Rip music from a CD in Windows Media Player

When you rip music from a CD, you're copying songs from an audio CD to your PC. If you have songs on your PC, you can easily sync them to a portable device, burn a CD to play in your car, or play your music with just a tap or click. For more info about ripping music, see Rip music: Frequently asked questions

Show all

To rip music from a CD

Make sure your PC is connected to the Internet if you want Windows Media Player to get info such as the name of the CD, the artist, and song titles for the tracks being ripped. If you don't have an Internet connection, you can manually add the info.

  1. Open Windows Media Player:

    1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
      (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)

    2. Enter Windows Media Player in the search box, tap or click Apps, and then tap or click Windows Media Player.

  2. Insert an audio CD into the CD drive.

  3. If you want to select a different format or bit rate, tap or click the Rip settings menu, and then choose Format or Audio Quality in the Player Library.

  4. If you don't want to rip every song, clear the check boxes next to the songs you don't want.

  5. Tap or click the Rip CD button Rip CD button in Now Playing mode or Rip CD in the Player Library to begin ripping.

    When your songs have been ripped, you can find and play them in the Player Library.

    Note

    Note

    The Player stores ripped songs in the Music library on your PC. If you delete your Music library or remove all folders from it, you won't be able to rip music from a CD.

To add or edit media info after ripping

Make sure your PC is connected to the Internet if you want Windows Media Player to get info such as the name of the CD, the artist, and song titles for the tracks being ripped. If you don't have an Internet connection, you can manually add the info.

  1. Open Windows Media Player:

    1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
      (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)

    2. Enter Windows Media Player in the search box, tap or click Apps, and then tap or click Windows Media Player.

    If the Player is currently open and you’re in Now Playing mode, tap or click the Switch to Library button Switch to Library button in the upper-right corner of the Player.

  2. In the Player Library, find the album you just ripped.

  3. Swipe across or right-click the album, and then tap or click Find album info.

  4. If you get an error message that says you need to change your privacy settings:

    1. Tap or click Organize, tap or click Options, and then tap or click the Privacy tab.

    2. Select the Update music files by retrieving media info from the Internet check box.

    3. Repeat steps 2 and 3.

  5. Do one of the following:

    • If the correct album or artist info appears in the search results: Select the correct entry, and then follow the instructions on the page to automatically update the album art and media info.

    • If the correct album doesn't appear in the search results: Follow the instructions on the page to search again using different search criteria or to add the media info manually.

    Note: If the correct album info appears with a generic music icon displayed as the album art, the album art is unavailable for download.

Note

Note

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of copyrighted material may be a violation of copyright law in the United States and/or other countries/regions. Copyrighted material includes, but is not limited to, software, documentation, graphics, lyrics, photographs, clipart, animations, movie and video clips, as well as sound and music (including when MP3 encoded). Violation of U.S. and international copyright laws may subject you to significant civil and/or criminal penalties.

Was this helpful?
Thank you.
Do you want to add anything else?
Thank you. Your feedback helps us to continually improve our content.
1200 400 How can we make this more helpful for you? Submit Skip this Do you want to add anything else? Submit No thanks