Me, too. I was working in a hosting facility (note: not for a hosting facility) and discovered that trying to change CDs was a huge pain. Up until that point, I'd never really considered the need for mp3s, though I'd certainly heard of them. But I encoded a few CDs (I think the first was a best-of Fishbone) using Real Jukebox; the first version had just come out. I used it because it would allow me to listen to the CD while it ripped and encoded it. A big plus since it took so long. Then I realized that I could stream music from my home server to work. Then I realized I could get an empeg.