MP3 RIPPING & TAGGING SOFTWARE

Price: $19.95   Website: MediaMonkey.Com

MediaMonkey is sort of an all in one media machine. It can rip your music from CDs, edit the tags, look up album information on the internet, burn CDs, etc. It can also sync with all sorts of MP3 players, including iPods. There are two versions - the free one, and the Gold version with some advanced features, such as conversions and leveling the sound between files.

Windows Media Player

Price: Free   Website: Microsoft.Com

Window's Media Player comes on all Windows machines, so chances are you have it already. While not the greatest tagger available for DJs, it can get the job done. If you are going to use it to rip the music from your CDs, you should set the options to rip to MP3 format, otherwise it will rip to its native WMA format, which cannot be played on all software and hardware.

Tag&Rename

Price: $29.95   Website: SoftPointer.Com

Tag&Rename is a nice tagging program, with plenty of features available. It's not an all in one that can rip and burn some some of the others, but it's tagging features are second to none, and you can easily batch tag or rename thousands of files at a time, with just a few mouse clicks.

iTunes

Price: Free   Website: Apple.Com

iTunes is another all in one, that can also rip your CDs - but as with Windows Media Player, you should also change the options to rip to MP3 format, so your music can be used on any software or hardware. Also note that iTunes also installs its ituneshelper process, which is always running in the background, even when iTunes is not. This process can sometimes interfere with other programs running on your computer.

AudioGrabber

Price: Free   Website: No longer functional

AudioGrabber has been around for ages, and is one of the most used ripping programs for DJs. Although the interface is old and clumsy compared to today's standards, it works excellent, is easy to use, and is very fast. The author put it into the public domain years ago, and even though the website is no longer functional, you can find the download and tutorials on how to use it in various places. SoftJock, the producers of Rockit Pro DJ Software, has the download, as well as a nice tutorial available here.

AudioGrabber Download and Tutorial

MP3Tag

Price: Free   Website: MP3Tag.De

MP3Tag is a lightweight MP3 tag editor, but seems to work very well. Not as extensive as Tag&Rename, but it is free. Fairly simple to use, with no great learning curve, and seems to be updated on a regular basis. Can easily do batch processing of tags.