Learning iTunes
Organize Your Music
05 January 2006 Emily Hambidge Skip to comments
6 Comments
(
Closed)
Confused about your mp3s? Emily Hambidge walks you through the basic functions of Apple's media player, iTunes.
Apple has been around for a long time, but I’d be willing to bet that few people knew much about the company until they debuted their popular mp3 player, the iPod. The iPod has taken Apple to a new level and made the company more accessible to consumers who don’t use their computers. Along with iPods, Apple created iTunes - a media player for your computer. Originally, iTunes was only available for Macs, but in 2003 Apple made it available for Windows as well.
iTunes not only plays and stores music, but also allows you to legally purchase music via the iTunes music store. Now, you can also download your favorite music videos and select television shows, too.
Since iTunes has become so popular, I thought it might be nice to have a basic tutorial on how to use it. There is a plethora of functions available with the application, and Apple is constantly improving it. To help you get the most out of your iTunes experience, I have outlined the most popular and important functions.
Getting Music on Your Computer
The first thing you want to do after downloading iTunes is import your music. You can pull music from CDs you own onto your computer easily. Insert the CD and then select the disc icon from the Source menu. Once you have clicked on the CD click on “Import” in the upper right corner. This will take a few moments, but once you are done your music will be in iTunes and you can listen to it on your computer at any time.
Keeping Your Music Organized
There are endless ways that you can customize your music collection and make it your own. You can add album art, rate your songs, make playlists, share your playlists with other online and more. Let’s talk about how to do some of these things.
How do I get album art?
When you open iTunes you will notice that there is a box that says Selected Song above it in the lower left corner. If it is not there, go to the “Edit” -> “Show Artwork.” This is where album art goes. Album art is a picture of the CD cover. Sometimes when you import a CD the artwork will automatically appear. Most of the time, however, you will have to go find it. The best place to find album art is on Amazon.com. You can search for the album you want and then drag the artwork into the box. But there is an even easier way: Fetch Art. This program only works for Macs, but it’s the best way I’ve found to get artwork painlessly. First, it’s important that you have all of your music labeled properly. This shouldn’t be a problem as long as you are only using music from CDs or the iTunes Music Store. Once you have the program installed go to your music library and select the song or songs that you want album art for. Then, click on the scroll-looking icon in the top menu bar and select FetchArt. This will pull the art from Amazon and apply it to your music.
How do I customize my iTunes window?
There are many different options you can select when labeling your music: song name, artist name, album name, genre, date added, rating, etc. You can choose what labels you want to look at and customize your window very easily. Click on “Edit” -> “View Options” and then check the boxes that you want to use. Once you have picked your labels, you can rearrange them by dragging them around in the main iTunes screen.
What’s the rating thing?
You can rate your songs on a 1-5 scale. This can be useful if you are making smart playlists, which we will get to in a moment. To do this, make sure that the rating box has been selected and then click anywhere in the box. Stars will appear and you can pick the rating for your song.
Can I sort my music?
Of course! Sorting is really easy. If you want to sort by rating, simply click on the “Rating” label and your music will sort according to how many stars each song has. If it is sorting in ascending order and you want to view it in descending order, just click on it again. You can do this for any category. It can be especially helpful if you want to sort by Genre.
What are these playlists you keep talking about?
You don’t have to listen music just from the main library. You can create playlists, which are like sub-libraries. To make one, just click on the + sign in the bottom left corner and a new list will pop up. You can title it whatever you want. Now you just have to add the music. To do this, drag songs from the main library and hold them over your playlist. When the + sign appears you can let go of the mouse and they will be added. You can make as many playlists as you like.
Make sure you understand this because it’s a necessary step for burning CDs.
Note: If you want to add more than one song at a time, hold down CTRL when you click and multiple songs will be highlighted at once.
What is a smart playlist?
iTunes is pretty slick - it can find trends and help you make a playlist from them. Click on “File” -> “New Smart Playlist”. Fill out the criteria you want and iTunes will make a playlist that fits those requirements. This can be great if you want to make separate playlists for each genre or rating of music. For example, I have a smart playlist that is called “Country” and only contains music that has been labeled as such in the genre.
Okay, I get all that. Now, what is a party shuffle?
First, click on the “Party Shuffle” icon in the Source menu. You’ll notice a menu at the bottom that looks a lot like what you just saw when you made a smart playlist. Again, just customize it to your liking and away you go! This is a good way to shuffle your songs and mix up your tunes.
Using the Radio Feature
One of my favorite features of iTunes is the option of listening to the radio. When I’m working on my laptop or at work where I don’t have my music on the computer, the radio is a great option when I still want some background noise. It’s a pretty self-explanatory feature, but I wanted to talk about it because I think it’s underappreciated. Click on Radio and then select the genre of music you like. A drop-down menu of stations will pop up and when you click on one you get a live stream of the music. For the best performance, click on the stations with the higher bit rates.
Burning CDs
Like I said before, to make a mix cd of your music you’ll want to first make a playlist. I like to call mine “Burn This” and just change the music that I put in it after I make a CD. Get your music ready and then insert a blank CD. Make sure you have the playlist open and then click “Burn” in the top right corner. This creates an audio CD that will hold about 60 or so minutes of music. If you want to burn an mp3 CD you need to make a few changes.
To make an mp3 CD click on “iTunes” -> “Preferences” -> “Advanced” -> “Burning” -> “mp3 CD”. You will notice that you can change several other things in this area. Just make sure that you check this each time you burn a CD so that you are getting the desired format for your music.
Using the iTunes Music Store
Undoubtedly, iTunes most popular feature is the Music Store. It debuted on April 28, 2003 here in the United States and has been on fire ever since, selling millions of songs. For 99 cents, you can buy almost any song and it will automatically be added to your iTunes library. You can burn the songs to CDs, put them on your mp3 player or just listen to them when they are at your computer. Apple created the store to combat illegal downloading while still making music available to the public via the Internet.
To get to the Music Store, just click on the Music Store icon in the Source menu. This will take you directly to the store. Once your there you can browse around and see what they have to offer.
If you can’t find what you a looking for, it might be because the artist doesn’t sell on iTunes. Although, all the major record labels have signed deals with iTunes, many smaller labels and independent artists have not.
iTunes also offers free downloads every week. These songs are usually by lesser-known artists, but they are a great way to listen to some new music. To get to these songs, look at the iTunes Music Store homepage and scroll to the bottom. In the left corner is a box that says “Free Downloads.”
If you aren’t looking for music, iTunes now offers several television shows and music videos. You can search for these or click on “TV Shows” under the box labeled “Inside the Music Store.”
Play around with the music store. There are a million fun features at your fingertips. You can buy gift certificates, download albums that are exclusive to iTunes and find out what your favorite celebrity is listening to.
You can even add your playlists to the music store. These are called iMixes, and they are simple to put online. Go to iTunes and make a playlist. When you’re happy with it, right-click on the playlist and select “Create iMix.” This will walk you through a few quick steps and then your iMix will be online.
Searching for iMixes can be a great way to find music that doesn’t have an album. For example, if you really like the music from your favorite TV show and want to get all the songs, chances are someone has made an iMix of the songs that are available.
Sharing Your iTunes Music With Your Other Computers
Apple realizes that many people have multiple computers. Because of this, they let you share the music you buy with your other machines. The easiest way to do this is share music across your network.
First, you need to make sure both of your Macs are on the same network. Then click on Finder and select “Go” -> “Connect to server.” A window will pop up and you can click “Browse.” Next, double-click on your other computer and log in. This process is mounting your drive. Next, select the volume that has the same name as your log in name. Now we are ready to transfer the music. Copy your iTunes music to your desktop folder on the computer you just mounted. On that computer, drag the music from the desktop to iTunes. That’s all you have to do! You can share your music with up to 5 computers.
Discovering Podcasts
Another feature of the iTunes Music Store is its collection of pocasts, which are available for free download. If you don’t know what podcasting is, read Justin Williams’ article on it. We’re going to learn how to subscribe to podcasts.
Click on “Podcasts” in the Source menu in iTunes. This will open the podcast directory. This works just like the Music Store. Look around and find podcasts that interest you. Once you find something that you want to listen to, open it up and click on subscribe. Now this podcast will appear in your podcast library. You can control how frequently your podcasts update under the “Settings” menu.
Go Get ‘Em
Now, you are armed with all the basic knowledge needed to operate iTunes. As always, the best way to get to know your programs is just to play around with them, but this should get you off to a good start. If there is anything you are still wondering about please leave a comment or drop me an email.
Emily Hambidge is the editor and public relations guru for MacZealots. She was forced into the world of Macs by her geeky boyfriend. In order to keep her sanity and relationship afloat, Emily now embraces everything Macintosh. You can read her personal blog or contact her at
Reader Comments (6)
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed below are those of their authors and not necessarily endorsed or supported by MacZealots.com. In all cases, the comments provided here are offered as a courtesy and will be moderated. Any content deemed off-topic or offensive will be removed without notice. Posting a comment here boils down to two things: 1.) Think before you type 2.) Respect the thoughts of others. See our commenting guidelines and/or privacy policy for more information.
#1) On January 6, 2006 10:32 AM
Just for the sake of argument, iTunes was originally called SoundJamMP and was distributed by Cassidy & Greene (I can’t remember the original author). Apple bought it and hired some of the programmers to turn it into iTunes. There’s an interesting story over on Panic’s website that talks about how Audion was almost made into iTunes. http://www.panic.com/extras/audionstory/
#2) On January 6, 2006 12:08 PM
Has the new version of OSX or iTunes changed the keyboard commands? Under playlists the note says to use CTRL-clicking to select multiple songs. In Panther/iTunes 4 that brings up contextual menus. The usual way of CMD-clicking selects multiple, non-contiguous, songs works for me.
#3) On January 9, 2006 10:17 AM
Congratulations on a very clear and well written article on ITunes .
A must have article for those just getting IPods for the first time this Christmas .
I will be emailing this link to many of my friends who are new to ITunes .
thanks again
John Piercy
#4) On January 9, 2006 11:38 AM
Just for the sake of argument, foresmac: iTunes was NOT “originally called SoundJamMP”. The developers responsible for SoundJam were, indeed, hired by Apple to create iTunes, but the lineage, development process, and intended functionality of the result, were quite different. Jeff, Bill, and Dave were (and are) excellent developers, and should be given much more credit than to imply that iTunes 1.0 was essentially a new skin on a old product, which it certainly was not.
#5) On February 18, 2006 12:05 PM
I enjoyed the article. I am looking for a solution to a burning problem. With the updates for itunes, I can no longer burn any music from any type of playlists I have made. I receive error 4280 and the CD juts out. NO ONE at apple has offered a solution. I am geting very frustrated. Any advice?
#6) On February 23, 2006 3:22 PM
I been triying to upload my Mix Cd’s in my iTunes, and then to my iPod, but the Cd’s are Mix, made by profecionals Dj, everytime the I import a Cd to my iTunesm, is copy with a little gap betwin tracks.
I just want to copy my music as is original in the Cd’s, no gap, and by tracks
Thanks
Osvaldo Valdes