There was this company called Murfie. You could mail them your CD collection, and they would store it for you and let you stream/download your music. Trade albums you no longer listened to with other users, etc.
I liked murfie. They were very commited to DRM free. Even if you didn’t store albums with them, you could buy albums through them and download in DRM free flaac. I used them as my preferred music store for years. They seemed like good people.
When I last moved, I had a serious “oh god where and how will I store my media” crisis. I ultimately pushed a bunch of CDs into the service. CDs Ive had since I was a teenager. CDs given to me by my estranged father I still had, etc. Ive also acquired pretty much every album ive bought in the past five plus years through the service. Probably longer. Easily 80+ albums.
Theyve shuttered their doors without much warning. Their now telling customers that they cant get their CDs back unless they pony up $100 + $0.45 per disc. While they operated it was significantly cheaper to exit the service and get your collection mailed to you; at one time I even recall it being an affordable flat fee.
My music collection is probably not worth the cost their extorting. But the time it takes to amass those CDs and the sentimental value behind some of them are crazy high for me.
Im despairing a bit because I doubt I have many other options.
Article with more information on this: Murfie is giving customers very little time to get their CDs back, and charging for it — Tone Madison
I was probably a fool for trusting them.
I wonder at what point my rips become illegal.