have always thought of myself as a music lover and when i bought my ipod classic last september ( yes it took me that long to get a ipod!)
i got rid of my cd collection that was looked after and not a mark was on a single disc!, 10 months on and i regret was my heart that i got rid of my cds....

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Give them away to charity and replace with vinyl copies of anything released this year. Stop living in the past. Throw away your kindle, pc/mac and laptop /i pad . Buy a daily newspaper and some books. Read them. Buy locally porduced food. Move your bank account to an ethical bank or join a local credit union or co-operative. Stop worrying about interior decor and fashion and looking old fashioned.. nothing is old fashioned any more. Be nice to your friends and relatives. Stop being afraid of stangers and people whose skin is a different colour to your mum's. Stop ripping people off at work. Stop shopping on the weekend to cheer yourself up. Go for a walk in the fresh air. Give something to anyone who is poorer than you are. Put your kids in your local state school and get on the governing body. Recycle your waste. Watch no more than an hour of TV a day. Write letters to your friends while listening to radio 4. Send postcards to any friend /relative who you have not seen in the last six months. Take up guerilla gardening. Any item of clothing that you have not worn in the last year should be in Oxfam. Do not buy pre packaged food or cook-chill. Grow your own fruit and veg or buy from a local market or shop. Do not buy meat or fish from supermarkets. Kiss and hug someone before you go to work or study each day. Support live music in your locality. Vitist independant cinemas. Do not call films 'movies'. Stop fretting about electircal technology. It is all based on planned obsolesence. Visit a museum or art gallery at least once a month. Use public transport where available. Pop round and visit one of your neughbours on the weekend. Close down your twitter and facebook account. Subscribe to a magazine. Repair your shoes - dont throw them away. For every item in your wardrobe that you have not worn for the last six months, give that Big Issue seller £5. Give them a tenner for every CD that you own but have not played since 2010. Visit your library and give each member of staff some chocolate. Visit your swimming bath and shake hands with the reception staff. Give blood. send some money to RSPB. help coach you plocal kids' sporting teams. Take a photograph of some lighthouses and remember why we have them. Give whatever you have in your walet to a nurse. Don't look for philosophy in song lyrics or interviews with stars. Do not wear headphones outside of your home. Learn to play the bongos. Buy a yuke ans play it outside your chipshop. Read Bill Drummond or a book about Detrot Techno. Write a poem about flowers and send it to Carol Ann Duffy. Learn a new language. Go to you local bingo hall and give out chocolate hob nobs. Buy 250 lottery tickets and give them out to the pensioners in your GP's waiting room. Go into HMV and ask them why they stopped selling vinyl and order a vinyl copy of a Coltrane and a King Tubby album. Randomly buy some music that you have never heard offrom Amazon. Go to juno and but their top 20 best selling 12" singles. If you have 3,00 CDs that you never play , you have too much money and no life. x

Right on.

I've collected vinyl since 1972 and, apart from the times when I'm feeling the pinch, would never consider getting rid of it as so many people did when CD's first came out. I also have cassettes and cd's but would be at pains to part with these also.

Apart from the copyright problem, a download is just that, it's nothing but a load of bytes and can easily be lost despite back ups etc and besides, no one, no one at all, is ever going to come into your house and be impressed with a download collection. They won't look through it because it's not instantly accessible, it's hidden away on your computer, it says nothing about your tastes or individuality because they can't see it and apart from when it's playing, it's quite soulless.

As much as I love my ipod and the access it gives me to a massive library of music, it will never replace the albums, 45's and CD's that I own, that I can touch and see, for they are tangible and real.

Spot on A. Wharton, but i'd also add:

You can't lend or borrow a download,& that to me was always a great source of hearing 'new' music.

A Wharton, though I empathise with your thoughts on your second paragraph, I found that my CD collection was taking up far too much space in my living room. Music is cheaper nowadays, and as a result, people have far more music than they ever had before, and it can take over, which is a bad thing if you share your home with somebody who is not as enthusiastic about music as you are. I am very tidy, but I've visited many homes where CDs are piled high in a random manner all over the place with the result that their living room looks more like a den that a place to relax.

Having replaced my CD player with a Linn digital server, not only has the music quality improved to a new level, but so has the environment, and also it is far easier to hand my android to somebody so they can browse for themselves to see which music I've got, in the comfort of a chair without getting down on hands and knees to rattle through a load of jewel cases.

The CDs however are safely packed away in boxes out of sight, and will never be offloaded. We are only aware of technology that we have today, and in 5 years time there may come along a far better way of ripping music to lossless files, so I can go back to the CDs to start again.

As for people offloading their CD collection after ripping them to mere mp3 files, this really is a bad idea. In a few years, I suspect that most portable players will have such a high capacity that mp3s and any other lossy files will be completely obsolete as they will have no purpose. Flac, along with it's inevitable successor and similar lossless files will be the norm and we will think of mp3 as we think of '8 track', i.e some quirky item from the past. It is then when people will realise the folly of losing their CD collection.

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CHEEZE, of course you can lend or borrow. A pen drive is the solution, and what's more you don't have to worry about somebody damaging your media, which was a huge issue with vinyl but was still present with CDs, which is why I eventually had to stop lending, as people invariably took less care.

All well & good if we were all as computer savy as you Peter!

Sure,i wouldn't lend to anyone that was reluctant to treat my cds with less care than they would a new born baby.

"Can i borrow a pen drive"? No, i'd like to borrow that brilliant cd that you just had on please, read the notes & the lyrics,& maybe play it in the car, or on my Hi- Fi.

You don't need to be computer savvy, simply be prepared to put in a little research. My approach won't work for many people, especially as so many still consider that a CD has any place whatsoever in a car (see more in a minute). Most people move on to new things, some slowly and some more quickly.

12 months ago, I knew nothing about digital music other than mp3 and wma, but I knew that there was something better out there so I started to find out what it was, and after looking at dozens of different ways of storing my music and playing it back at the best quality possible, I found what I wanted which in my opinion gave me the best compromise of quality versus expenditure. No computer savvyness required at all.

I still fail to understand for example why new cars invariably come with a single play CD, with anything else being an afterthought. With very little knowledge or effort I can put 30 CDs on a SD card, slot it into the front of the console, and forget about it for weeks. Why on earth would I want to take a load of CDs into a car, risk damaging them, and have to change one every 50 minutes, usually when my need is more focused on driving than changing music. Car audio ought to be catering for everyone, not just those who move on less quickly.

Back on topic, if somebody wants to read the lyrics or sleeve notes (assuming very good near eyesight in many cases) all this is available online with little effort. The other point you make about taking care; I find it impossible to judge who will look after my media and who won't. People that I've considered suitable have borrowed a CD and it's come back with the inner cover dog-eared, and the CD scratched, probably having been left around on a carpet. At least with the pen drive, it's almost impossible to damage. Finally, if somebody really wants to borrow some music from me, they must do it on my terms, not theirs.