Remember what CDs look like? Heck, if you are like most people, you probably have a box of CDs somewhere. Even if you don’t listen to those CDs anymore (what’s that? You do?!), Amazon wants what you’ve got. Today, the online retail giant announced that anyone who has a collection of CDs can box them up and send them to Amazon. What will you get in return? Amazon will dole out gift cards that can be used on the Amazon site.

If you’re wondering about details like “how much will I get per CD?” you’ll have to wait for an answer to that question. A TechCrunch article posted this morning supposes that CDs will be priced according to artist (so make sure to send the good ones), but that’s just a hunch. Amazon hasn’t officially announced anything regarding pricing, though these details are bound to pop up within the next day or two.

Should You Give Away Those Old CDs?

What is Amazon doing with all of those old CDs? More importantly, should you give your CDs away or should you keep them? Well, to start, Amazon is, presumably, selling the old CDs at a used CD price, but this is just speculation. It’s also quite possible that Amazon is just recycling all of those old CDs or simply selling them for scrap – who knows for sure? Whether or not you should keep your CDs depends on whether or not you’ve backed them all up…and where you’ve stored all of that music goodness.

These days, most people transfer CDs to some digital format. You can send all of those tunes to a backup drive, to a cloud, or simply add them to your iPod or other music device. Digital is the way to go, and digital takes far less space than a rack of hundreds of CDs. Then again, some people don’t entirely trust backup drives or other digital formats. Are these formats truly trustworthy? Well, backup drives can eventually die and all of those pretty clouds could disappear one day. When these things happen, you will be without those old tunes. Then again, CDs are about as safe as VHS tapes now are, so you’ll have to sort that one out.

Whether or not you want to sell Amazon your CD collection is entirely up to you. But just keep in mind that you’re not likely to gain a ton of money from your CDs. I’m guessing (and agreeing with TechCrunch) that the average CD will go for around $2. The good news here is that Amazon does pay for shipping (so no worrying about the heavy cost of that box!), and you can clean out your bookshelf, CD tower (still have one?), or other current CD holder. Oh, you can also get a gift card for your efforts, and you can use that, in turn, to buy something that you want – like more music.

Details about the new CD swap should be posted on the Amazon site this week. Pay close attention that fine print, and then pack up your CDs for the Amazon journey – or keep them, it’s really all how you look at it!