CD Ripper

A CD ripper copies the audio portion of a CD and converts it to a format that can be used with an audio program or portable device, such as an MP3 player or smartphone. It may be a component of a music player program, as with iTunes, or it may be a separate component, such as FreeRIP. A CD ripper is normally used when a user wants to listen to a CD on a device such as a smartphone or portable audio device and does not want to buy an album again from an online music store. In some cases, a release might not be available on online music stores at all.

CD rippers can convert CD audio to a variety of formats, including MP3, WAV, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and AAC. Rippers also often include error detection to correct errors in the audio such as clipping or skipping resulting from scratches to the disc. Many of them can tag the resulting files with artist and song information, downloading it from a database such as Gracenote.