Credits: Apple Computer, Inc.

Overview We’ll learn the basics of iTunes, Apple’s digital music player for your computer. Start by importing music from your favorite CDs or purchasing it from the iTunes Music Store. Then with music stored on you computer, you’ll learn how to organize your music with playlists, burn your own CDs, and even sync your music library with an iPod, Apple’s portable digital music player.

Introduction Whether you've never played music on your computer or you've been using digital music players for years, you'll find that iTunes makes it fun and easy to organize and play music on your computer. With iTunes you can easily import songs from your favorite CDs or purchase music online from the iTunes Music Store. From there you'll be able to create custom playlists, burn CDs, and even share your music with others on your network. iTunes makes it easy to get started even if you've already been using digital music software. iTunes can automatically search for any music files on your computer and then add them to your iTunes library.

Importing Music from CDs With iTunes, it's easy to transfer your favorite music from a CD to your computer. It's even faster and easier than copying your CD to a cassette tape. When you insert a music CD into your computer, iTunes opens automatically. And if you enjoy only a few of the songs on your CD, you can import just those songs to your digital music library. When you import your music, iTunes transfers the data from your CD to your hard disk and converts each song to a file that iTunes can play. This “compression” process does not sacrifice the quality of your music. Most people can't hear the difference between the music played from a CD and the compressed music played in iTunes.

Getting to Know the iTunes Music Store Buying music from the iTunes Music Store is easy. It appears right in a window with simple navigation that works just like your favorite web browser. You can look for songs, albums, or artists, and listen to 30-second previews of every track. This way, you'll be sure that the song you purchase is exactly the one you want. And you'll be delighted when you find music and videos you'll never find at your typical music store. After you find what you want, you purchase it and download it”legally” right to your iTunes music library. You don't have to be connected to the Internet to listen to your purchased music, but you do need to be online to access the iTunes Music Store.

Using the iTunes Music Store With the iTunes Music Store, buying music is just a mouse-click away. To browse the iTunes Music Store, all you need is a Mac, iTunes, and an Internet connection But before you can purchase songs, you'll need to set up an Apple account. With an Apple account, you enter all your personal and billing information once, and from then on you simply click one button to purchase a song or album. If you've ever purchased products online from Apple or have a.Mac subscription, you might already have an account. If not, you can set up your account right in iTunes.

Finding Specific Songs Just as you search your own music library in iTunes, you can search the iTunes Music Store to find the specific song or artist you're looking for. And if you can't remember the exact name of the song you're looking for, just search with a partial name. You might even find a few different versions of the song performed by different artists or recorded live. If you don't have a specific song in mind, but just want to see what music is available by your favorite artist, you can browse the store by artist or genre. After you find an artist you enjoy listening to, you can check out the top downloads to see what others like listening to. Chances are, you'll like it, too!

Purchasing Music Purchasing music from the iTunes Music Store is not only simple, streamlined, and legal, it's also affordable. No matter what song you want to buy, there's never a question about how much it will cost. There are no monthly subscription fees, so you can buy as little or as much music as you want You can choose to download your music and charge it to your credit card immediately, or if you have a slow Internet connection, place it in a shopping cart for later checkout and download. If you have selected the shopping cart method, you'll see an Add Song button rather than the default Buy Song button in the Price column.

Browsing & Searching the Library Sometimes you don't know what you want to listen to, and sometimes you know exactly what you want to hear. If you're not sure what music you want to listen to, you'll want to browse your music collection. You can use the Browse pane in iTunes to see the names of all the artists in your collection. When you find the artist you want to listen to, you can see every album by the artist that you've imported. You can also browse by genre. But even when you know exactly what song you want to hear, it can be a daunting task to find that song, especially if you've forgotten who sings it, or which album it's on. With iTunes, you can search through your entire music collection in seconds to find exactly what you're looking for.

Using Playlists to Organize Music If you've ever made a custom cassette tape of your favorite music, then you already understand the power of playlists. With a playlist, you choose which songs to play and the order in which to play them. In iTunes, you can create as many playlists as you want, include as many songs as you want in each playlist, and rearrange the songs in each playlist until the order is just right. You might have one playlist for exercising, one for a rainy Monday, another that contains the music for your play rehearsal, and so on. The possibilities are endless.

Creating Smart Playlists Wouldn't it be great if you could always get what you wanted, exactly when you wanted it? Smart playlists in iTunes might be a good start. iTunes can keep track of when you last played a song, what year the song was released, and even when you imported the song to your library, for example. When you create a smart playlist, iTunes accesses all this information, so you can create great mixes without a lot of work. If you want to create a playlist with only your favorite songs, for example, you can create a smart playlist that checks to see how many times each song was played, and places the songs with the highest play count in the playlist. As you add more music to your library, the smart playlist is automatically updated.

Listening to Internet Radio On your home stereo you probably enjoy listening to your favorite FM and AM radio stations. These stations broadcast their signals over the airwaves, so they have limited range. But with iTunes, you can listen to Internet radio stations from around the world that broadcast everything from the blues to pop favorites. Internet radio stations are referred to as “streams,” because they send digital music information as a continuous stream of data over the Internet to your computer. The better-sounding streams require faster Internet access because they send more digital information (known as bit rates). These high-quality stations are listed with higher bit rates in iTunes.

Importing Music to Your iPod Tunes and iPod were made for each other, so moving your music to your iPod is as easy as “plug and play.” When you connect your iPod to your computer, the iPod automatically checks to make sure that the music in your iTunes library is also on your iPod. So, if you've added new music, iTunes makes sure your iPod is up- to-date. You can include the music in your iTunes music library on more than one iPod, so if you and a family member, for example, enjoy the same music, you can each link your iPod to the same iTunes library. You can't, however, link an iPod to more than one library, which means you can't add songs from someone else's collection to your iPod.

Other Ways to Use Your iPod Did you know that your iPod is more than just a personal music player? You can use your iPod to record voice memos, store your digital pictures, view your contact names and addresses, and more. And in most cases you can continue to listen to your music while you're using your iPod in these other ways. With the large storage capacity of your iPod, you'll have plenty of room for your music and your other files. This is really convenient if you want to make sure you always have certain files with you wherever you are, for example, your resume or your latest school project. You can attach your iPod to any Mac or PC with a USB 2.0 port, and either transfer the files or use them right from the iPod.

Podcasting With iTunes, you can now browse and subscribe to podcasts from within the iTunes Music Store. Podcasts are radio shows or other audio programs that are often episodic and are downloadable over the Internet. From news and information to music and commentary, thousands of new podcasts are available everyday, from around the world, on every subject you can imagine. And now, with built-in support for podcasting in iTunes, listening and managing podcasts has never been easier. You can find and subscribe to your favorite podcasts in the Podcast Directory on the iTunes Music Store, and automatically download them to your computer. You can listen to a podcast from your computer or transfer it to your iPod and listen while you are on the go.

Burning Your Music to a CD It's a lot of fun to create your own custom music CDs to play in your car or home stereo. All you need is iTunes and a computer with a CD burner. Just make a playlist containing only the songs you want to copy to the CD, arrange them however you want, insert a blank CD into your computer, and then click the Burn button. It's that easy. You can also use your CD burner to back up your music. It's especially important to back up the music you purchase from the iTunes Music Store, just in case a file is accidentally deleted or damaged.

Sharing Music on a Local Network Have you ever dreamed of having your own radio show? With iTunes, you're halfway there. You can give anyone on your local network access to your personal music library. You can share your entire library, or really play by creating and sharing special playlists. Other computers running iTunes on your local network will automatically seek out your computer and connect to your shared music library. Your shared music is streamed to the other computers, not downloaded, so others can listen only as long as you're connected to the network and have iTunes open. They can't copy your music to their library.

Understanding Digital Music Rights You can truly feel good about buying music from the iTunes Music Store. In fact, you'll be able to enjoy it in almost all the ways you enjoy the CDs you buy at a music store. For example, just as you might listen to a CD at home, in your car, and at work, you can listen to your iTunes Music Store music on up to five different computers. The first time you play a song that you've purchased your computer becomes “authorized” to play all the music you've purchased. You can also download your purchased music to an unlimited number of iPod devices to take your songs on the road. You can add the music you purchased from the iTunes Music Store to any of your playlists. And you can even burn your purchased music to a CD (10 burns).

Get Help in iTunes Now that you have completed this overview and learned the fundamentals of iTunes, you can feel confident as you begin to create your own digital music collection on your computer. But what if you have questions or want to learn more? If you have a question, check out the extensive Help system included with iTunes.