Thinking about selling my CD collection = MP3


I am having serious thoughts about selling my 1,500 or so CD collection and going to MP3 playback format. At one time I use to have the time and sit in front of my system and really listen, I mean sit and really get into the music. Now with two kids, and the band that I play guitar in, there is simply no time. My listening consists of in the car or in the house while I am doing something else. I am thinking about ripping my collection to my computer, selling the CDs and my CD player and using a large storage MP3 player as my source. Any thoughts? Anyone else out there do this?
gretsch6120
The RIAA has NOT created a red herring about artists. It's true that the record labels make the vast majority of the money from each CD sale, but the fact is that artists need CD sales that much more in order to make money. As I said above, if a CD fails to sell enough copies to recoup all of the costs associated with recording, manufacturing, and marketing the album, an artist can end up OWING the record company money at the end of the day. Furthermore, every time a label takes a risk on an artist who isn't just a rehash of all the other drivel on the market (in other words supports an artist that is more likely to be an audiophile favorite), they're less likely to take any more chances if the venture doesn't pan out. Like any other BUSINESS, the recording industry is all about profit, and if you don't put your dollars behind your opinion and tastes, you're going to see yourself under, or god forbid un-represented in the market. The only way we can really effectively shape the course of the recording industry is by buying what we like. Nobody is going to release the records you want to hear unless there's a sizable market, and unless you're happy with limited release, overpriced audiophile pressings as your only source of your favorite music (which will also go away if not supported), you should be doing all that you can to speak your mind through your purchases.

Again, please don't do more to dilute the market and devalue what brings us all to this forum and others like it - music - by selling your CDs but retaining the music that they hold. Would you want someone purchasing whatever product or service you offer, and then selling it while retaining a duplicate?
Copying it for personal use and then deciding to sell the cd, seems to me a gray area.

Yes very gray. If you search around (see my link above) you'll see all kinds of opinions.

A. You pay $15 for a new CD, keep a copy, and sell the original for $5.

B. Somebody else pays $15 for a new CD and sells you a copy for $10.

In both cases the end result is exactly the same:

...you have a copy and are out $10
...the other person has the original and is out $5.

yet some feel that A is OK and B is wrong.
I don't see how A and B are any different. In both cases two copies of the recording are out there and only one has been paid for. The artist hasn't been compensated fairly, and hasn't been properly credited in either case.
I think the polnt is that people will pay nothing if they can. Copywrite laws have found a temporary solution of one copy for your self or in other areas for personal use.

I don't know how this willl be resolved but clearly the cat is out of the bag for the old format. Digital can easily be copied and electronically transmitted. No law is going to stop this from happening and no amount of ethical argument will solve this. I think the record companies are dead. How the artists will make a living seem very uncertain.
Here is an interesting point of view as reported by http://blogs.reuters.com/2006/12/04/media-leaders-were-ipod-crazy-too/:

"I like music. I have iPods everywhere. I had the whole bunch of (the Warner music collection) files put on before we sold it."

--Richard Parsons, CEO & Chairman, Time Warner Inc.

If its OK to keep the digital copies and sell the company... ;)