What is a CD ripper?

Most ripping programs will assist in tagging the encoded files with metadata. The MP3 file format, for example, allows tags with title, artist, album and track number information. Some will try to identify the disc being ripped by looking up network services like AMG's LASSO, FreeDB, Gracenote's CDDB or MusicBrainz, or via attempt text extraction if CD-TEXT has been stored.