For almost 4 years now I have been encoding and ripping member’s music collections to FLAC and other digital formats so that they can have their entire CD collection in a format that is future proof and allows them to take a step towards some of the newer front ends like the Squeezebox, Olive line of devices and other PC based front-ends. Lossless copies of your music sound better in most cases than the original CD's and are WAY more conveinent to manage and sort.
After offering this service for free for the AC community for a while, I have decided to turn it into a side business and try to raise a little extra money to help pay off some medical bills. I realize that there are a few companies out there who will rip your collection to FLAC for you but they are usually expensive, lack that personal touch and make it difficult for you to organize and maintain your music collection in the future as you buy new CD's.
So why should you choose me to rip your CD collection?
1. TRUST! I have countless AC members who can vouch for my ripping services and I have ripped collections in size from 200 – 3000 CD’s. I've been doing this for almost 4 years now, and I care about how your CD's are handled and treated.
2. ALL INCLUSIVE! Most companies who offer FLAC as an encoding option usually don’t tag your music. My ripping service is all inclusive and tagging is done at no additional charge. Each song will be tagged with Artist, Title, Track #, Album Artist, Genre and Release Year to allow for easy indexing.
3. TIME & DATA RECOVERY! I currently have close to 5000 CD’s already ripped to FLAC in my archive. This allows me to dramatically speed up the time it takes to get your collection into digital format. The DB is stored offline and for archival purposes only. If you ever lose your collection you can just ship another drive to me and I will be able to restore your collection free of charge.
4. COVER ART! All CD’s are ripped to individual folders and then we attempt to locate the CD cover art for each album by searching over 15 cover art sources.
5. PRICE! Pricing is tricky but according to my research the average ripping cost is right around $1-$1.50 per CD and that doesn’t include tagging, cover art and organizing. In some cases if you want your collection encoded into FLAC it costs extra. My ripping charge is .50 cents per CD and you get everything included.
IMPORTANT INFO! starting April 1st 2008 I will be raising the prices from .50 per CD to .65 (if you contacted me already then the .50 price will still apply).
6. ACCURACY! I have access to 5 different music databases so the odds that your music is identified and tagged correctly is very high. All songs are verified against the AccurateRip database during the ripping process so you can be assured that you are getting bit perfect copies of your music.
7. SUPPORT! I will help you configure your hardware and maintain your music library so that you can rip future CD's on your own.
STORAGE - You can provide your own external hard drive or purchase one directly from me at cost. I do offer the option of burning your collection to DVD’s but there is a surcharge of 20% of the total order to cover the cost of the blank DVD's and the additional time (i.e. a $300 order would be an additional $60 to burn a backup of your music library on to DVD's).
PAYMENT/CONTACT INFO - I am an 8 year verified paypal member and will gladly accept credit card payments in addition to checks/money orders. You can send me a private message here on AC but due to mailbox limits the
best way to reach me is via email at Tirade75@gmail.com. If you prefer a more personal touch you can PM me and I will gladly provide my phone # to answer any questions/concerns you may have.
SHIPPING - Feel free to use the shipping carrier of your choice however I would suggest not shipping large boxes via USPS (US Mail) if it can be avoided. I have good contacts with the local UPS office and the hub is right down the road from my house in case of any problems. UPS and FedEx are generally cheaper than USPS for bigger packages and thier tracking capabilities are much better. I only charge you for actual return shipping/packing costs (or closely estimated) and the prices are not inflated. The price you pay to ship it to me is what it will cost for me to ship it back to you.
PACKING - While spindles can be a safe way to ship CD's if packed right, there is really no subsitution for a quality CD case. If you need a decent quality CD case, you can get some at
www.supermediastorage.com and its hard to beat thier prices. A 416 CD capacity case is about $20 shipped
here. These are not the highest quality but are better than what you will find at most mega stores.
In order to qualify for any insurance claims in the rare event that something gets damaged during shipping, please remember to have at least 2" of packing material on all sides of your CD's. Keep in mind that packing peanuts alone do not qualify as acceptable packing material for insurance claims. When in doubt, take it to a shipping center and have them pack the box for you, that way you can be sure your claim won't be denied.
In the end, there are a few things I would like to mention to save everyone (including myself) some headache.
If you have not taken care of your CD’s then do not ask me to rip them. A damaged CD can take hours to rip and I do not have the time nor the desire to do that. Slightly damaged, marred or dirtys CD's can be polished and cleaned in some cases but if there is an excess in the amount of cleaning/polishing I have to do, I will charge accordingly.
Classical/Foreign/Obscure music is harder to accurately tag and harder to find cover art for. If you’re collection consists of a lot of classical music then please allow extra time for ripping and a surcharge in some cases. If you want your CD’s ripped overnight then please look elsewhere. I am a family man and family comes first. Ripping is a part-time service and it is only something I do in the evenings and weekends. I am very proficient at ripping CD's and while I can rip most collections in less time than the large companies offer, if you are on a strict time schedule then I may not be your best bet. I can usually get out 300-600 CD's in a week but I do operate on a first come first serve basis.
For an idea of what the ripped folders look like in a window, here is a quick screenshot.
For a list of CD's currently in the archive you can find the list here in .XLS (Excel 1997-2003) format:
http://www.kayakingcoach.com/cddb092807.xls
If you do not have Excel you can see the HTML version here:
http://www.kayakingcoach.com/cddb092807.html
If you are a member of TAAS you can get your collection ripped for free! Visit this thread
HERE for more information.
