iPodMeister promises to turn your unwanted CDs and DVDs into bona fide gadget goodness.
Like many people, I have a fairly sizable collection of CDs sitting in a storage room collecting dust. It's literally been years since I even touched a CD, let alone played one. So why am I hanging onto them?
Forget Craigslist. Forget eBay. Forget garage sales. Do you want to spin that jewel-cased straw into gold? Head to iPodMeister, where you can trade your old CDs for a brand-new hard drive, iPod, or even iPhone.
Here's how it works: You pack up your CDs (or DVDs), then e-mail the company to let them know how many boxes you have. It then sends you prepaid FedEx labels. That's right: iPodMeister covers the shipping cost.
The number of discs you send determines what kind of booty you can get in return. The minimum, 150 discs, gets you a 1TB hard drive or an iPhone 3G. (Actually, you get a check covering the cost of an iPhone 3G, as iPodMeister can't do activations and all that.)
Scrape together 250 discs and you can land an 8GB iPod Touch or 16GB iPod Nano (current-generation models in both cases). For 350 discs, you can cover the cost of an iPhone 3GS. See the iPodMeister Web site for the complete list of trade options.
Interestingly, iPodMeister also gives you the option of digitizing your CD collection, meaning you get back not only your free gadget, but also a set of DVDs containing your music in (presumably) MP3 format. But that "costs extra" (meaning more discs). My guess is most folks have already ripped their CDs to MP3s.
I'll admit that all this sounds a little too good to be true, but I've yet to find a single complaint about the company. For your reference, check out Consumerist's recent interview with iPodMeister, this guy's review of the service from March, and the company's Facebook page.
I will say that the iPodMeister site looks atrocious and, suspiciously, offers no contact information except for an e-mail address and toll-free number. But with a little Google recon, I had no trouble finding an address and local number.
Did I mention I'm packing my CDs as we speak? It may take a couple weeks to complete my trade, but I'll definitely report back once it's done (so bookmark this article if you want to learn what happens).
In the meantime, I'm just kind of happy that I can clear out some boxes and don't have to spend a dime on shipping.
If you've tried iPodMeister, please share your experience in the comments!
Faced with heat from iTunes and other digital downloads, the nearly-three-decade-old music CD is slowly melting away.
iTunes-purchased songs now account for 25 percent of the overall music market--both physical and digital--in the U.S., says an NPD Group report released Tuesday. However, CDs are still the most popular format for music lovers, winning a 65 percent slice of the market for the first half of 2009.
An iTunes playlist
(Credit: Screenshot by Lance Whitney)Digital music downloads have jumped in recent years, said NPD, hitting 35 percent of the overall market for the first half of this year, compared with 30 percent last year and 20 percent in 2007.
For the first half of 2009, iTunes itself snagged a 69 percent share of the overall digital music arena, trailed far behind by Amazon.com with 8 percent.
"The growth of legal digital music downloads, and Apple's success in holding that market, has increased iTunes's overall strength in the retail music category," said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD Group.
The CD, though, marches on. Among CD retailers, Wal-Mart leads with a 20 percent chunk of the physical music market, said NPD. Best Buy took a 16 percent share, followed by Target and Amazon at 10 percent each.
Still, the days of the CD seem numbered.
"Many people are surprised that the CD is still the dominant music delivery format, given the attention to digital music and the shrinking retail footprint for physical products," said Crupnick. "But with digital music sales growing at 15 to 20 percent, and CDs falling by an equal proportion, digital music sales will nearly equal CD sales by the end of 2010."
Correction at 3:30 p.m.: The venerable audio CD is actually 27 years old.
This is Part 2 of a list of my favorite sounding CDs of late, in no particular order. My preference is for realistic-sounding recordings, recordings that allow the band to sound "live." And sure, I still like a lot of recordings that are heavily processed, but I wouldn't by any stretch use them to "test" the naturalness of a speaker.
The first half of the top 10 CD list appeared in the previous Audiophiliac.
A different kind of heavy metal music.
Savage Aural Hotbed, "Wreckquiem"
Talk about heavy metal, Savage Aural Hotbed is a (mostly) industrial percussion group. They rhythmically hit, scrape, or smash pipes, barrels, tenor and baritone snorkelhorns, electric power tools, and drums. I love SAH records for their dense textures and searing dynamics and this new one will give your system an aerobic workout while dazzling your ears with its mesmerizing charms.
Ms. Cash at her best
Rosanne Cash, "10 Song Demo"
OK, this one's from 1996, but it's withstood the test of time. True to the title, it's just Cash accompanied by a small group of players, Production is minimal, so if your system is good enough the music can sound very, very real. The music's a perfect 10.
Jazz that'll rock your world
Gerald Clayton, "Two-Shade"
Clayton's nimble piano trio delivers hard-driving pieces and explosive improvisations that'll push your hi-fi to the limit. The piano, bass, and drums balance is, musically and sonically, as good as it gets. It may be Clayton's trio, but it's a band of equals. The stereo image is set back, behind the plane of my speakers, so it doesn't have the claustrophobic, up close perspective of most contemporary jazz recordings.
... Read moreDaylight-saving time really messes with the guys of The 404. Today, we realize how old we are when compacts discs are 30 years old. Obviously, teens prefer MP3s over CDs; audiophiles die a little. Another teen creates Muziic, a program that lets you build a music library from YouTube. And finally, Walgreens starts to sell sex toys.
With music, pictures and now your documents living online, it's not going to be long before your pr0n collection moves there. Justin feels pretty compelled to write guidelines on how to do this. As a matter of fact, he's become quite the expert on how to do it in your \System32\ folder on your Windows partitioned, disguised as a temporary cache.
Congratulations to Elizabeth for winning a copy of House of the Dead: Overlord for the Nintendo Wii. Right now, "The Nerdy Dirty" is leading our contest for a 404 motto, but we're waiting to see what our community comes up with the phrase "Not found." As always, call in at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Or send us an e-mail at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. We've got more giveaways coming up--I know, it sounds like we're bribing you, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get those listeners.
EPISODE 294
Download today's podcast
... Read more
(Credit:
Danny Seo)
Can you place this '80s movie quote?
"I feel great! Just ordered some more vitamins and stuff. I was just exercising. I taped a 20-minute workout and played it back at high speed on my machine so it only took 10 minutes. I got a great workout." (Answer below.)
We found the perfect workout tool for this nerd. Yes, you are looking at a picture of a barbell made from used CDs.
Make features a lot of interesting DIY projects for our kind, but this one is truly a recycling invention only the nerdiest of nerds could appreciate.
Danny Seo, who thought up the project, claims the CD barbell weighs 10 pounds using 75 CDs for each side.
I did my own little experiment to investigate this. According to my scale, a spindle of 100 blank CDs weighs approximately 4 pounds. So, using roughly 100 discs for each end of the homemade barbell would still only give you about 8 pounds to lift. OK, maybe more including the bar you attached.
I guess it's a step up from using soup cans.
(Answer: Rick Moranis as the ultra-efficient accountant Louis Tully in Ghostbusters.)
(Credit:
Chip Chick)
We're not terribly fond of retro designs, as we've mentioned before, but the "Retro Console Music System" does get high marks for effort. Unlike other items that just slap an old analog face on some digital innards, this system at least tries to integrate its new players into a unique hybrid design that still looks distinctly like something from yesteryear.
Unfortunately, it doesn't update its music technology far enough. Although Chip Chick notes that it includes a CD changer, turntable, radio, cassette decks and two-way speakers (what, no 8-track?), the $300 system doesn't appear to support any kind of MP3 player. So unless you're really into retro, this may still be more of a novelty item than anything else.
(Credit:
OhGizmo)
Given the number of new devices out there that are aimed at servicing CDs one way or another, it seems that the age of compact discs isn't over just yet. And companies like BlueDot intend to make the most of it while they can.
Its "Divita" storage tower holds 100 CDs (or DVDs) in its steel cylindrical form, according to OhGizmo. But its best feature, in our opinion, is the space-saving keypad on top of the shiny silo, which has a high-resolution 1.8-inch screen that can help search through your collection. The worst feature, however, is its $489 cost. That's a pretty penny to pay for a medium in its winter years.
(Credit:
Uncrate)
Apparently, the musical nostalgia we've noticed recently just won't quit. The latest gear for LP die-hards comes in the form of Numark's "x2 Hybrid Turntable" as featured on Uncrate.
This music time machine spans several generations, mixing vinyl albums, CDs and MP3s (what, no cassettes?) to bring out the aspiring DJ in you. But for its $1,000 price tag, we'd expect them to throw in a few 8-track tapes too.
(Credit:
Hammacher Schlemmer)
Maybe the New Year is making people reminisce, but for some reason lately we've been seeing more products than usual that convert cassette tapes, LPs and other historical artifacts to digital form. One such example is Hammacher Schlemmer's "LP to CD Record Stereo," which does exactly what its rather prosaic name indicates: It records albums onto discs, allowing you to pause or change LPs along the way if some tunes are just too embarrassing to preserve.
In addition to standard 33 albums, Chip Chick says the machine can record at 45 and even 78 speeds. Now that's what we call really old media.
(Credit:
Container Store)
There's a dirty little secret among MP3 owners: Even some of the most ardent iPod loyalists still have CDs. The horror.
But rather than hide them in the closet, we say this: If you've got it, flaunt it. And we can think of no better way to do that than with these "MixIt CD Stickers" from the Container Store. Popgadget notes that you can personalize your otherwise boring media storage with "colorful dots, happy stripes or cheerful florals." And if you change your mind, they can always blend in with the wallpaper.
