What is the difference between burning and ripping?

Answer: "Ripping" refers to extracting audio files off a CD and copying them to your hard drive. After ripping the audio, you can then convert the files to the more compressed MP3 format if you want.

"Burning" refers to the process of writing data onto a CD. You can burn both audio and data CDs, as well as DVDs, provided your computer has a CD/DVD burner.

Published: December 22, 2002 — by Per Christensson