Creating Your Own

If you have a CD collection and would like to convert songs from your CDs into MP3 files, you can use ripper and encoder software to do just that. A ripper copies the song's file from the CD onto your hard disk. The encoder compresses the song into the MP3 format. By encoding songs, you can play them on your computer or take them with you on your MP3 player.

This page contains a list of some rippers and encoders.

Writing MP3s to CDs
If you have a writable CD drive in your computer, there are two ways to save your MP3 files on a CD:

• You can write the MP3 files themselves onto a data CD in order to save them and clear some space on your hard disk. You can then listen to the files on any computer. Some car stereos and DVD players now let you play data-encoded MP3s, too.

• You can convert (decode) your MP3 files into full-size CD tracks and then save them to an audio CD. This allows you to listen to your MP3 files on any CD player.

WinAmp has a plug-in that creates full-size WAV files from MP3 files, and some of the encoders will also decode. Once you have the full-size CD tracks, then the software that comes with your CD-R drive will let you create an audio CD easily.

The CD-Recordable FAQ is an excellent source of information on getting data and music onto a CD.