Please select the number of CDs you would like processed—in increments of 25. If you would like to purchase processing for more than 2000 CDs, please contact us for a volume discount. Note that orders greater than 1200 CDs may take an extra day or two for processing. If you are not sure of your exact CD count, order according to your best estimate and we will refund your credit card for the difference when the official count is done.

MP3 is the most compatible format. AAC is native for the Apple iPod (the iPod will also play MP3). WMA is Microsoft's standard format. If the format you want is not listed here, please contact us. We can provide just about any format out there.

Our default bitrates are: MP3 190kbps VBR (-V 2), AAC 192kbps CBR, WMA 192kbps CBR. These represent the best balance of sound quality and file size. VBR (Variable Bit Rate) tends to provide better sound quality. CBR (Constant Bit Rate) provides consistent file sizes. At high bitrates (224kbps or higher) the difference between VBR and CBR is negligible.

Apple Lossless is best if you use iTunes to manage your music collection. WMA Lossless is Microsoft's standard lossless format, best used with a Windows Media Center device. FLAC is a popular archive format supported by many high-end audio systems. WAV and AIFF are uncompressed lossless formats -- note: iTunes will play WAV, but it cannot fully read the metadata tags, so if you want an uncompressed lossless for use with iTunes, please choose AIFF. If the format you want is not listed here, please contact us. We can provide just about any format out there.

If you plan to send your own hard drive, please make sure the drive has at least the above Total Disk Space Required amount of free space available. Also please note that this number is an estimate, it would be best if your hard drive had a little more free space just to be safe.

† For convenience, we recommend loading onto a hard drive when the size exceeds 70GB (~15 DVD Discs).

When choosing this option, we will pre-load your new digital music library onto an external drive or NAS (a network enabled hard drive). You can either send us your drive (IDE, SATA, Flash, USB, FireWire) or purchase an external drive from us. Simple external USB3.0 hard drives will be either Seagate or Western Digital brand, and flash drives are usually a well-known brand name like Kingston, SanDisk, etc (as supplier prices dictate). We also offer RAID NAS devices (Synology, NetGear ReadyNAS, Drobo, etc), but they are custom ordered because models and prices change quickly. By default, DVDs are included with every order. If the hard drive you want is not listed here, we can special order it for no additional cost or delay -- please contact us for a custom order.

When choosing this option, we will maintain and return your CDs in the same sequential order as you sent them. Please note that in-order processing slows our ripping efficiency (thus the extra charge), and may result in your order taking longer than the stated processing speed of 4-6 days, 2-days, or 1-day.

When choosing this option, we can load your CDs into wallets instead of returning them in the spindle canisters that were used for shipping. The two wallet choices differ on the outer material of the wallet -- nylon fabric (similar to cordura nylon) or koskin (synthetic leather).

We ship via US Postal Service or UPS. All packages shipping via USPS do not include a tracking # or shipping insurance. All packages shipping via UPS do include a tracking # and $15/CD shipping insurance. Our shipping arrangements are 3-way; upon receiving your order we send you a shipping kit with all the materials required to securely ship your CDs to us for processing, then you use the pre-paid return shipping label in the shipping kit to send your CDs to us, and after processing is complete we ship everything back to you. We've shipped thousands of packages with both the USPS and UPS, we've never experienced a significant issue with either one (no lost packages, no serious damage, etc). Although it should be noted that shipping times for our "free" USPS Media Mail option do not have guaranteed delivery times and sometimes take longer than we estimated. Please note our shipping rates are calculated for the lower 48 states of the USA. If you live in AK or HI, please contact us for custom shipping options.