The advent of digital music libraries has introduced a Music Collector's Dilemma (MCD).  MCD:

The argument for ripping all the tracks is that your music library will be an exact reflection of your physical CD collection.  Also, I have heard some people imply that a true music collection must have every track by an artist, even if the track is clearly a
'hey wait - the recording console was getting that last jam. okay we have our ninth track!'

The T. and I have gone back and forth on the MCD.  But finally we have decided that we will only keep good tracks on the music library.  We have found, over the years, that we never ever listen to the B tracks.  And though hard drive space is cheap, my time is not.  I don't want to have to search through a list of tracks trying to find the Rolling Stones songs I actually like.

An advantage of TouchAmp is that it has a 'Dump' button.  Don't like a track, hit Dump.  It gets moved to a folder on our music drive called TA_Dump.  We can review it and then permanently delete it via PC.

My goal right now is to go through my growing World Music collection.  I love World Music but I am not a collector.  Just because a track is a great example of a regional Thai singing style, doesn't mean I will listen to it.  I'd like to get it to the point where I can just add folders of tracks that are regionally similar and have a few hours of great listening. 

On Friday we dumped over a Gig of bad music! 

The T. just posted one of his current projects.  Its called TouchAmp and it has brought great joy to our livingroom. 

We can now play music from our music library using an (almost) free touch screen interface.  We have a left over PalmPilot on our bookshelf connected to a mini-ITX PC that has our music library on its hard drive.

With the TouchAmp app, I can create and control a playlist.  For example, I create a workout playlist from our library that I use for my workout in the morning.  If I've picked a song that's too slow then I can move forward to the next one.  I can also add songs at the end if my playlist ran short. 

I love it because:
1. No PC monitor in our livingroom.  I look at a PC all day.  I don't want to see one when I'm listening to Arcade Fire.
2. I can control the playlist without leaving the room.

To me, a good playlist is the key to a good time.  In fact, the T. and I now compete on who can create the best playlist.  We take turns on picking tracks and trying to find great song combinations.