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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

>>the ability to use it has been greatly diminished

Really? I have tons of music ripped from CDs on my iPhone and I can trivially play that in my car. I have CD players in my car (which I never use) and attached to my stereo (which I rarely use). It's not that the ability to play CDs (or rip them and play them) has been diminished but a lot of people prefer to just use a streaming service.

I'll grant that many people don't have a CD player even on their computer any longer but you can buy one for not much money online and have it in a couple days if you want one.

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> I have tons of music ripped from CDs

Are you suggesting that it's a simple and convenient thing to do for the public?

That supports ghaff’s original point. It’s far more convenient to stream music than deal with CDs period.

Automakers didn’t remove CD players despite people wanting them. They did it because enough customers were not willing to pay a premium to have the CD player. I would rather have a larger screen for CarPlay, and I’m betting most people who use streaming apps/MP3s would too.

> I would rather have a larger screen for CarPlay, and I’m betting most people who use streaming apps/MP3s would too.

CarPlay and touch screens generally are one of the worst 'innovations' that have happened in cars in recent decades, as far as road safety goes.

In the past, I would have a CD that had 5-10 albums on it, and could easily flip between them without taking my eyes off the road. I could glance up at the sleeve on my sun shade to find a different CD to switch to, and easily switch the CDs around and navigate the rest of the process by feel alone.

Now I have to pull over to change albums in a reliable (siri is unreliable and doesn't work with all apps) and safe manner.

It's an improvement as far as how much total music I have access to on any given journey. Does that convenience justify even one additional life lost as a result of a distracted driver? As a society, we have very loudly screamed ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY, which, like GP notes, is a real fucking shame.

Yeah? Didn't we all burn mixed CDs to trade as kids? Most cars have an aux plug, and there are still standalone mp3 players with a drag and drop interface

Shoot, almost ten years ago I ripped my dad's CDs and put them all on a SanDisk mp3 player. He's almost certainly just using it as is.. I'd have to ask, but his music taste has been set for thirty years; he doesn't need to put anything new on it, ever.

All he needs to know how to do is unplug it from the stereo and plug it into the jack in the car.

What's hard here?

Streaming is more convenient for most people. Ripping is as simple as it was 20 years ago when much of the general public had no trouble doing so. It’s just that there are simpler alternatives that weren’t available then.

Yes...all you had to do with iTunes was insert a disc and click a button. After a couple of minutes, the tracks would all be in your library with metadata pulled from the internet. Everyone I knew who had a computer used to duplicate CDs for their car and make mixes.

looks at laptop

Hmmm...

looks at old laptop

Hmmm...

looks at ipad, iphone

Hmm...Oh, I know!

looks at gaming PC

Nope. I don't have a disk drive on a computer and haven't for several years now. Sure, I could get one, but optical drives have been optional equipment for a while now.

It's optional because you, like many, don't rip/play CDs/DVDs any longer. You'd have one if you had a use for it. I'm guessing you have peripherals attached to one or more of your computers that I consider optional.

But ripping CDs is not the only way of "owning" the media.

As another commenter said [0], you can buy and own media without ever touching a physical medium or waiting for the post service to deliver it.

I seem to remember at one point Apple was offering DRM-free music. This is pretty convenient for everybody. Yes, you have to buy it ahead of time and store it, as opposed to just streaming right away.

But it does seem quite easy to me. Go to the iTunes store, click buy, done. It may even sync automatically to your iPhone, so you can play it in your car, just as you would Spotify.

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[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26914754

They still do, Apple's MP3s are DRM-free, and you can download them with the iTunes desktop client. Another super handy way: Amazon.

Amazon's MP3 download store is DRM-free, but also, Amazon has an "Auto-Rip" feature that means often when you buy the physical music CD, they immediately give you the ability to download the MP3s for free. You get the real purchase of physical media, and the convenience of instant access.

If you bought Apple's MP3's when they had DRM, you can't get them without it. (Maybe if you re-purchase it?). At least I can't access DRM free music that I purchased initially with DRM.

Yeah, that sounds like some contractual nonsense. Similar to how Play Family Sharing only applies to apps bought after they rolled it out.

Are you suggesting that it's not? Maybe I'm out of touch with both the state of technology and the general public (guilty on both counts), but last I checked major operating systems all came with CD ripping software included. Do people really not have CD drives any more or something?

A fair number of people probably don't have CD drives any longer given you generally don't need them to install software. But you can buy one on Amazon for < $20 so that's certainly not a huge barrier for people who want to.

It seems like a lot more people have laptops only these days and most new laptops don’t have a CD drive. Neither my 2013 MBP or the desktop I built in 2018 have a CD drive and I’ve never needed one with the desktop and haven’t used one with the laptop since a year or two after I bought it. They are basically phased out for computing purposes it seems.

Shoot, in the late 90’s I feel like everyone was ripping and burning CDs not just the savvy ones.

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