AIBU to want a CD player that resumes playback from where I paused it?

[LadyCactus]

Help, please, hive mind of Mumsnet. Does anyone know of a CD player that will resume play from where you left off listening to it, even if it was days ago? You know like some car CD players do - you turn the car on, and the CD starts from where it was when you turned the car off? Rather than going all the way back to the beginning?

I'm going mad trying to find one online! I think it might be called a 'Resume Play' function, but it doesn't seem to exist on an ordinary CD player.

I want it for my kids, who love audiobook CDs. They have Roald Dahl CDs where each book is a single track - so a track can be over 3 hrs long! They can't listen to it in one sitting, obviously, but I can't leave the CD on pause for 24 hours or longer. So what happens is, I press stop, and then the next day we have to try to fast forward through 2 hours of track to find where we were.... It just doesn't work and it's driving me bananas.

Please help! (And please don't just say 'buy a Yoto' because I already have loads of audiobook CDs and I don't want to have to repurchase them all as Yotos.) I'm looking for a standard CD player rather than a personal Discman type one, because I'd like my kids to be able to listen to the story at the same time.

Honestly truly they have existed in the past! Sony Discmans used to have it as a a function that you could switch on and off with a slide button. Lots of car CD players do it - the one I own now does. But for some reason, standard CD players don't seem to have it as an option.

Yes, they really should have had breaks put in them, ideally a track per chapter. But they haven't. It's rubbish 😂

It's just so frustrating as I want my children to be able to put the audiobooks on themselves, to have ownership over what they listen to. I could give in and rebuy all the books on Audible but a) that would be prohibitively pricey, and b) it would mean the children would need internet access / to use my phone to listen.

I say "Alexa pause" and "Alexa resume"

Can you rip the CDs to MP3 using a computer and then just use an MP3 player? Then it would be able to remember where you left off and might be more future proof than a CD player?

Think this might be a case of getting with the times!

I have got a Majority internet radio/CD player and I think that continues CDs where I left off - or maybe it's the start of the track.

But not sure about audio books. If it is the start of the last track played, then I guess it will keep going back to the start of the book.

I have a Terry Pratchet audio book yet to be played. I will try it tomorrow and see what happens 👍

This is a very good idea!

Have you heard of a Yoto player? The cards start where you left off and you can make your own cards using borrowed audiobooks etc :)

Sorry 😂 I skimmed and missed your very clear 'don't buy a yoto' 🫣🫣

😂I think I might agree with you!

I do feel so sad for little kids though, that they can only access music and storybooks through other people's internet devices. When I was a 5 year old I had my own little cassette player that I could play audiobooks on and I loved it! And I could go and sit next to my parents' soundsystem and flip through their LPs and cassettes, and put on anything I wanted.

I do have Spotify and Audible, but they're on my phone, so my kids can't just play from them whenever they want. And Audible's a very expensive way of getting audiobooks for children!

😂😂😂

I do think Yotos look great, but I was trying to avoid having to repurchase all the audiobooks we already own on CD... But I might look into it if you can make your own cards.

Thank you so much - please do let me know if it works!

If you still have a laptop with a cd player you can very easily turn your audio CDs into mp3 files and put them on Yoto cards (sorry!!!)
I had a CD player that did what you described, way back in the 1990s, but all the time it was paused it made this tiny little almost squeak, kind of electronic as it was holding the place. Don’t think I would’ve liked to sleep through it! Our DVD player does similar when we pause it

You could download library books on the Libby app to an old phone/laptop and play through a Bluetooth speaker?

Oooo OK, this is interesting. I do still own a laptop that plays CDs; I'm just that kind of luddite 😂

So will a Yoto player resume mid-track?

I do feel so sad for little kids though, that they can only access music and storybooks through other people's internet devices. When I was a 5 year old I had my own little cassette player that I could play audiobooks on and I loved it!

If you rip the CDs to MP3s, though (hopefully in chapters!), why not get each child a funky little MP3 player with headphones to listen to it?

Granted, they'd be a bit more reliant on you to change the content than if it were on CD, but CDs would inevitably get scratched over time anyway, so basic personal MP3 players sounds like an ideal solution.

Good idea, thank you. I just don't want them use phones / laptops unsupervised, so I'd have to think of how I'd make sure they don't connect them to the internet. Hmm!

I can't believe I hadn't thought of ripping the CDs to mp3 until you all came on and suggested it! I love Mumsnet!

Are you serious?! I have an external DVD drive for Mac that writes CDs. I had no idea I could copy CDs & split into tracks. Thank you, will look into this!

There’s a huge library of audiobooks on Spotify, for free or a few £ a month if you don’t want ads. If you get a Google mini or Alexa pop (which we’re all £20 at half price a couple of weeks ago when I bought two) the kids can be in control by simply asking it to play, pause and resume whichever audiobook they want

Yes it does resume where they left off. It’s a great bit of kit. My daughters got one for her 6th birthday. She’s about to turn 10, unfortunately it’s just failed but luckily she has taken over her brothers one, they have never been as fussed by audiobooks as she is. If we didn’t have that spare I’d be buying her another. Most of the stuff she listens to are cards I’ve made for her from CD audiobooks or files I’ve found online, or kids podcasts, she just has a few “proper” cards that she’s been bought as presents.

I pay for Spotify already; I honestly wasn't aware that there were audiobooks on there though. I don't really know how Alexa works - @MissBattleaxe mentioned that too - I clearly need to update my technological knowhow 😂I've just looked it up. So many wonders in this modern world that I have been avoiding! 😅

I love that my luddite dilemma is giving you retro memories 😂I'm having a rude awakening as to how out of step with the times I am! I'm not even 40 yet FFS 😂