Playing CDs in a car without a CD player

[mjt]

So my old man has got himself a new car, but it was not possible to spec a CD changer in the glovebox as of 2021 (thanks BMW).

He has a collection of around 1000 CDs which he wants to have in the car. Clearly the most logical solution would be to use Spotify or rip the CDs to a USB stick and shove that in.

Ripping to USB: does CDex still exist? Will it recognise his obscure classical music collection? Honestly I can’t imagine him ripping 1000 CDs to MP3, let alone naming all the tracks one by one!
Spotify is a possibility, but requires data, etc.

He’s found some CD drives you can plug in via USB, and I guess it could be mounted/stored in the centre console. However, these seem to go for £200+, which seems an awful lot for a Discman. Honestly, it’s like going back to 1990 and playing CDs thru the tape deck..

Does anyone have first-hand experience with in-car CD to USB? Why not just buy an external CD drive for £30? Will it skip?

Thanks!

 

[mjt]

Did this recently for my dad’s CD collection. I used ‘Exact Audio Copy’. You’ll need to get the LAME dll downloaded too to rip to MP3. It’s got built in CDDB support so found every single CD that my dad had, and he’s got some obscure music tastes!

Basically ripped everything to MP3 (which took an age) and then put it on an exFat formatted USB stick for him.

Dude that’s exactly what I used to do 10+ years ago. EAC and CDDB were the acronyms I was looking for
It’ll take a ******* age though

 

[mjt]

it appears there is a retrofit CD player for the g20/21:

https://www.getbmwparts.com/oem-parts/bmw-retrofit-kit-cd-player-65122451536

Unfortunately this needs the wiring loom from the factory. This was no longer possible. We tried, trust me.

I found it on the BMW Accessories web sites of various European countries, but we were told they just hadn't been updated yet.

What BMW doesnt have a CD player?

Literally all of them now. I think it's mental considering they offered the bloody MiniDisc in the E39!

Whilst ripping would be best I think we all agree, for the time and cost involved if the car radio has a 3.5mm Aux jack you could just link a Portable Discman (approx £30) to the car radio using that, as a much cheaper/quicker alternative to the USB ones.
Realistically though I'd heavily push your dad into something like Spotify because his issues with CD's are only going to get worse as time goes on.

Aye that was my question; what's so special about something like this? https://www.raysmith.co.uk/products/plug-and-play-cd-player-for-vehicles-without-a-cd-deck-adv-usbcd
£100 v a cheapo external drive? Does it have special damping so it doesn't skip?

 

[mjt]

Ripping to MP3 is clearly the way to go then! Thanks for the replies

He’s discovered windows media player but will set him up with EAC + LAME, as WMP is trash.

Is there a limit to the size of USB a G20 can read? On my old S3 and current A6, I have to use a 32GB SD card formatted in FAT32. I’m hoping this isn’t an issue on a 2021 BMW?

Also, good point on the free data with connected services @OllyM; I had forgotten about that.

 

[mjt]

The BMW Spotify app requires a premium Spotify subscription to use (inlcuding Family as suggested above, which I what I use) It uses the inbuilt data connection so does not need a separate data contract, although I think after the initial 3 year period you would need to continue subscribing to the BMW connected service to continue with it.

My biggest complaint with it is that, unlike music thats stored locally, you are subject to the quality of the data connection and it leads to regular dropouts in some areas where there is no coverage. It doesn't always restart immediately when you are back in a covered area either. It's great when its working though.

Getting Spotify family would increase the cost by 50%, even though it is "only" another £5 a month.
There's a 5-minute section on my commute without any phone signal, so I try to force the next track and/or a long track before that section on the rare occasion I'm using Spotify on my commute. This is annoying.

Plus if he's already got 2000 CDs (it's clearly not 1000 any more!), why pay for Spotify and effectively pay twice?

 

[mjt]

To be fair, I got annoyed when DAB cuts out in built-up areas

 

[mjt]

Bought a SanDisk Ultra Fit. Job done, I thought.

Picked up car: USB C

It doesn’t look like there are many tiny USBC drives

 

[mjt]

usb-c in a car ?

What new car did you get ? must be a BMW as i know there are a ton of options to add to get what you want , so they aint cheap lol

Aye G21. There is a USB in the front by the cup holders but the ones in the back and in the centre console are USBC.

Not a problem obviously but annoying as the USB with the music should be hidden away in the centre console. How long until we can get the tiny USBC memory sticks? An adapter isn’t going to cut it, and a big memory stick could be damaged/knocked if it’s in the centre console

 

[mjt]

So after spending ages organising the MP3s in folders, etc. in Windows, everything is organised by artist/album in iDrive Not so practical for classic music.

I don't suppose there's a way of showing files by folder? My 2010 Audi does this, but it's ancient.

 

[mjt]

my bmw let you browse by folder its in the options at the left

Yeah I couldn't see it last night; it only showed artist or album, but I'm not familiar with the latest iDrive though. I've only ever used radio or Spotify in my i3.

 

[mjt]

are you tagging using an online database ?
maybe need make up playlists with your/his favourite groups of pieces - piano concertos, symphonies, choral ....

Aye it’s using CDDB or whatever EAL uses. I was just expecting to be able to organise/view the MP3s via a folder structure, but I don’t think it’s possible on the latest iDrive. We didn’t bother creating m3u/playlists.
If it’s by album/artist then so be it. At least we copied the CD photos into each folder.

Maybe I’m just old fashioned. Even on Spotify I look through an artist’s discography and play albums.

 

[mjt]

As I mentioned earlier when I copy my folders onto the microSDXC card in my Android phone, they appear as folders in the Pulsar music app I use. It’s then just a case pressing on a folder to create a playlist.

Easy peasy, I don’t really like the way iOS handles music as you have to do it all through iTunes.

I’m talking about iDrive. He’s not using apple CarPlay.

 

[mjt]

interesting https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/music-from-usb.1396168/

Interesting indeed. Why the **** is everything so complicated these days?

Just give me a list of tracks in the folder structure that I created

 

[mjt]

I think it's fair to assume that it's part of their deal with Spotify to make it difficult to listen to music from other sources.

Cynical, yet interesting, take. I use Spotify on occasion in my i3 if I don’t want the radio, but the fact I have a phone signal dead spot on my way to work is a problem and I’m not going to make everything I might listen to in Spotify available offline..

Money talks I guess.