The NYT has published a detailed how-to for converting vinyl LPs to MP3s or CDs. When Napster started, it solved two distinct problems. The obvious one was that you might not have the CD handy that you wanted to listen to (either because you hadn’t bought it or because you’d left it somewhere else, i.e., at your parents’ place while you went to college), but the more subtle one was that ripping CDs used to be really hard. You needed specialied software, tons of hard-drive space, and you had to title all those tracks by hand.
Eh, I don’t remember this part of it: I just dropped CDs into any cddb-aware (now gracenote) ripper and it was all done, unless I was the first person ever to rip that particular disc.
But the part that tied my tail in a knot was this:
(80% of the music ever recorded isn’t available for sale — if you want to hear the song on that groovy LP through your iPod’s headphones, you’re gonna have to get ripping).
Have I mentioned the idea of the RIAA could make a ton of money by re-releasing all the stuff in their vaults in mp3 or some other digital format?