The iPod and the iTunes Music Store

When it comes to citizenship, iTunes definitely gets an A+ because it plays so well with others.
If you have read Part I, “The iPod,” you know that the iPod might just be the coolest portable electronic device ever to hit the streets. Although the iPod is indeed an awesome piece of technology, it wouldn’t get very far without a tool to manage the music it contains. iTunes is that tool. iTunes and the iPod go together like a 1-2 combination punch, peanut butter and jelly, jalapenos on a pizza, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (well, you get the idea). Using iTunes, you can determine which parts of your music library are on the iPod. iTunes manages moving the music files to the iPod and organizing them, so the process is quite simple (from your perspective anyway).

In fact, iTunes will manage the process for you automatically if you prefer; when you connect your trusty iPod to your computer, iTunes will recognize it and then synchronize the music it has in your Library with that on your iPod. You will learn in detail about the last part of the digital music triumvirate: the iTunes Music Store. With the iTunes Music Store, you can shop for music to add to your Library. When you find songs you’d like to have, you can purchase and download them into your iTunes Library with just a couple mouse clicks. And you can do all this from within iTunes itself. It feels like the iTunes Music Store is just an extension of iTunes, which, in fact, it is. You access the iTunes Music Store from within iTunes, and the Store uses an interface that looks very similar to iTunes. So, once you know iTunes, you won’t have any problems with the iTunes Music Store.

Playlists: Customize Your Music Experience

I’ve saved one of the best features of iTunes for nearly last—playlists. Playlists enable you to create custom collections of music from the songs in your iTunes Library. (If you think of a playlist as a custom CD without the disc, you will be very close.)
When you create playlists, you can mix and match music to your heart’s content. For example, you can build your own “greatest hits” collections that include multiple artists, music genres, and so on. You can repeat the same song multiple times in the same playlist. You can also get rid of songs you don’t like by not including them in the playlists you listen to. What’s more, you can create a playlist to include a specific amount of music from a single CD or endlessly repeat all the music in your Library.
Basically, you can use playlists to organize a collection of songs in any way you choose. You can then listen to your playlists, put them on a CD, or move them to an iPod.

Where Does All That Music Come From?

You have three primary sources of the music and sounds from which you will build your iTunes Library:

• Audio CDs—You can add music from your audio CDs to the iTunes Library. In iTunes lingo, this process is called importing.
• The Internet—You can download music and other audio files from the Internet and add those files to your iTunes Library.
• The iTunes Music Store—Using the iTunes Music Store, you can search for, preview, and purchase music online and add that music to your Library.

What You Can Do with iTunes?

Following are some examples just to whet your appetite:

• Listen to audio CDs.
  
• Listen to Internet radio.
  
• Store all the music you like in a single place so you never need to fuss with individual CDs again.
  
• Search and organize all this music so that listening to exactly the music you want is just a matter of a few mouse clicks (and maybe a few key presses).
  
• Create custom albums (called playlists) containing the specific songs you want to hear.
  
• Create custom albums (called smart playlists) that are based on a set of criteria, such as all the Jazz music you have rated at four or five stars.
  
• Use the iTunes built-in Equalizer to make your music just right.
  
• Burn your own music CDs to play in those oh-so-limited CD players in your car, a boom box, or in your home.
  
• Share your music collection with other people over a wired or wireless network; you can listen to music other people share with you as well.