An ex-record producer friend has a 5,000+ CD collection. We would like
to rip all 5,000 CDs. We'd like to do it quickly with a minimum of
interaction in terms of both time and effort. We'd also like to know
the best way to store, catalog and backup the information. Are there
products out there that rip mulitple CDs at a time or where you can
stack a large number of CDs to be ripped?

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Request for Question Clarification by palitoy-ga on 16 Sep 2004 01:39 PDT

Hello johnkoonmen-ga

There are a few services that would rip the collection for you.  Would
the details of these companies be sufficient for an answer?  These
services would be able to provide you with all the information you
require regarding storing, cataloging and backing-up the music.

The major time-consuming element in this process is the actual ripping
of the CD's (ie converting them to MP3, WMA or whatever format you
require).  If the ripping process was not required there are
commercial CD duplicators on the market (but I know of none that also
rip the CD's).

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Clarification of Question by johnkoonmen-ga on 16 Sep 2004 01:56 PDT

We were hoping to do the ripping ourselves. I looked at
www.ripdigital.com and its going to cost about $5,000 to rip this
collection. I was wondering if there was a cheaper alternative, like a
product where you could just stack CDs like an old turntable or
something.

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Request for Question Clarification by palitoy-ga on 16 Sep 2004 02:30 PDT

The cheapest service I found when researching this for you would cost
around $3700 (although it *may* be possible to do a deal with them as
you have so many CD's and this does include shipping).  I do not think
this is too expensive when you consider it takes approximately 10
minutes per CD to rip a full album (5000 CD's works out to be over 800
hours - 35 days working 24/7!).

Unfortunately I have not been able to locate a device such as you are suggesting.

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Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 16 Sep 2004 08:49 PDT

There are services which are half that price (and possibly less).  See:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=280458

www.musiciansfriend.com has good prices on dedicated cd burner units,
some can hook up to your pc to so you could back up.