# How big is your MP3 collection?



## shatfield1529 (Nov 25, 2002)

I'm wondering how big everyone's MP3 collection is, how they got it, and how much of it is legal. Just kidding about that last part .

Anyway, mine is 5271 tracks, 14.7 days, and 19.27 GB. I got most of it by checking CD's from the public library. Amazingly, the selection is pretty decent. Also it's free, and I can just check it out, rip it, back it up to a MP3 CD, and then return it, no fuss.


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## satanicpoptart (Nov 25, 2002)

my library is 1476 songs 6.85 gb... lately ive been download... i mean buying alot of new music, i think ill try that public library thing, its a great idea!


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## TommyWillB (Nov 25, 2002)

We have 400+ CD's... I can't imagine how much time it woud take to RIP them all to make a decent computer library...

It is just not worth the effort right now...


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## shatfield1529 (Nov 25, 2002)

> We have 400+ CD's... I can't imagine how much time it woud take to RIP them all to make a decent computer library...



If time is an issue... Have a kid (one you know won't rip you off) do it for you. Seriously, if you buy them a pizza and some soda (make sure you tell them not to get it on your computer) and a TV to watch, and they'll just sit there and  switch the CD's in and out. The longer it takes, the cooler it will be for them, getting free pizza and pop.

Even better would be if you had a DVD player and Harry Potter or something (I don't know exactly what kids are into now; kinda sad, since I'm 17 myself). Kids have relatively low standards for staying entertained.

True leadership comes from those who know how to delegate responsibility, you know?


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## Ricky (Nov 25, 2002)

> I don't have any MP3's.


  That's a joke, right?


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## shatfield1529 (Nov 25, 2002)

> That's a joke, right?



I thought it'd be nice to inject a little humor into the thread.


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## Sogni (Nov 25, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Ricky _
> *  That's a joke, right? *



Not if they're MP4s, which I'm dying to do! 

2.20GBs, 1:11:02:03 Total Time, 528 songs. 
Yeah, it's patethic... Not all my albums have been ripped - and even then it'd still be pathetic, I need new music I just don't have the time or money.


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## shatfield1529 (Nov 25, 2002)

I know this is a dead horse that's been beaten over and over, but I *can't wait* until there's MP4 support for the iPod! 

I'll be able to fit my whole collection onto my iPod again!


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## Erix (Nov 25, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Ricky _
> *  That's a joke, right? *



No. All my music collection is in .ogg format. Better quality, lower size and a free licence.


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## mrfluffy (Nov 26, 2002)

520, 2.07GB, 1:07:15:29


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## Mars (Nov 26, 2002)

I encode all my MP3's =>192Kbps. So, my 13GB collection is markedly fewer actual tracks than one might suspect.

Mars


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## voice- (Nov 26, 2002)

At present time, 2365 songs, 5:23:08:50 total time, 9,05 GB is what iTunes says...collection growing by the day, must soon buy new harddisk...


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## Trip (Nov 26, 2002)

You feelas are crazy! If I had a larger HD I'd probably up there with those 3 digit numbers.  But for now:

621 songs, 1.7 days, 2.63 GB (almost one full partition!  )


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## alexrd (Nov 26, 2002)

6098, 19:08:35:07, 30.98GB

Th vast majority of my tracks are ripped from ~600 CDs (I still have ~200 to go) but there's a measurable number of downloads and such in there as well. Combined with an AudioTron this makes for the best music solution I've found so far. (Trying to find something to listen to by shuffling through more than about 300 CDs is suprisingly dfficult and frustrating). Once Apple ships a 40GB iPod, I will be able to achieve listening nirvana (or maybe I should hold out for the 60...)

All these tracks (well, except for the downloads) were encoded using LAME in VBR (lame --r3mix for people who know/care about such things).

-alex


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## dualcube (Nov 26, 2002)

i realy cant find a great program to download with


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## edX (Nov 26, 2002)

that's too bad dualcube but this is not the place to discuss such things


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## Trip (Nov 27, 2002)

Hey fellas let's keep this a happy thread, Ok? Nobody wants to know what amount of songs you downloaded compaired to the songs you bought. Just post how big your collection is and let us all stare in amazement. 

We should make it a contest of sorts...


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## wdw_ (Nov 27, 2002)

I have 2212 mp3s that take up 10.23 gigs. What more can I say? um...System of a Down rules!!!!


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## mrfluffy (Nov 27, 2002)

got steal this album yet? legally of course


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## wdw_ (Nov 27, 2002)

Um. No. Not legally.

I got a leaked final version of the album about a week before it came out. It was given to me by a member of the forum, but who? Could it be...SATANICPOPTART!!!! No. Maybe Trip. No not Trip. I will not divulge the identity of the member here.

BTW. I do plan on buying the actual album.


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## mrfluffy (Nov 28, 2002)

i 'pre-emtively aquired' it, but i had pre-ordered it from amazon.

<homer>stealing is wrong</homer>


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## xaqintosh (Nov 28, 2002)

377 songs, 1:09:50:41, 2.19 GB

I have a few songs ripped at 320 though


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## Giaguara (Dec 1, 2002)

about 35 cds of pure mp3s


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## Greystroke (Dec 2, 2002)

2381 songs -- 6:15:40:12 total time -- 6.6 days -- 11.01 GB
i love the fact that i can know how many days of music is on here...

most of my music, from cd's, is ripped at 192
and i still have about twenty to go, but i doubt i'll ever get them in.


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## onegoodpenguin (Dec 3, 2002)

4502 songs, 320:44:48, 28.97GB = 13 days of music.

Many of these were ripped at 320kbps, using AudioCatalyst and the Xing encoder.  This was back in the day when I thought mp3s would be perfect as long as I set the bitrate high enough (boy, I can't wait for AAC/mp4 support on the iPod... I'll re-import my whole collection... hehe ), but oh well.  I had gotten fairly good results using this, but I'm much happier since moving to the '---alt-preset standard', using Exact Audio Copy and the LAME encoder.  I'm not impressed with how iTunes rips CDs, so has anyone found a better solution?  I use my PC, but that's no good when I'm on the go.  I frequent an awesome little coffee shop in town here, and I'm friends with the owner, so I love to check out the new music he gets in.  The place is a very cool shop, with live bands 4 nights a week and whatnot, so he always has awesome new music playing in there, and I think it would be the coolest thing on earth if I could just bring my iBook in there and copy the CDs that I don't get a chance to listen to while I'm there.  (btw, I buy CDs ALL THE TIME, I'm just a big fan of previewing them first).  Anyway, iTunes is prone to adding pops and clicks, and I think this is at the encoding level, so here is my question:

Is there a way to use LAME from iTunes, as an alternative to the built in encoder?

Thanks for the help.  I'm almost caught up with alexrd in terms of library size, but not in length.


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## shatfield1529 (Dec 3, 2002)

If I remember correctly, someone had written a script to run from iTunes which would automatically encode the tracks using LAME. It would run in the Terminal, but the easy access from the iTunes script menu makes it an attractive option (and it's free, too). As I said, I don't remember *who* wrote and and where to get it, but I know that if you run a search for LAME on macosxhints.com, it'll turn up.

When AAC support comes to the iPod, I thought that you'd be able to just convert the MP3 to AAC without having to re-import the collection. Since I'm not worried about quality, I don't see why that wouldn't be technically possible. Of course, this concerns me because 95% of the CD's I imported music from are now either back at the public library or I gave them away.

Gah, I'm rambling.


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## onegoodpenguin (Dec 3, 2002)

When AAC support arrives on the iPod, I'll definitely be re-building my library.  There will of course be converters available, if they don't already exist, but there is an inherent problem in going from compression to compression.  The most simple way I can explain it is in terms of images.  Imagine an image compressed to decent .jpg, taken and compressed to .gif.  You would have the inefficiencies of the jpeg format on top of those of the gif format (yes, i know gif is only 256 colors anyway, but you know what I'm getting at).  My point is, as one concerned with audio quality, it will be important for me to re-create my library from the original source.  I'd do it right now (due to the inconsistencies in quality of my currently library) if there was a perfect format out there.  Once mp4 is mainstream, I think I'll be satisfied with making it my format of choice.

Don't worry, I ramble all the time.


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## diablojota (Dec 4, 2002)

I have 9.87Mb of music, that runs for 5.6 days, and over 1700 songs.  I just have to get an iPod.  (Hopefully for X-mas?  Please mom and dad...)


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## Zammy-Sam (Dec 4, 2002)

I got more than 10.000 songs wasting 53GB of my disk (min 128kbit, standard 196). Am collecting since I am online (1995). Ok, in these days it's much easier to find songs. In the beginning I downloaded one song each day!!!!!! Now I just grab full albums on mp3-sites (no p2p-tools!!!) and with dsl things are done very quickly.
I got almost 750 albums. And there are still few albums left I didn't unzip and some I lost the password for the zip-files!! ;-)


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