Buying New CDs But Already Own One

[Accelerando]

In this day in age, a lot of people are buying their music digitally. Whether from iTunes or Amazon.com, it's becoming more and more popular everyday. However, I am a man who likes his CDs; mostly because the quality is superior to mp3s and the sort. I have a bunch of CDs that are worn out, however, due to overplaying and not taking care of them correctly.

For example, one of my all time favorite albums is "The Fundamental Elements of Southtown" from P.O.D. It was the first CD i bought in my life. I was in middle school at the time. However, back then, I didn't take care of my CDs like I should have. Now, while they can still play, they are scratched and tend to skip. Even my copy of Alter Bridge's "One Day Remains" has scratches. I can't play Open Your Eyes with out it skipping on Tremonti's epic solo... the solo that made people realize that it was ok to play solos on the radio again.

My dilemma here is simple. My favorite discs are worn out, and i don't want to have to plug in my iPod to blast my favorite music. And while part of me feels like I should buy a brand new disc, I kind of don't want to toss out my original copies, and i certainly don't want to burn the mp4 versions on a disc and just use that. I'm sure one of us have had this situation before. So, I am being too stubborn about keeping the integrity of my original CD, or should I just buy another one?

[Gadough]

Buy a new one if it doesn't play correctly, and keep the original copy if it has sentimental value to you.

[ZBomber]

I have the same problem man. I have ALL of my CDs, every single one, in my car. Two huge binders full of them. Ofcourse, they get worn out. So many are getting scratched. And I actually started taking a few out and just putting them back in their cases because I dont want them to scratch anymore.

If you have the money, you could download (or rip) all of your albums in lossless form and burn them to a CD. You'll get no quality loss is you have FLACs of the original discs, and then you can reburn as needed... but very costly, especially if you have a large CD collection like I do.

[wolfking]

I have never ever had a problem buying a copy of the same cd I already own.  Done it at least 50 times.

[ariich]

Buy a new one if it doesn't play correctly, and keep the original copy if it has sentimental value to you.

This man speaks sense.

[jag66]

I struggle to justify to myself rebuying a CD. I like CDs mainly for the physicallity of it, and if it breaks I guess I still have that without buying another (albeit without being able to use it).
I have in the past redownloaded a cd that has gone kaputt, but if I spot it in a shop for like £2 i'll rebuy it.

[LudwigVan]

One word of advice that I learned a long time ago.   Well, a few words:  TAKE CARE OF YOUR CDS

[Dr. DTVT]

For the future - you may want to invest in a 300 or 500 disc changer for your home and only use them on that stereo, and keep burned copies for the car, travel, what-have-you.  The less you handle the discs, the better.

[wolfking]

That's what I do.  I have all my originals at home and ones for the car I have burned copies, that way my originals hardly ever get touched.