How to Record a Song on an MP3 Player From a CD Using a PC

Putting your favorite tracks from a collection of music CDs onto an MP3 player makes for great listening. But, songs (tracks) on a music CD are in a .cda format, not an MP3 format. Using Windows Media Player, which comes with the Windows operating system, it's easy to extract individual songs from a CD, convert them to an MP3 format, and store them on your hard drive where they can be downloaded to your MP3 player.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Windows Operating System
• Music CDs
• MP3 player

1. Open Windows Media Player. To do this, click on "Start," "All Programs," then "Windows Media Player."

2. A menu bar appears across the top. Notice the small "down arrow" under the "Rip" tab. Click on the down arrow, and a menu will drop down.

3. Click on "Format" and choose "MP3."

4. Click again on the down arrow under the "Rip" tab. Under "Rip Settings" notice where it says, "Rip music to this location." The default location is "My Music," but you can click on "Change" and enter the directory location where you want to save your songs.

5. Prevent Windows Media Player from automatically ripping all the songs on a CD when you place a CD in the drive by clicking on the down arrow under the "Rip" tab. Then click on "Options" and choose "Never" for "Rip CD automatically when inserted."

6. Place a check mark in each box that appears next to the track you want to extract from the CD. This is done by simply clicking on the box. Click again to remove the check mark if you don't want that song.

7. Click "Rip" after all your songs have been selected. They will be extracted individually from the music CD, converted to an MP3 format, and saved on your hard drive in the directory you selected.

8. Repeat this procedure for all the music CDs from which you want to take songs.

9. Plug your MP3 player into your computer's USB port. Click on "My Computer," and the player will appear as a storage device.

10. Click on the player to show its contents. Click on the icon at the upper right-hand side of the screen to reduce the size of the window (the icon between the minimize and "X" exit boxes).

11. While that window is still on the screen, click on "Start," "My Computer," "C:" and then the directory where you have stored your music files. Click the icon to reduce the size of the window.

12. With both windows now showing on the screen, click and drag each song from the hard drive's music directory and drop them onto the MP3 player window. The songs will be recorded onto the MP3 player.