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 Does this sound like you?
- A seriously messed up iTunes music library.
- No time to rip that teetering stack of CDs.
Join the crowd! While CD ripping can be a DIY project, it's no small undertaking when you have a large music collection. If you have only a handful of CDs, you can rip them yourself with iTunes or Windows Media Player knowing that your results will vary depending on the software you use and your attention to detail. In the real world, however, you're more likely to have 300+ CDs to rip. Even with a speedy drive, it's tough to sustain a rate greater than 6 CDs-per-hour. So, unless you have at least 50 hours to kill PLUS the additional time it takes for metadata editing and grabbing the best album art while ensuring it's properly embedded in the MP3s, it's time to consider one of the many ripping services available. That said, all ripping services are not created equally, and the best services charge about $1.50 per CD. We had no trouble finding a TechDigs.net staffer with one of those teetering stacks of CDs waiting to be ripped, so we decided to put the three leading national CD ripping services to the test: Get Digital, ReadyToPlay and Riptopia. Ripping is an art and getting it done right pays off. Read More for the review results.
To Rip or Not to Rip
Ripping a CD is nothing more than converting digital music from a CD into music files (usually MP3) that computer media/music player software can read. The practical reason for ripping your music is for listening flexibility such as mixing music from various albums, creating custom playlists, and for listening on portable digital players like iPod. With no nasty DRM (digital rights management), ripped music files can be played on nearly any device. Wouldn't it be great to have your entire music library on your MP3 player! Why Use a Ripping Service? Many of you may already have some, if not all, of your music in digital form. But be honest... is it decent quality (192 Kbps or higher) with good quality tags and album art? Even the latest Apple iTunes with improved album art still won't embed it in an MP3 file. That means album art is stored only in the iTunes database and will not show up in other systems like Sonos. Getting the iTunes-downloaded album art into an MP3 file requires a significant extra step; meaning you have to manually copy and paste the 'downloaded' album art into each album set. Whoa! So it is possible to rip your own CDs using iTunes and other software, but unless you have serious time to devote to doing nothing but ripping – that 300-CD library is a major and daunting task. That's where CD ripping services come to the rescue. You might assume that audio quality is the key differentiator in ripping services. Not so anymore. The reality is that audio quality is an assumed minimum requirement, and all ripping services provide good audio quality that matches the chosen bit rate and compression type. More on that later. After audio quality, the most important factor is actually the information that's embedded in the audio files. This is known as the metadata or the tags. Tags generally includes Song Title, Track Number, Artist, Album, Genre and Year. There are more fields available in ID3 (the standard for music file tagging), however, these are the most common. These days, quality album artwork is essential. This is one area where ripping services clearly diverge and where you'll need to spend hours of cleanup if it's not done accurately. In this round-up of CD ripping services reviews, we based ratings on quantitative measures in the following categories: Experience has shown us that these four fields are the key to distinguishing the results from ripping service providers. Additionally, we rate album artwork and price each service. Each of the three test services accurately labeled songs and track numbers, and therefore we don't focus on that in the comparison. We didn't go though painstaking measures to analyze the mix of the small set of 50 CDs representing the 39 albums we used in the test. It's a reasonable cross-section of music over the years. We did not focus on classical music since labeling and analyzing classical music is an art in itself. Our test library included: | Genre | Year |
|---|
| Alternative | 3% | | Blues | 5% | | Christmas | 18% | | Country | 15% | | Folk | 10% | | Hip-Hop/Rap | 18% | | Jazz | 3% | | | Pop | 5% | | R&B | 5% | | Rock | 10% | | Rock & Roll | 3% | | Soundtrack | 3% | | World | 3% | | | 1950-1959 | 3% | | 1960-1969 | 3% | | 1970-1979 | 5% | | 1980-1989 | 5% | | 1990-1999 | 59% | | 2000-2006 | 26% | | We evaluated three services (alphabetical order): Each company offers a variety of service options including loading of devices, sales of hard drives, printed libraries, numerous ripping formats including MP3, FLAC, Apple Lossless and WMA. Our pricing and ripping analysis focused on a standard 192K MP3 format returned on DVDs. Because the tags included in the files are the same regardless of the format or bitrate you select, the data analysis results will be applicable regardless of which service options you choose. This is a ripping services review, so we did not rip the albums ourselves for comparison. However, our experience with all the standard consumer software such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc., shows they are not as good as the results from any of these services. The Process  CD Spindel from Get Digital - All Services Uses Spindles For each service, the process is similar. - Count the number of CDs you have (not the number of albums, but CDs).
- Sign-up for service at their web site. Choose service options such as bitrate, file format, delivery (returned on DVDs, hard disk, etc.).
- In a few days, you'll receive a shipping spindle(s) to hold your CDs.
- Remove your CDs from their jewel cases and stack them onto the spindle(s).
- Ship the CDs in the pre-paid packaging. All the services insure your CDs at average CD prices.
- After the service receives your CDs, they rip them onto your chosen delivery media (DVD or hard disk) and ship them back to you.
- Depending on where you live and which service you choose, the round trip generally means you'll be without your CDs for about a week.
- When you get your CDs back, you'll need to copy the music files from the DVDs or hard disk into the appropriate location for your music player. Alternatively, you can use the import function of your specific software.
- We recommend recycling the jewel cases (if possible in your area) or disposing of them because they just take up space. Keep the booklet and original CD. Storing them in a CD case like the Case Logic Nylon 336-Disc CD Wallet
 requires astoundingly less shelf space. - Now, enjoy your music, anywhere, anytime.
Which bitrate and format should you choose? This will depend on how you'll use the music and how much space you have. We don't, however, recommend anything less than 192K, and doubt most people can tell the difference between 320K MP3 files and lossless. Lossless is identical to the original CD. Generally speaking, 256K and 320K MP3 files are going to be a good balance of quality, size and compatibility on nearly any system you play your music. Tweaking Regardless of which service you choose, you may want to tweak the tags when you get the music files back. While not necessary to enjoy your music, we found the customization worth the extra effort. iTunes works great for customization, but other ID3 tag tools, music jukebox software, etc., can be used. It's easy enough to do, but be sure to do it consistently. So, what did we find we wanted to tweak? - Year: In most cases, none of the services excel at accurately tagging the year based on the original content. We chose to tweak the album so it was based on actual year of creation.
- Genre: If you're like us, you'll want to tweak Genre to match your music listening habits. Rather than Alternative, you may prefer Third Wave Ska Revival or College Rock.
- Album: We like to combine multi-CD sets into single albums. This is a bit trickier, because not only does it require a single change to the Album tag on all the tracks, but it also requires the more difficult track numbering changes for disc 2, and so on. If we had one major gripe with all the services, it's that they need to change this antiquated method of labeling multi-disc albums and tracks.
- Artist: Other than the compilation artist problem with Riptopia (see below), we seldom had to change Artist.
- Artist Album: For iTunes and Sonos users, the new iTunes 7 Artist Album field may be a useful one to tweak. We found that changing this from the commonly used Various to the Album name on compilations is better. Also standardizing Artists who seem to having morphing names such as Michael Franti & Spearhead (they've used every version possible) can help while still leaving the Artist field the original value.
The Services Get Digital Get Digital offers ripping options including MP3 (128K, 192K, 256K and 320K), FLAC lossless and MP3 plus FLAC. They give you the choice of returning your digital music files on DVDs or a hard drive. Get Digital is is located in Indianapolis, Indiana. They currently have only one shipping location, so ground shipping may take a bit longer if you are located on either coast. Get Digital charges for shipping. Get Digital touts their DataFix process for cleaning up genres, compilation CDs, etc. Get Digital will also provide a printed index of your music for an additional charge. Get Digital primarily uses their own GD3 databases for their tagging.
ReadyToPlay ReadyToPlay offers ripping options including MP3 (192K, 224K and 320K), FLAC lossless, WMA lossless, Apple lossless and WAV uncompressed. Orders of 300+ CDs require the purchase of a hard drive. If you want to receive back multiple rips (e.g. FLAC and MP3 192K), you must call them – their web interface won't allow you to place that more customized order. ReadyToPlay has shipping locations on the US east and west coasts as well as Ontario, Canada. ReadyToPlay charges for shipping. ReadyToPlay touts their DataGrooming process that makes disc names consistent, correctly labels artists on compilation CDs, eliminates incorrect grouping when albums have the same name (such as Greatest Hits) and labels consistent values across all CDs. ReadyToPlay primarily uses AMG databases for their tagging.
Riptopia Riptopia offers ripping options including MP3 (192K and 320K), FLAC lossless, WMA lossless and plans to offer Apple lossless in the future. For orders over 500 CDs you must contact them and they will treat it as a special order. For orders over 300 CDs, Riptopia will provide a free hard drive. Riptopia has both U.S. west and east coast shipping locations. Riptopia does not charge for ground shipping. Riptopia primarily uses Gracenote and Muze databases for their tagging. Pricing We compared all service prices using 192K MP3 and returned music on DVDs with shipping and hard drive costs included as required by the service. For orders of 300+ CDs, ReadyToPlay requires the purchase of a hard drive (included in the cost below) and Riptopia provides a hard drive at no additional cost. Generally, Riptopia is the most cost effective at lower volumes, while Get Digital is the least costly at the largest volumes and ReadyToPlay the least costly at 250 CDs. | Service | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500 | 1000 | | Get Digital | $105.60 | $185.10 | $392.52 | $616.12 | $1,210.72 | | - per disc | $2.11 | $1.85 | $1.57 | $1.23 | $1.21 | | ReadyToPlay | $87.04 | $156.85 | $356.26 | $803.82 | $1,394.29 | | - per disc | $1.74 | $1.57 | $1.43 | $1.61 | $1.39 | | Riptopia | $74.50 | $149.00 | $372.50 | $745.00 | $1,490.00 | | - per disc | $1.49 | $1.49 | $1.49 | $1.49 | $1.49 | Tagging Accuracy After audio quality, tagging or metadata accuracy in labeling music files is the most critical process. While all fields are important, the Artist and Album tend to be the most important. Genre is a bit more subjective depending on how you listen to music, so you may find that you want to make mass changes to genre values depending your specific criteria. Unfortunately, it's very common for most of the services to label the year value as the year the CD came out, not when the original content was created. The reason this matters is that if you want to listen to 1990s music, you probably don't want to hear the Elvis Presley compilation CD that just happened to be released in 1994. We think no service or software does this accurately. We did not analyze song names and track names because we found the values from all services to be correct and comparable. Tagging Results | Accuracy | Overall | Artist | Album | Genre | Year | | Get Digital | 86% | 100% | 87% | 77% | 79% | | ReadyToPlay | 85% | 82% | 85% | 87% | 87% | | Riptopia | 71% | 72% | 85% | 46% | 79% | Get Digital was strongest in Artist and Album while ReadyToPlay was strongest in Genre and Year. Riptopia trailed in all categories, the primary problem being that Riptopia was not labeling individual Artists in compilation albums, instead settling for the label Various. Riptopia also struggled to accurately label Genre based on our interpretation of Genre. It is, however, a subjective measure and therefore a bit tougher to analyze. Frankly, if you really like specific Genre labels, none of the services or software available apply very specific Genres, so you'll be tweaking those after you get the files back. All three services consistently label CD numbers for multi-CD sets. Get Digital and Riptopia use (Disc 1), (Disc 2), etc., ReadyToPlay uses CD01, CD02, etc. Unfortunately, for multi-CD sets, none of the ripping services or software available use a single album title with sequential number for all tracks. Instead the old CD metaphor lives on with each CD in a set treated as a separate album with tracks starting at track 1 for each CD. We would like to see all CDs with the same album name and tracks sequentially numbered as shown below. The Old Way - CD Metaphor
(How All Services Do It) | The Right Way - Album Metaphor
(How Services Should Do It) |
|---|
| Artist: Elton John
Album: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Disk 1
1 - Funeral for a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)
2 - Candle in the Wind
3 - Bennie and the Jets
4 - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5 - This Song Has No Title
6 - Grey Seal
7 - Jamaica Jerk Off
8 - I've Seen That Movie Too
Album: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Disk 2
1 - Sweet Painted Lady
2 - The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934)
3 - Dirty Little Girl
4 - All the Girls Love Alice
5 - Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n Roll)
6 - Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
7 - Roy Rogers
8 - Social Disease
9 - Harmony | Artist: Elton John
Album: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
1 - Funeral for a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)
2 - Candle in the Wind
3 - Bennie and the Jets
4 - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5 - This Song Has No Title
6 - Grey Seal
7 - Jamaica Jerk Off
8 - I've Seen That Movie Too
9 - Sweet Painted Lady
10 - The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934)
11 - Dirty Little Girl
12 - All the Girls Love Alice
13 - Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n Roll)
14 - Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
15 - Roy Rogers
16 - Social Disease
17 - Harmony | Album Art Album art size and quality is more important than it used to be. With music players such as Sonos and color iPods, your Album art is always in your face. Large Album art is also becoming mainstream on music players like iTunes (Coverflow), Windows Media Center and other TV-based players from Netgear, D-Link, Linksys and more. As you can see below, on average Get Digital provides the largest album artwork of the three services and is generally the same size or larger than we see from most self-ripping software. Get Digital does not provide a separate Folder.jpg file on MP3 rips, however, it does on FLAC. ReadyToPlay and Riptopia provide both Folder.jpg files in each album folder and embedded images. The Folder.jpg files are important for certain higher-end media systems, but for most users of Windows Media Players, iTunes, Sonos and others it's not important. Based on our CD sample set, Get Digital had the best album art of the three services. | Get Digital | ReadyToPlay | Riptopia |
|---|
Avg.
Width | Avg.
Height | Avg.
Width | Avg.
Height | Avg.
Width | Avg.
Height | | 345 | 345 | 262 | 257 | 170 | 170 | Get Digital- Most artwork is about 400 pixels by 400 pixels
- Folder.jpg included only on FLAC format
- FLAC only 300 x 300 pixels
|  | ReadyToPlay- Most artwork is about 250 pixels by 250 pixels
- Folder.jpg file included in all formats
|  | Riptopia- Most artwork is about 170 pixels by 170 pixels
- Folder.jpg file included in all formats
|  | Recommendations All three services provide a good web site experience and customer service (all answer their phones). Turn-around time was good for all; the differences were only minor. In our opinion, whether one service takes a day or two longer than the other isn't critical on this one-time activity. What matters are the files that you get back from the service. Price was very competitive depending on the number of CDs ripped. We don't believe you could go wrong with any of these services, but we do have a winner in our comparison. Riptopia has a large market presence and their customer service is excellent. Unfortunately, due to small album art, poor performance on compilations and genres, and despite being competitively priced, we can't put Riptopia at the top of the list. Since our test, Riptopia says it's partner Muze is now offering multiple sizes of artwork. According to Riptopia larger album art sizes are available. However, this information is not on their site and does not a appear as an option when ordering service.
ReadyToPlay does an excellent job on tags, provides a great, flexible service, offers interesting hard drive options including NAS and only lags a bit in album art size. TechDigs.net is on the west coast, so shipping to/from Indianapolis took longer (a couple of days overall). Despite that, our recommendation goes to Get Digital. In addition to doing a great job on metadata tagging and excellent service, Get Digital's larger album art will look great on most devices and music players.
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