Building, Browsing, Searching, and Playing Your iTunes Music Library

Are you ready for some real iTunes? Here is where we start taking your iTunes game to the next level, hitting some home runs, scoring touchdowns, and some other sports clichés that all good books use. It’s time to start working with that mysterious Library I have mentioned a number of times but into which you have only had glimpses.
The iTunes Library is where you can store all your music, such as that from your audio CDs and the Internet, and where any music you purchase from the iTunes Music Store is stored. After you have added music to your Library, you never have to bother with individual CDs again because you can access all your music from the Library. And, you can use the music in your Library in many ways, such as to create playlists, burn CDs, and so on.
Right now, your iTunes Library is probably sort of sad. Like a book library with no books in it, your iTunes Library is just sitting there gathering dust on its digital shelves. You will change that shortly. The first step is to add music to the Library. Then, you’ll learn how to browse, search, and listen to the tunes you have added there.

Tips on Using iTunes

By learning how to use iTunes to play audio CDs and Internet radio, you’ve picked up a lot more knowledge than you might realize. That’s because you use the same steps and controls to listen to other music sources, such as your Library, playlists, and so on.

• Many of the controls in the iTunes window work just like similar controls on a CD player.
• The iTunes Information window doesn’t look like a lot, but you’ll learn to really love it when you are building your Library.
• If a song’s Selected check box is checked, it will play. If it’s not checked, the song won’t play.
• You determine the songs you want to hear and the order in which you want to hear them for all your sources by the order in which they appear in the Content pane (except for the Radio source, which you have to take as it comes). Each time you insert a CD, iTunes remembers the settings you used last time and uses those settings again. Just wait until you get to playlists—you can take this concept to the extreme!
• You can repeat or randomize the music in any source, such as a CD or playlist.
• Don’t forget about the iTunes System Tray (Windows) or Dock (Mac) menu. This is a great way to keep iTunes music going while not consuming any of your valuable desktop real estate.
• You can change the width of columns within the iTunes window, and you can also resize the iTunes window to make it the size you want. As you work through later, you’ll also learn how to customize the information you see inside the window as well.
• Listening to the Radio source provides access to lots of music available on the Internet.
• You can use iTunes Effects to control the gap between songs, to equalize the relative volume of songs, and to enhance the sound you hear.

Setting iTunes Effects Preferences

You can use iTunes Effects to control how your music plays. For example, you can get rid of the gap of silence between songs or make songs play back at a consistent volume level. You can take advantage of these features by using the Effects pane of the iTunes Preferences dialog box. On this pane, you can configure the following effects for your music (see Figure):

• Crossfade playback—This effect causes one song to fade out and the next one to fade in smoothly, eliminating the gaps of silence between songs. To activate it, check the Crossfade Playback check box and use the slider to see the amount of fade time. If you move the slider to the left, songs will fade out more quickly. If you set it to 0, there is no fading, and as soon as one song ends, the next one starts. If you move the slider to the right, the fades will last longer. Click OK and the effect will take effect.
• Sound Enhancer—This effect is iTunes’ attempt to “add depth and enliven” the quality of your music. The actual result of this effect is a bit difficult to describe, so the best thing to do is try it for yourself. Check the Sound Enhance check box and use the slider to set the relative amount of enhancement. Click OK and then listen to some music. It if sounds better to you, increase the amount of the effect. If not, decrease it or turn it off.
• Sound Check—This effect sets the relative volume level of all songs the same. It is useful if you have changed the relative volume level of songs (perhaps you cranked up your favorite classical tunes) and want to have all your music play at the same volume level. To implement this effect, check its check box and click OK.

Changing the Size of the iTunes Window on a Mac

When you use iTunes on a Mac, you can change the window’s size in the following ways:
■ You can hide the application. Press „+H to hide the application. Its window will be hidden from the desktop. You can control iTunes by using its Dock menu. Click the iTunes Dock icon to show the window again.
■ You can toggle the size of the window. If you click the Toggle Size button (the green “light”) on the window’s title bar, the iTunes window will collapse so that only the playback controls and the Information window are shown. Click the button again to open the window to its full size.
■ You can change the size of the window. In either the full or collapsed state, you can change the size of the window by dragging its resize handle located in the bottom-right corner of the window.

Changing the Size of the iTunes Window on a Windows PC

As you use iTunes, keep in the mind the following tips for keeping the window out of your way:

• You can minimize/maximize the window. Use the standard Minimize and Maximize controls in the iTunes window to hide it or make it full-screen size.
• You can make the window smaller. If the iTunes window is in the resize mode (click the Maximize button so the window’s size is maximized, then click it again), you can drag its resize handle to make the window smaller until it reaches the smallest possible size (see Figure). Then, you can slide the window out of the way.

Setting General iTunes Preferences

On the General pane of the Preferences dialog box are several settings you might want to use:

• Source Text—Use this drop-down list to change the size of the font of the sources shown in the Source List. The options are Small (default) and Large.
• Song Text—This setting changes the size of the text used in the Content pane. Again, your options are Small and Large.
• Show Genre When Browsing—Earlier, you learned about the Browser. This check box controls whether the Genre column appears in the Browser (the check box is checked) or not (the check box is not checked). I like the Genre column, so I leave this checked, but if you don’t, you can uncheck the check box.
• Connect to Internet When Needed—If you don’t want iTunes to try to connect to the Internet automatically, such as when you are using it on a laptop, uncheck this check box. Because iTunes uses the Internet to get CD information, provide Internet radio, and access the iTunes Music Store, you should leave this check box checked whenever you are using iTunes on a computer that can connect to the Internet.

Playing Around with Internet Audio

You can do a couple other things with Internet audio using iTunes. If you want iTunes to be used to play Internet audio by default, open the Preferences dialog box (Ctrl+, on Windows computers or „+, on Macs). Open the General pane. Then check the Use iTunes as the Default Player for Audio Files check box (Windows) or click the Set button (Mac). When your browser hits an audio file that iTunes supports, iTunes should play it.
You can also play audio streams for which you have a URL within iTunes. To do this, use the following steps:

1. Find the URL pointing to the stream to which you want to listen. Hopefully, you can copy the URL from the Address bar of the Web browser because that is a lot easier than trying to remember the URL or writing it down and then typing it in.
2. Choose Advanced, Open Stream. The Open Stream dialog box will appear.
3. Paste in or type the URL in the URL field.
4. Click OK. The stream will play.