If your computer has a CD-RW drive or DVD recorder, you can free up your hard drive by storing your MP3 files onto CDs.

The songs on a CD purchased at a record store are known simply as audio CDs. These songs are stored in a format different from MP3. They play in both your computer and your home stereo's CD player, but their bloated file format means only ten or so songs fit onto the CD. A CD with MP3 files plays on your computer, but it may not play on your home stereo's CD player, but on the plus side, MP3's compressed file format lets you store hundreds of songs on the CD.

Before you can create any type of CD, you need a CD-RW drive, DVD-RW or DVD+RW drive, and a pile of blank CDs. (A growing number of audio CD players now support CD-RW discs, which means you can erase the disc and burn a new set of songs - check your audio player's specs to see if it supports CD-RW media.)

To create either type of CD in Musicmatch, for example, follow these steps:

1. Create a playlist of the songs you want to store on the CD.
Simply fill your Playlist window with the songs you want to copy to CD.
If you're creating a CD for your home stereo, start with about ten MP3s. You probably won't be able to fit many more songs, although you'll be given that chance later.

2. Click the Burn button beneath the playlist.
The Create CD from Playlist window pops up, as shown in Figure 1.
 
Figure 1: Seven MP3 songs consume about 49 percent of this audio CD.

3. Choose the type of CD you want to create from the window.

To choose the type of CD you want, click one of the following buttons (shown in Figure 1):

• Audio: Click this button to create a CD for playing in your home and car CD player. This is the default selection.

• MP3: Click this button to create an MP3 disc, which stores a huge number of MP3s to play back on your computer, boombox, or on a portable MP3 player that can handle those CDs.

• Data: Click this button if you want to simply burn the MP3 files as data files on a standard CD-ROM.
Clicking one of the three buttons shows how much space you have left on the CD. In Figure 1, for instance, the seven MP3s listed in the Create CD from Playlist window have consumed 49 percent of the audio CD, leaving room for several more songs.
When you click the MP3 button, however, those same seven songs consume only 11 percent of the CD, leaving much more room. (That shows you how much MP3 compresses songs.)

4. Add or remove songs until the CD is filled.
Keep dragging or removing songs from the Playlist window until you're satisfied with the amount of songs stuffed onto the CD.

5. Place a blank CD or CD-RW disc into your CD or DVD recorder and click the Burn button.
Musicmatch converts the MP3 songs into audio format, if necessary, and copies them to the CD.
If you purchase the upgrade version of Musicmatch, you can print CD covers and jewel box inserts to go with your newly created CDs. It can print any artwork you'd like on the cover, or it can tile the covers from the works you've placed on the CD.