01
Connect
One cord from your turntable, tape deck, or player straight into your phone. No mixer, no interface, no software to learn.
The guide
Get your whole record, tape, and CD collection onto your phone.
People call it ripping, or digitizing. There are plenty of ways to do it, and most of them involve a computer, a mixer, and an afternoon. Here is the simplest honest way, and what to do with the music once it is in.
The old way, honestly
Why this usually turns into a project.
The classic route is a USB turntable, free recording software, and a laptop. It works. It also means a computer in the room, software to learn, files to name by hand, artwork to hunt down, and one more step to get any of it onto your phone. The first vinyl transfer often comes back thin and quiet, because the wrong cable for that setup was in the chain. CDs are worse: most new laptops have no disc drive, most guides will flatly tell you it cannot be done without a computer, and the rips you made years ago are trapped on a machine you no longer own. And the tapes fade a little more every year they wait in the closet.
There is a simpler way, and it starts with the one cable you already need.
The simplest way
Three steps. No computer.
02
Collect
Press play on the record. Uki listens in lossless, names the album, and drops the artwork in for you.
03
Listen
Play it anywhere, offline, on every device you sign in to. It lands in your Collection, next to everything else you own.
People call it ripping. We call it collecting, because you are not making a throwaway copy. You are bringing a record you own into a library you keep. Lossless means nothing thrown away: what the groove or the tape holds is what you keep. Analog captures land at 24-bit / 96 kHz. A CD comes off as a lossless file. Free to start with 100 tracks or 5 GB, yours forever.
By format
What each one needs.
Every format is the same three steps. The only thing that changes is the one piece of gear between your player and your phone.
Vinyl records
One capture cable, RCA out of your turntable or receiver, USB-C into your phone, captured at 24-bit / 96 kHz. If your turntable has no built-in preamp, a small one goes in front so the transfer does not come back thin and quiet. That is the whole story.
Cassettes
The same capture cable, out of your deck’s line out. No preamp needed. The tapes you never threw out, finally in your pocket, before another year takes a little more of them.
CDs
Most guides will tell you flat out that you cannot get CDs onto your phone without a computer. You can. A standalone CD ripper reads the disc on its own and saves lossless files to a USB stick. Plug the stick into your phone and Uki collects the album.
Already have a computer? You may not need to buy anything. Install the free Uki desktop app and its disc drive (built in, or a plain USB one) collects straight into your library. Collect there, or start it from your phone on the same Wi-Fi.
Not sure which one you have? You do not need to guess. Answer two questions and the Gear Check names the exact cable for your setup.
Or skip all that
Uki does it in a couple of taps.
Plug in the cable, press play, and the record lands in your library, named, with its artwork, in lossless. Free to start. The cable is the only thing you buy, and you buy it on Amazon at Amazon’s price.
And once it is in
A real player for everything you own.
The record you just collected lands in the same library as the files you already have. Folders from Dropbox or Drive. Your whole iTunes library. Every album you bought on Bandcamp, Qobuz, HDtracks, or Amazon. Even the iPod in the drawer. One shelf, lossless, on every device you sign in to, and every copy is yours outright. Not a feed you rent.
Plenty of apps can digitize a record. Plenty of apps can play your files. Only Uki is both, one library for everything you own.
Fair questions
The honest answers.
Can I just do this with free software and a USB turntable?
Yes, and it works. It also means a computer in the room, software to learn, naming every file by hand, hunting down artwork, and then getting the files onto your phone some other way. Uki takes the computer out entirely and keeps the result inside a player, so the record is ready to play the moment the side ends.
Can I use my computer's CD drive instead?
Yes. If your computer has a disc drive, you do not need to buy anything. If it does not, a plain USB CD drive is all it takes, no expensive ripper required. Install the free Uki desktop app on that computer (Mac, Windows, or Linux). Collect the disc there, or start the collect from your phone on the same Wi-Fi. The album lands lossless on the same shelf as everything else.
Will it sound as good as the record?
Yes. Uki captures in lossless at 24-bit / 96 kHz, which is more than the groove or the tape can hold. The thing that ruins a first transfer is not the app, it is the wrong cable for that setup. The Gear Check exists to catch that before you spend anything.
What about the music I already have as files?
Bring it in. Files, folders, your iTunes library, your Bandcamp, Qobuz, HDtracks, and Amazon Music downloads, even an old iPod. It all lands on the same shelf as the records you collect, and it plays the same way, everywhere.
Do I have to pay?
You can start free. Collect 100 tracks or 5 GB, yours forever, on every device. The cable is the one thing you buy, on Amazon, at Amazon's price. When your collection outgrows Free, a yearly membership grows the shelf. See Collector Memberships for exactly what each one holds.
Start with the record you love most.
Find the one cable that fits your gear, collect your first side tonight, and hear what you already own the way it was meant to sound.
Already have the cable? Open Uki and press play.