For a fee, iPods get their fill.

The rising popularity of Apple's iPod has created a new kind of entrepreneur: the professional iPod loader. For $1 to $1.49 a CD, this person will take on the time-consuming task of loading an entire music collection onto an iPod or other digital music player, often providing a backup copy as well. "It's a booming aftermarket of the iPod economy," says Bill Palmer, 27, who has created a nationwide network of iPod loaders called Loadpod.

Converting enough CDs to fill a 40-gigabyte iPod can take 60 to 100 hours, depending on the computer's speed. "The prospect of spending all this time was daunting," says Nell Eckersly of Brooklyn, N.Y., who received an iPod for Christmas and was faced with loading her 400-CD collection. Hearing such frustration has inspired students, computer technicians, and even doctors to set up shop. An iPod loader can earn several hundred dollars for converting a large collection, but hour by hour the money is modest--from $6 to $12 an hour. Jay Parkinson, a 28-year-old pediatric resident at a New York hospital, loads iPods in his spare time. "I'm deeply in debt because of medical education," he says. "Why not just get paid to be sitting at home?"