A few random comments: Yes, I think FLAC is the way to go. Can always convert to other formats from there. Check out "mp3fs" http://khenriks.github.com/mp3fs/ : Converts your FLACs to MP3s on the fly when you need them in that format. Really handy for copying to portable devices etc. For example, my music is in /storage/music but I can access all my music as MP3 if I go to /mp3 Make sure whatever tool you use for the original rip will properly name and tag your files, using MusicBrainz / cddb / freedb /whatever. Will save you a TON of time naming things manually, and referencing them later. I've been slowly going through my collection of ~600 CDs. I've been using Gnome's Banshee music player to do the ripping / tagging /etc. When Banshee can't find CD info in MusicBrainz, I fire up MusicBrainz Picard to add the info to their library (that way I'm not just typing it in for myself - others will benefit). Something else to consider: Get the cover art if available online. I haven't looked into this in detail, and I'm guessing there are automated tools for it... But it's nice to have when certain players/devices will display it for you. Discogs.com is good for manual downloads. -Vic