Don't forget to rip your CDs, records and tapes!

Some of the biggest selling albums of all time are still not available for purchase online as audio files. Popular artists such as AC/DC and Garth Brooks have stood their ground and said, "No, we do not want your money." You can still have legally owned copies of AC/DC MP3s in your collection. It requires more work, but you don't have to leave things that you enjoy out of your collection just because it's not easily attainable. Tracking down hard to find music and crossing it off of your list can be very satisfying, and with it stored safely in the cloud, you don't have to worry about losing it ever again. Your most important and irreplaceable tracks can be stored in multiple locations, as there's no law that says you can't use Google Play, iCloud and the Amazon Cloud Player simultaneously. It is a great time to be a hoarder of music.

The Beatles famously waited until 2009 to make their music available on iTunes, however there are still several releases and other variations only available by tracking down the original LP's and tapes. Some of these albums, such as the compilations, probably won't see a digital release, as it would cause some redundancies. The Hollywood Bowl album however is the only album of live material by The Beatles ever issued, and the only legitimate way to have MP3s of its songs is to find the original LP and rip it yourself.

In the past, it may have seemed futile to track down a hard copy of an obscure album, hooking up physical equipment to extract its music, and then converting, tagging, and storing it. A lot of people have seen their music collections dwindle over the years due to circumstances beyond their control. After you transfer your files from hard drives to memory cards to flash drives to MP3 players and back again for a few years, if the device or media doesn't crash or hold your music hostage, you might still have half of your collection left. With so many options for cloud storage available now, there is no reason to worry that your hard work will ever be lost. So use that as an an excuse to be a music archaeologist. Go on expeditions in attics, thrift stores and flea markets to seek rare music on lost formats.

Google Play gives you enough space to store 20,000 files. Keep this in mind when you are making MP3s of  your records, tapes and other pieces of media that weren't originally intended to be split up into individual files. Most old albums are no longer than 40 or 50 minutes, so if you split these albums into SIDEA.mp3 and SIDEB.mp3, it makes for a nostalgic listening experience while counting a fourteen track album as two songs.

For example, if you own both the stereo and mono versions of every Beatles album, it might be useful to combine the mono albums into single track files (PleasePleaseMeMono.mp3, AbbeyRoadMono.mp3) to keep your collection from having too many confusing and redundant song and album titles, while still keeping the albums in your collection.

We are not advocating, nor do we recommend that you combine ALL of your albums into single tracks as a way to store more music on Google Play. OK, that actually sounds like we're wink-wink-nudge-nudging you, but seriously, don't do it. It's not for moral reasons, however. It's impractical for creating playlists, searching for single songs, sharing and pretty much everything. Unless you absolutely need to upload your 20,000 albums and their individual songs are of no consequence, don't bother.

Michael Jackson's Thriller - Two Thumbs Down?

Of course not! We love this album as much as the next person. However, having an entire album pop up in an Instant Mix isn't providing much variety, and defeats the purpose of the feature. You could own Thriller: Special Edition (2001), Thriller 25 (2008) and a rip of your trusty original vinyl. You probably only need one version of each song in rotation, so when you are giving your favorite songs the Thumbs Up, if your vinyl rip is one long file, go ahead and give it the Thumbs Down...Michael won't take it personal, we promise!

Marking these tracks Thumbs Down will keep them from showing up willy nilly in your Instant Mixes. It does not currently prevent the tracks from playing in a shuffled artist mix (click on the artist name, click shuffle and play), so you have to choose your poison. If you only upload the music that you listen to, as we suggested earlier, you will only have to use this feature to keep lengthy tracks like these from just doing whatever they want.