The Market:
The current market size of CD holdings - people with CDs - is around 10 billion in the United States and continues to grow. This provides a proven market, a focused market, one that is easily identifiable. iTunes has sold about 2 billion tracks since it’s inception and is considered the most popular download site, yet that number translates into just 25 tracks per iPod sold - or just two albums!

It’s clear the consumer is getting their music from CDs. It is also unlikely these music owners will re-purchase their collection at 7 or 8 times the cost of CD conversion. The CD ripping process is long and boring. On average, the time needed to rip a CD is 10 minutes - the average CD collection in the US is 150 discs. During the rip process, your PC takes a significantly drop in performance for doing other things because ripping CDs is a (near) dedicated task. Most people don’t have the time or patience for this process - having a service perform this function is a welcomed idea.

The Solution:
The RipStation from MF Digital can automatically load CDs, rip them and load them to an iPod or similar MP3 player. No human intervention is required! The information provided from the CD, or metadata, is automatically extracted with the audio track, organized, then loaded. This automatic process provides the consumer with a highly accurate and organized database of songs on their MP3 player. In addition, the RipStation can also rip CDs to the system hard drive for back-up to DVD. The RipStation by MF Digital comes in a variety of sizes including one drive, two drive, and four drive configurations.

The Future:
A ripping business is not limited to iPods and MP3 players. Over 150 million MP3 phones have been sold and these phones, all phones, will continue to become more advanced in music and multimedia play back. The digital market has seen significant changes in the last several years - people want to go with this trend. People are now rediscovering their music collection and realizing they can have their collection anywhere at anytime.

Since the industry offers unique products like the MF Digital RipStation, starting up a side business or expanding a current business into the CD ripping market is something worth considering.