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How do I save music from CDs to my USB drive?

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You have to 'rip' the CD. This is done with a program (I use dbpoweramp) which reads the CD as if it were a data disk, it then looks up on the internet to figure out the track names (there are databases of this info), grabs the appropriate cover art, then converts it to the correct format - mp3 etc. I use FLAC format because they are lossless, but take up more space.

Once you have mp3s or FLACs, you copy them to your sd card and the car will recognize them. the advantage of formatted files versus the .wav file on the CD is that they contain 'tags' which hold information such as the artist, song name etc., which is how the car can display that information

its a little fiddly to get set up, but once done, you can do this ripping with virtually no effort
 
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I have a pile of CDs and a 1 tb sd card for the car, use a pc. How do I put the music into a format the car will recognize and play? I am well versed in computers but know zip about music files.

I see you already purchased dbpoweramp, but I'm mentioning this in case anyone else wants an alternative option for ripping to flac. I use a program called Exact Audio Copy to rip my CDs into flac format. It's free and requires a little bit of a learning curve. I use MP3Tag for editing the metadata on the audio files. As yet, I don't have my Tesla, so I can't advise on the sd card folder structure.
 
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Wow. People still rip cds. Spotify playlists.... hello?

@qdeathstar definitely get this approach, but there is merit to the other as well. For example, let's say you have an extensive collection of discs from years gone by. First off, you've already paid for them, so no Spotify premium sub required (assuming we're talking for use within the car, where you can't do free). Granted, it's not a ton of money, but does add up over time.

Second, you've got a library of the music you love from which you can call up any tracks/albums/artists you love on demand. Granted, you won't be discovering new music that way, but for a lot of us once we hit a certain age we start listening more and more to the stuff we love from when we were growing up. I'm a bit of a mix of both (new and my classic back catalog). And though I don't buy physical discs any more, I still purchase the tracks or albums I love digitally and listen to most music offline rather than online.

One last consideration, which will apply less to in-car use and more to general usage when out and about: not everyone has unlimited mobile data plans. I gather they are pretty common in the US, but up here in Canada, they are less common--and usually involve a relatively small amount of "full speed" data followed by an unlimited use of heavily-throttled speed data. So there may be reasons to prefer offline listening.
 
Wow. People still rip cds. Spotify playlists.... hello?

I had my CD’s ripped to FLAC to be loaded onto a music server for my home audio system - much higher fidelity than the car. I certainly can distinguish between MP3’s and FLAC on that system. It was a no brainer to have the same ripped files placed onto a 1tb SSD for the car.

Although I have spent way too much $$ on my home system, I always have been of the mindset that if I cannot hear a difference I do not pay the extra $$. I also recognize there are seriously diminishing marginal returns on higher end audio equipment. That being said, if I feel I can hear a difference after side-by-side auditioning, and feel that for my personal tastes the extra $$ are worth it, I will spend the $$.

I do have to admit that audio quality on streaming services has improved quite a bit over the years, especially for auto listening purposes. For the reasons noted in the post above, I still like having my entire CD collection at my disposal in my car.

Now let’s not even start talking about digital vs vinyl. Of course, my turntable set-up in my Model S just never seems to work well.........
 
I'm in the process of ripping my CDs to FLAC as we speak, straight onto a Samsung T7 that'll live inside my RPM USB hub. Since I'm on Mac, EAC isn't an option, so I'm using the free 21-day dbpoweramp trial...but it's so fast, easy, and well-designed that I'm going to go ahead and buy it once the trial expires.

We have Spotify Premium, but I like having uncompressed, high-quality music without having to worry about signal strength or software/server issues.
 
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@CleverUsername (hey, that's a clever username!) unless you want to have to re-rip them all again, you may want to also back them up, in case your T7 fails or is lost/stolen/etc. Just a suggestion.
This is a very good call.

My plan is, once I’m done, I’m going to copy the whole 500GB drive over to my RAID-configured 6TB NAS drive in one shot so all my music will be safe and I can get rid of all the CDs that are taking up so much space.
 
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I follow some smaller bands that have cd's but aren't on Spotify.
I have been pretty amazed at what is available on Spotify, as a lot of my tapes are from LP's pout out by the bands themselves (new wave and punk) and a lot were never in large circulation but more 'cult'. Groups like Human Sexual Response, The Atlantics, Robin Lane and the Chartbusters and Lene Lovitch come right up, along with just about every Stiff Records artist. I had one song that I could not find and when I Shazammed it to make sure I had it right, Shazam linked me right to it in Spotify.