If I wanted an MP3 player again, in 2023, and wanted to rip cds to it and put digitally purchased albums on it, as actual owned files (not inside an proprietary ecosystem where I pay to only listen to that track within that service) could I still do that? What would I need? I don’t own, and can’t afford, a “real computer”, but i recall having lots of compatibility issues at the time between my mp3 player and computer os anyway. I’ve got an ipad and a pixel. Is there any feasible, non-ridiculously-difficult way to do this? Do they still sell any mp3 players? Do any of the old ones work with modern tech? I miss hearing my music on a simple, quiet, offline device without ads or streaming services.
Your iPad is an MP3 player, but as far as ripping a CD, first you need a USB CD drive, which is easy enough to get.
BUT… iOS doesn’t recognize optical drives, so once you have the USB drive, you need some other device to connect it to in order to rip the CDs.
Could be something like a Steam Deck or an inexpensive laptop or Chrome Book.
Once you rip the files to the device, you need to probably upload them to cloud storage accessible by both that device and the iPad.
Once the files are transferred to the iPad, you should be good to go!