Are CD jewel cases sacred?

[thirsty moore]

Who here has thrown away their plastic cases for CD's so they could store their CD's in enormous binders?
 
 Any regrets?  Are CD's going the way of the 8-track?  
 
 I currently use a Bose Sound Dock and don't have a stereo anymore.

[vansmack]

I was thinking about this last night after Venerable and I spent 4+ hours at Amoeba...
 
 What could I get for my CD collection?
 
 Whenever I buy a CD, I rip the disc into my music library, copy to my MP3 player, then plug my MP3 player into its stereo dock, for playback through my stereo.  The CD then goes on the CD shelf, never to be listened to again.  Even my car stereo plays MP3 CD's...

[crevers]

I still have nearly all of the original CD cases and album covers / liner notes.  Even though it takes up a lot of valuable apartment space, it's hard for me to let go.  We'll see if my recent forays into eMusic and iTunes change these habits.

[nkotb]

Like dhinojwala, I have a hard time letting go.  Still, I've given myself the resolution of only purchasing CDs this year if 1) it's an artist I've already listened to and thus have CDs or 2) the artist isn't available on eMusic.  I've also been refusing the buy or keep any singles or EPs: too much space was taken up for discs with too few songs.
 
 However, as a near obsessive-compulsive about alphabetizing my CDs, the thought of only using huge binders drives me mad.  I've never gone and route, and I never will.

[Jaguar]

For me, it's not so much a matter of not being able to let go of, it's much more a matter of smart storage.
 
 Yes, it's great to be able to rip your discs to MP3s but your quality goes down (which can be barely noticable if done properly with all the right equipment) but you still also chance losing them or having them corrupted in some manner. It's just the convenience of being able to make that disc much more portable.
 
 Keeping the disc within the case not only protects the original disc and art work, it also helps to maintain the value. There are still a lot of us out there who must have the whole package, not just the disc or a file. At least, for the releases that we personally really value.
 
 Regarding those travel cases, I refuse to use them anymore. Use to use them when I was spending loads of time in Ocean City. Made for an easy way to haul loads of CDs to listen to on the road and while in town. Then eventually I noticed that the inks (or whatever they are) were sticking to the plastic. Not only did it ruin the look of the CD, I'm afraid that it may eventually damage the listening portion of the discs themselves.
 
 So, no more removing the discs from their little plastic or cardboard homes for any long periods of time for me!

[thirsty moore]

Having read fairly good reviews of emusic on this board, I'm considering just going with them from now on.  Personally, I'm having a hard time getting rid of my CD's.  There are CD's that I have owned since 1991.

[kosmo vinyl]

have you consider using lala in order to trade cds?   emusic is great but it only fills in the gaps for me...  
 
 the biggest flash point on lala right now is a very small and is always the case a very vocal group that want the option to get only cds with complete artwork.  personally, i'm artwork only and most of the time I get CDs with the booklet and tray card.  there are some that see red when only the booklet arrives....

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

Why do you guys want to get rid of cd's?

[vansmack]

It's actually the smart storage idea that makes me want to get rid of mine.
 
 We had a fire in our apt building back in '05, and it was because I had my MP3s burned to DVDs and stored at someone elses house that I really began to think about just why I was keeping the CDs.  They wouldn't have survived the fire (or a flood, for that matter), but smart digital backup and storage will last forever.

[nkotb]

I only get rid of CDs that I never ever listen to, or like I said above, only have a handful of songs on it so that it doesn't warrant keeping.  Still, before every lala trade, I rip the CDs down and save the digital copy.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

What percentage of people (especially nonsmokers) actually have their houses burn down?

[vansmack]

What percentage of people can predict the future?
 
 And faulty appliances are the leading cause of house fires.  How mayn people have appliances in the their house?
 
 Ours was actually started by a neighbor who fell asleep with candles burning...

[Jaguar]

originally posted by Vansmack:
 
 but smart digital backup and storage will last forever.

[/b]
 
 Until the harddrive crashes or some other digital disaster.
 
 But basically, we are of the same mind set in the sense that it's always good to have a backup. A luxury and true it might be easier to haul your entire music collection out at the sound of the fire alarm but that may not be the thing you think to take.
 
 The wandering minds of the musically anal retentive.    

[redsock]

I am falling back into the hard CD real thing camp. And I am planning on filling in huge gaps in my collection with lala. I have tons of crappy CDs lying around, looking for a better home with someboday else. And frankly, I need to fill in the holes of my Bowie collection. Fair trade if you ask me.
 
 Hey kosmo, can you paste the link to the lala thread, so i can re-reead what others say about it. Thanks!

[vansmack]

Jag Said:
 Until the harddrive crashes or some other digital disaster.

If you only have one copy, then that's not smart digital back up (and you should keep your CDs).
 
 But if you keep one copy on a Hard Drive, one copy on an external drive (or external MP3 player) and one copy on a permanent storage unit (like DVDs) in a different location AND you back up regularly (even once every 6 months), then you have nothing to worry about.