Most of digital music is what I've bought and downloaded in the past year or so. I've left the "older stuff" on CDs. However, I do keep as many as possible in CD albums and not in the original jewel boxes. Saves lots of room.

Legally, you lose the rights to the mp3s of your CDs after you sell the CDs.

None of the above... or all of the above... I burned all my CDs but kept the CDs (in sleeves and then in boxes, rather than in jewel cases).

Where's the option for not going digital? CDs outside their jewel cases aren't that big to store... and as Andy points out, ripping the music and then selling the CDs is a copyright violation.

(Yeah, I know, the police aren't going to raid your iPod over this... but still... AT is the site where there are regular paroxysms of outrage over designer knock-off furniture, but violating music copyrights has somehow become the community norm for "good" music storage.)

I fully MP3'd my CD collection a few years ago. It's tedious, but with 2 computers and an automated script, it went by fairly quickly.
The ~800 CDs are all sitting in a box in a storage closet.

However, my 3000 records won't be digitized anytime soon :)

I rip all of my CDs but kept the CDs. Not only is it ethically untenable to sell the CDs and keep the digital files, but the CDs just sound better. If I want to have a serious listen to an album, it's the disc and not the MP3s I choose.

We're still contemplating keeping a small collection of CDs of albums we truly love ourselves, but I'm just about ready to let it all go once we copy everything to digital in triplicate. What's exciting is some of our favourite bands are releasing their albums earlier as downloads via iTunes or eMusic then the label release dates, then releasing a physical album later with additional material for those who want a hard copy. But all signs point to the disappearance of CDs on the mass consumer level. Ask anyone under 25 and they generally aren't concerned about lossy/lossless formatting...they're perfectly happy with "good enough" (I know, I know...it's a horror to hear for those with audiophile ears and equipment).

It would be quite interesting to see the RIAA come after someone who simply transferred and sold their CD collection without the intention or action of illegally sharing music. They've already shot themselves in the foot on many occasions, so I'd welcome them expediting the process with a shot in the head with such a move. Dinosaurs on the brink of extinction....

Wow, there's a lot of morally upstanding citizens who read Apartment Therapy Home Tech. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them. I totally have no qualms moral or otherwise about ripping my CDs and then selling them even though I have not done that only because I doubt I'll get very much for them, but what I have done is leeched off of my friend's collections or just borrowed the CDs from the library. As Greg said, the RIAA is a relic of a business model that's unsustainable in this day and age. Only by writ of paying off congress is the only reason they're still alive today. So as of right now they'll continue to sue 10yr old girls and little old ladies as much as they want. I shed nary a tear once they're gone. BTW I have not ripped anything new in months since there nothing out there I really want.

I rip my cds onto my laptop and archive it on my networked harddrive. I keep most of the cds in a storage closet in my walkin closet, but occasionally trade them on lala.com for other cds....I need to trade more, though.

What's killing me is that I'd like to rip my CDs and chuck them in the back of my closet, but I'm out of space on my hard drive! I'm starting to research some options for a drive I can plug into the wireless router to store MP3s and photos on and access from my laptop, but until I do that....CDs it is!

Call me old skool, but I still have all of my music collection on either vinyl or CD and intend to keep it that way as long as the formats remain viable. Yes, I do play both formats and when I create a music mix, I now do them onto CD rather than the old venerable audiocassette these days.

There are lots of stuff that so far have not been released to CD or other digital formats (and many will never see the digital light commercially) and are thus out of print, some for years and years so digitizing those that you have is a good idea.

My collection is mostly older stuff anyhow.

I do HAVE an MP3 player and I have filled it with music, but I am personally very much against downloading any music. I transfered all of my cd's to my computer but don't share them. I take pride in my collection of cds and vinyl. Downloading just seems very cheap and easy in my opinion- too easy.

Searching for and collecting great vinyl is a great time for me, I wouldn't give it up for the convenience of instant gratification.

In the name of de-cluttering, I just gave away a huge stack of my CDs after I had ripped them and done a backup. I don't mind losing some sound quality, and I really need the extra space.

Here's what I am doing

1. Converting music files to WAV files on Windows Media Player. I have a 500 gig external hard drive. I also have the same one as a back up in case it crashes, which I update once every so often.

That way I can always convert down to mp3 or other formats if needed. I have dell mp3 player and wife has NANO so converting down from the highest quality digital file available is do-able without losing the "Master List" WAV file. Yes. it takes up a lot of megs but WAV files are equiv. to CD sound.

2. Bought pro sleeves from mmdesign. Then rid the jewels in the garage until I have an artistic epithany for them or get rid of them in the trash.

* While I do this I listen every CD for skips. Cant stand them. if one song has a skip in a cd, to me the CD is no good. Tainted goods. So far Social D. is the only victim. Will re-buy those fallen soldiers.

Never realized how old I become when almost all my CDs are not produced after 99'.

Recap: WAV file is the way to go. Do your research.

I just finished ripping my 600 CDs into 320 kbps mp3 files. Took a long time.... For me, more important than the actual ripping was the playback. The music sits in a 1 TB NAS and on the main level of the house, I've shoehorned a squeezebox player along with powered speakers into an old tube radio that was beyond repair. You can see the unit in action here. http://bit.ly/aZO7yA. On the lower level where we have the TV and my bigger sound system, I went with something a little more complex. I've mounted a monitor into an old Turntable I got from the Goodwill store. This gives me the front end for Album Player (www.albumplayer.com) and it looks great next to my fully functional turntable. For now, I use a cordless mouse to make the selections. I hope to upgrade to a touchscreen when resources allow. The PC that runs the monitor, outputs though optical to my Pre-Amp. Turntable build is here. http://bit.ly/9gBHWS