Adding Music to Your iTunes Library
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
The first step to getting music on your iPod is to add it to your computer’s iTunes library. The library is both a folder hierarchy where your files are stored and a database that keeps your music files organized so you can find it or copy it to your iPod. The library accepts audio files in all of the formats supported by your iPod. You can also add movies and PDF files, which you’ll learn about in Parts 9, “Watching Video in iTunes and on Your iPod,” and 14, “Adding Lyrics and Artwork to Your Music Library.”
You can bring audio files into your iTunes library from a wide variety of sources: audio CDs, files from your computer or downloaded from the Web, or songs you buy from the iTunes Music Store. You can add files in a number of audio formats, including MP3, WAV, Apple Lossless, and AAC. You can also convert files from an uncompressed (big file) format to a compressed (smaller file) format so more music fits on your iPod. That’s called encoding.
In this part, I show you many ways to bring music into iTunes. Although none of these methods are prohibited by copyright laws in the United States, you should familiarize yourself with laws that govern when music can be copied to your computer. For example, you can rip a CD you own to your Mac or PC, but it is illegal to copy a friend’s CD.
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