Windows 8 Bible

Creating Your Own Music CDs

Although CD players are becoming less and less popular (because of smartphones, MP3 players, iPhones, and the like), many people still have CD players in their vehicles. For that reason, you may want to opt for a custom CD of your favorite music. Creating your own custom music CDs is a lot of fun. It’s also a great way to protect any new CDs you purchase from getting scratched and ruined. When you buy a new CD, rip it to your Media Library, and then put it back in its case for safe-keeping. Burn a copy of the CD (or just your favorite songs from the CD along with some other favorite songs), and use the copy in your home or car stereo. In some cases, you can also copy songs you purchased online to CDs.

If you buy blank CDs in spindles of 50 or more, they are typically very inexpensive. You won’t get the little plastic jewel case, but you can buy paper sleeves or jewel cases separately. Or you can keep all the CDs in a CD binder.

Types of music CDs

Before we get into the specifics of burning CDs, it’s important to understand that you can create two different types of music CDs:

• Audio CD: This type of CD plays in any home stereo, car stereo, portable CD player, or computer. You must burn songs to a CD-R disk (preferably an Audio CD-R) to create this type of CD because most non-computer players can’t play CD-RW disks or DVD disks.
• Data CD: This type of music CD plays in computers, or in any stereo that’s capable of playing this type of CD. You can use CD-R ...