The Post-CD Universe
I have recently finished ripping our entire CD collection to MP3. We now officially live in the post-CD universe. From now on, all of our music will be acquired in digital form (from eMusic, when possible). The final stats according to iTunes are: 16,804 songs, 42 days playing time, 77.04 GB (that's 60% of the usable space on my shiny new 400GB hard disk).
The project took me about a month of evenings and weekends, processing the 50-75% of our CDs that had never been ripped (or had been lost in one of the great iPod disasters of '04, '05, or '06 (Never again!)).
Over that month, I've heard the following objections expressed by multiple guilty parties.
Objection: "But I like CDs. I like the medium. I like the having them."
Response: You are a fool. You are a human being, not a magpie: you don't need a pile of shiny discs to validate your existence. Compact discs have no inherent value beyond the information that is encoded upon them.
Objection: "But the sound quality is not as good."
Response: You are talking to someone who cut his teeth listening to DIY 7" records, cassette demos, and entire albums recorded on boomboxes. I ripped everything, including the jazz and classical, at 192kbps/VBR (i.e., "near-CD quality"). And that is good enough for me. If you have a problem with that, you are a wanker. If you persist in this objection, I will ask you to leave. (This includes you, Hilleary.)
2 comments:
Wow, a waste of time AND skin. Your parents must be so proud. I could actually hear you snorting derisively while bragging about how DIY and NYC-uber-hip you are. problem is there about a million of you, you all have self-righteous blogs, and are all getting high on each other fumes. I'm dumber for having read that.
Um, OK. Terribly sorry to have offended you. You may be please to know I am not-so-awfully hip and that I even sometimes (not often! Don't want to lose my street cred!) listen to professionally produced, hi-fidelity recordings. If you feel I have, by implication, slighted your collection of diamond-plated hi-def live Rush bootlegs, I can only express my sincere regret. However, you are obviously a wanker.
Post a Comment