I have no MP3 files but lots of CDs, so I'll be starting from scratch to build my MP3 download.


If there's any one lament that person after person on this bbs (including myself!) has made, it was that they didn't spend enough time and effort on tagging the music.

It is SOOOO tempting to just run those CDs through the ripper as fast as possible so you can get them loaded into the player... and you will be sorry if you do.

It takes a lot of time to tag things properly -- getting everything spelled correctly, making sure the tag information is complete and correct, setting up and maintaining a rational directory structure on your PC for the music. I spent more time on my tagging than I did ripping, encoding, and uploading the music to the player, because I only did it right the SECOND time around. Had I done it properly the first time, I would have saved myself hundreds (yes, hundreds) of hours. Instead, I had to re-do it all because my tags were such a mess.

Try to keep the mindset that you aren't going to listen to all of your music at once, so there is no need to try and get it all in the player at once. Take your time, maybe half a dozen (or less!) CDs a night, and be completely anal and nit-picky about how you do it. In the long run, you'll be glad you did.

tanstaafl.