Pay Service Turns CDs Into MP3s
Nova Spivack, a well-heeled New Yorker and technophile, had been dying to get an iPod for a long time.
The problem wasn't money, but Spivack's giant CD collection. He couldn't face the chore of converting 1,000-plus CDs to digital format.
Then Spivack discovered RipDigital, a firm that offers a surprising but timely service: For about a dollar a disc, the company converts entire CD collections to MP3 files, all nicely organized by artist and album.
Spivack boxed up his CDs and shipped them to Rip Digital. Four days later he got them back, along with an external hard drive containing MP3s of his entire CD collection.
"It's really changed my listening experience," Spivack said. "The nice thing about digital is it reminds you what you have, instead of it sitting in a case on your wall. I made a bunch of playlists, and I'm listening to music all the time again."
It may seem odd that a company could turn a profit by doing a chore that anyone can do. But RipDigital is another sign that music is steadily going digital. Instead of downloading MP3s from file-trading networks and ripping them to CDs, customers like Spivack are more interested in converting their CD archives into MP3s.
"I plugged (RipDigital's hard drive) into my PC, plugged in my new iPod and 10 minutes later I had my collection on my iPod," Spivack said. "I got my whole collection on my PC in about half an hour, instead of a month."
Spivack, the CEO of Radar Networks, isn't looking back. Having digitized his collection, Spivack tossed all the CD cases in the trash. He's keeping the original disks only as backup.
