Ford Drops CD Ripping

OK, Ford Motor Company don’t rip CDs. We rip CDs, they sell cars.

Up to now it’s been possible to buy a car in which you could play CDs, but Fords are phasing that out from their range, in favour of an iPod jack plug and a Bluetooth port. So, where does that leave your CD collection? Stranded.

It’s another nail in the coffin of the CD. What can you do? The writing on the wall is clearly saying you need to get your music off CDs and into a digital format. That’s what we can do, it is the only way to release value from your CDs.

podServe - the Ford Motor Company of the CD ripping world.

USB Shorts

From time to time we get called out to our CD ripping clients to help out with computer problems, which is where I've been this morning. The problem sounded simple, after years of normal service our client had plugged in his iPod and his PC had promptly died.

It's something he'd done, well, hundreds of times with no problems. Naturally he assumed that something in iTunes had corrupted his computer and Windows Vista. When I got there the PC was completely dead, as if the power supply had failed. So I checked the power cable, tried the cable from their kettle, no problem in the mains. Screen worked OK, just when you hit the on button absolutely nothing happened. My line of thinking was that this was a dead PC and the only way forward would be a new machine.

The client asked if the iPod had killed the PC or if, even worse, the failure had blown up the iPod. I should explain it was sitting unhappily on his desk. I thought I'd try it in my MacBook just to be sure so I lifted it up to unplug it. As I moved the iPod there was a flicker from the cooling fan inside the PC. I unplugged the iPod (which was undamaged), then unplugged the sync cable. Each move caused a tiny burst from the box. Having unplugged the sync cable I got a real burst of power so I tipped the box up and had a look at the front USB ports.

At that point I could see the cause of the problem. The tiny piece of plastic in the USB connector had broken, exposing the metal prongs that allow data and electricity to flow down the cable. Then, I'd guess when our client put the cable into the port, the prongs had been bent resulting in one of the prongs touching the metal surround.

A dead short.

I dug out my trusty metal comb which was slim enough to be able to lift the offending prong from the surround. At which point the PC burst into life. One happy client.

The CD Ripping Scene in Lion

As a CD ripping service we use a mix of Windows (XP, Vista and Windows 7) and Mac computers so the recent announcements are interesting. Would you like to jump in?

First, Apple's new operating system, code named Lion. Available for download now for a bit over £20 from the download store. A host of great new features. But ... Not all software will run happily under Lion. For example the Sonos controller program does not yet work with Lion so if you have a Sonos system hold on for the moment. Sonos have said there will be a new version but I don't have a due date. Some software may not run (older versions of Photoshop included) so if there's anything you rely on check with the vendor to make sure a Lion variant is out there.

Second, no CD drives. Neither of the new computers have a CD or DVD drive. This effectively stops CD ripping on those units - unless you have a free standing USB connected drive.

Apple Drops CD Ripping

OK, that’s an hysterical headline, an exaggeration. But just a bit.

Apple has launched a couple of new computers, a great new entry level laptop and a replacement for the trusty Mac Mini. I have a great affection for both. I’m writing this on a MacBook and my main production machine is a trusty Mac Mini. Just love Apple and Mac. Very tempted by the new boxes when I saw them. But ...

Neither machine includes a CD drive. Looking at the Apple store they still list the add on of the superdrive (at $80) but the product description suggests in the case of the Mac Mini it only connects to the version running Lion Server. Don’t worry about the details just note that’s the most expensive variant.

For the typical Mac user, by the way I’m off to see one on Monday assuming their new MacBook arrives, this means they won’t be able to rip CDs. As a CD ripping service you might think this is great news for us, and indeed it may be, but it’s also yet another nail in the coffin of the humble CD, another barrier to realising value from all those plastic discs in all those CD racks.

CD Ripping and NAS Drives

Yesterday evening had a late night "get it off your chest" session with a post on the site blog for our CD ripping service, podServe.

Today a more measured tone and some advice. Advice for people who rip CDs and store their music on a network attached unit. I have found most wireless networks will, if they provide a reliable connection at all, will happily deliver streamed music around you house. That's the getting music out side of the equation. Data volumes are relatively low - you get a whole CDs worth of sound out in around 60 minutes.

Ripping CDs is a different proposition and doing that over the same connection is asking a lot. A decent Mac, PC or a laptop will ring at 10, 15, 20 times faster that realtime. A CD gets ripped in around 3 minutes. The data comes off the CD drive, into the computer and is shunted off to the network. A bit of simple maths, you network wireless pipework needs to be around 20 times fatter, sadly it isn't.

So my advice has to be, when ripping CDs to a NAS drive, invest in a bit of ethernet cable and plug that it, at least for the duration of the ripping session.

FLAC CD Ripping

We are a customer focused business - if you want something we do everything possible to deliver. This brings me FLAC.

FLAC wasn’t part of our original service offering, mainly due to our focus on Apple, iTunes and music file formats compatible with that system - AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless and AIFF. However there have been requests, initially infrequent but more so lately, for FLAC and of course we don’t like to disappoint.

So, following tests, we now have a reliable platform so we’re confident we can deliver top quality results whether you want our standard formats or FLAC.

NTLDR is missing

Called in by one of our CD ripping clients to help out with their computer. I was given a shopping list of problems, the main one being a new iPhone was not being recognised, even though a trip to the Apple store in Regent Street, London had proved there was no problem with the phone itself.

The computer in question runs XP and is rather long in the tooth. Another problem is that the sync process with their iPod Classic has become erratic, syncs can be fast but error prone or immensely long (like 12 hours) with only a few tracks getting copied across.

I started working through settings on the Apple Mobile Devices service, which required the PC to be restarted several times. First couple of times, no problem, but then the machine failed to start up properly showing the error message - TLDR is missing.

Google search from my own Mac showed up that this should be NTLDR is missing, the screen alignment had shifted a little to the left and the N was out of view. The suggestion was that a file was missing, and some people had fixed their problem by copying a missing or corrupt file from another XP system; or indeed reloading the whole operating system. Feeling depressed at the prospect of such a tedious task the second user of the PC popped into the room.

Seeing the NTLDR is missing message he pointed out this often happens, and that it can be fixed simply by unplugging "that thick cable". The cable in question was the USB connector from a LaCie hard drive. He was indeed right, I unplugged the LaCie (and the other non-essential devices plugged into USB ports) and the PC restarted just fine. Plug the hard drive back and it was found fine.

This got me thinking. Maybe the fundamental problem with the machine is the functioning of the whole USB connection. The PC in question is somewhat long in the tooth so perhaps the USB card is failing. USB makes connections and supplies power, perhaps it isn't supplying sufficient power to enable a recent iPhone to be recognised. Or possibly there's an issue with the hard drive's USB cable which is interfering with the iPhone and the iPod. The last point is hard to validate as the data both the iPhone and the iPod need to access is on that drive.

In the light of this the three of us stood round and scratched our heads for a while. In the light of all the problems the feeling was further tech support work was just throwing good money after bad. It is time this XP worker was retired, so a new machine will be ordered, with a bigger internal drive and a brand new USB interface. When this is installed my belief is that these problems will go away.

Music Compression, Streaming, an Apple Freebie?

Just put together some notes on music compression. How the landscape has changed over the years. Just suggested to a client that he buys a 1Tb drive. 1Tb - bloody amazing size. Does he need it? Probably not but it will just be a few pounds more than a 500 Gb drive, so why not?

OK, hard drives are silly cheap, what does that mean now that the far horizon shows Apples streaming music service heading our way? The freebie is that if they detect more compressed music in your library they will “upgrade” your stored tracks to the iCloud alternative of 256 kbps. So, does that mean you should switch back to ripping music at 128 kbps?

Err, no.

First the upgrade applies only to music players to which music can be streamed. These will be iOS devices - the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Not the hard drive based iPod Classic range, these will continue to be synced via iTunes from the music on your hard drive. Apple isn’t offering to replace or upgrade any of that.

Second, when the service launches, people are going to be amazed at the volume of music that isn’t in iTunes Music Store. Yes, there is a vast amount under the Apple umbrella, but there’s a lot that isn’t. That which Apple doesn’t already have a copy of will have to be uploaded from you to them.

Third, mobile phone companies are going to hit the roof. In a year or two all those kids on the school bus home will be listening to music on their iPhones not from its store but streamed across the airwaves courtesy of Vodafone, Orange and their peers. Can you imagine how that will hit their capacity?

My mobile phone has an all the data you can eat feature, just wait till be start to talk about 6,12, or more hours of music streaming.

So stick with 256 Kbps AAC, or Apple Lossless, or AIFF. You won’t regret it.

Did the music industry win?

All those years ago when we set up our CD ripping service we were "approached" by the music industry. They were not happy with what we were doing, polite, but unhappy.

They had a simple view. They wanted people who owned CDs and iPod to buy digital copies to play on their portable players. At that time iTunes Music Store was offering most CDs at around £8 each, a hefty bill for a typical podServe client compared to the £1 per CD we charge. To be fair to the industry if you look at the tiny print of the copyright laws they were within their rights. It wasn't just us, they wanted everyone with an iPod (Sony music player, Zune or anything else) to take the same route.

I was very against this. I'm one of those who bought most of his music on vinyl, then paid again for some of it on cassette tape to play in the car, and then once more when CDs came out. Eventually the industry saw the light and let it be known that they weren't upset by private users and people like us ripping their own CDs. Which is what we've been doing, happily, for the last seven or eight years.

Yesterday Apple announced (for US users at present) the next phase of their iTunes program. I was struck by their option for users who have already ripped their CDs. Apple will, for a sum of $25 a year, scan your existing library and match as many tracks as it can find from iTunes Music Library. That track will then be made available to you from any PC, iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Finally any tracks that it can't find will be uploaded to the cloud. A simple, effective, elegant solution that Apple users will love.

What about that $25? Say $5 goes in tax - that leaves $20 to be split between Apple and the industry. So the industry would probably have negotiated a deal of $10-12. Out of the $8 album in the USA I'd guess the industry would have got $1.2. Is the new deal worth the 10 album premium they had hoped for before?

If I were a music industry exec I'd be jumping for joy. It's money for nothing, Apple and the users do all the work. It's an instant hit, a direct injection to the bottom line. Then, you get the same payment next year, and the year after. Maybe the equivalent of 50 albums worth of royalties. And all for doing nothing.

Of course the demand will fade. Legacy users will fade away, and another reason to buy a CD is demolished. But the industry don't have to make any plastic, ship it round the world, print labels, distribute to shops or Amazon warehouses. One giant step to becoming an entirely virtual operation. Just watch the bottom line pick up.

iCloud? iHopeSo

For the last couple of years I’ve been predicting Apple would offer an option to let us move our music from local hard drives off into the cloud. As with all good predictions it’s eventually come true with yesterday’s announcements in San Francisco.

Earlier we’d seen offerings from Amazon and Google - essentially renting out space on their hard drives to substitute for space on your local PC or laptop. The advantage being you just throw at the cloud service all you’ve got and let remote experts take care of the data. Peace of mind, more disc space, greater availability; great features that most would find irresistable. In the USA, more later.

So yesterday Apple played catch up. They also, for many people, overtook. They offer fast, seamless integration into the current iTunes experience. When you subscribe to their service they’ll scan your iTunes collection and replicate that list on their giant servers. This will, pretty much instantly, make their versions of your music available on most of your other devices - your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. This covers tracks you’ve purchased via iTunes Music Store.

Also, to cover music you’ve ripped yourself, for a modest fee ($25 pa) they will scan that music and match it with a copy they hold in their store and make that track available to you. For those who ripped at 128 kbps you get an upgrade to 256 kbps. Any thing that can’t be matched will only then be uploaded.

This is a very, very clever solution. First, it eats up a minute amount of space compared to the alternatives. Even the largest multi GB library is covered by a relatively small datafile - and that’s all Apple is storing. Think you’re getting 10 Gb, think again, more like 5 Kb and permission to access all those tracks that already reside on Apples hard drives. Buy a new album, zap, instantly available on any connected device (as long as its made by Apple). Second, the music industry will love it as I’m sure they will get a slice of your $25; and there’s nothing this industry likes more than money for nothing.

Finally, after years of lobbying, you’ll be paying a fee to the industry for the music you thought you owned when you purchased all those CDs. But hey, who’ll even notice?

Any downside? Well I imagine you’ll have to keep all your ripped music on your local computer so there will still be a need to back up that drive. If you fail or forget to pay your dues the service will delete your cloud music. Many people, having only a small amount of home ripped music, will be better off re-purchasing those tracks from iTunes Music Store rather than pay endless $25s - hey, the industry wins again.

What of services such as Spotify? If you buy music you might be better off with this type of service. You’ll pay more per month but you’ll get an infinitely large music collection. You can also access this via Android - a major advantage as despite the boasts of Jobs yesterday they are losing ground to Google on Android.

The big downside, at least just now, is us here outside the USA. We might get iCloud for data in the autumn but no date as yet for the music extension. And doubtless when it hits us $25 will become £25 (not £17).’