Methodically converting CDs to FLAC.

It seemed pointless to own so many CDs, and have them sitting there in boxes, unripped.  I actually forgot some of the titles that I owned.  I am beginning to realize however, that I should have partitioned more space on my hard drive for more than 250GB for music.

With the advent of Google Play Music, I have come to realize my goal for my music collection:

• Rip my entire library to lossless FLAC format so that the digital files are as good as the CD.
• Keep two copies of the FLAC files (one on the workstation and one on an external hard drive).
• Upload the entire collection to the cloud, via Google Play Music.
• Using Google Play's Music Manager solely on my workstation, use my workstation as the basis for ripping and keeping the cloud synced.
•  Download my music from Google Play Music as 320Kbps MP3s onto each device (phone, netbook, laptop).

This allows me to listen to my music without taking up the same amount of memory on my netbook, laptop and phone, if I had copied the FLAC files over to each device, and I won't have to rely on an external portable hard drive to access my music.

Now, I realize that it'll take a TON of bandwidth to upload all that music, so it'll be several months before this whole deal is accomplished, and my ISP might be a bit upset.  Still, I thought I'd share my goal to get my music into the cloud, and to have it all synced across all my devices.  And being the disorganized person that I am, having written this down in my blog allowed me to fully think through the whole process and document it.

:D

Oh, and holy cow, I cannot believe that I forgot about owning James Ingram's greatest hits.  Love, love, love that CD.