A Guide to Successfully Master iTunes 8

In the newest version of iTune (iTunes 8), you will find a new grid view that makes it easy to browse artists and albums and to see everything that you've got stored in your iTunes library. Also new in this version is Genius, an intelligent playlist generator that can take a single track of your choosing and find other music in your collection that you may like based on that particular track. It can also find music in the iTunes store that you don't already own but which you might also like, based on that particular track. Under the surface, there are also new options for downloading and viewing HD television shows, although to date, this is available only for US users or those who have a US-based account with iTunes. There are also changes in DRM (digital rights management) in the iTunes store, so you can now purchase music that's free of burn limits. This means you can now play the tracks you buy on any of your players such as your iPod, your computer or other digital music player, and burn a copy to disc. You can upgrade the songs that you've already purchased from iTunes to free them from burn-limit restrictions and most of your new purchases will not have restrictions.

To upgrade to iTunes 8 from a previous version, choose Help -> Check for Updates. If you haven't used iTunes before, you can find and download the program at Apple website. Once you've installed iTunes, here's how to get to work with it.

Import Tracks From A CD

You can import or rip tracks from a CD into your iTunes library so they are stored on your PC, and can be played without the original CD in the drive. To do this, make sure you're connected to the Internet, and then place the CD in your PCs CD drive. The songs on the CD will appear in the iTunes window. If this is a CD you've purchased, rather than one you've made yourself, the track names should also appear - iTunes sources this information automatically from the Internet.

When the import dialog appears, click on Yes to import the songs to your computer. If there are any songs that you don't want to import, disable the checkmarks next to the track first and click on Yes to import only the checked ones. If the dialog asking if you want to import the tracks does not appear, click on the CD under the Devices entry on the left and then click on the Import CD button in the bottom right corner of the iTunes window.

Import From Your PC

If you have tracks already on your computer, you can add them to your iTunes library by clicking on Music on the left of the screen and dragging and dropping tracks into the library area. Alternatively, choose File-> Add File to Library (or Add Folder to Library), navigate to find the track or folder to import, select it and click on Open to import it. If the tracks are in an incompatible format, iTunes will offer to convert them for you as it imports them. This allows you to, for example, add WMA format tracks to iTunes. If you are importing commercial tracks, iTunes will try to locate the album art for you as it imports. If you have albums or tracks in your collection without artwork, you can get iTunes to look for artwork for these items by choosing Advanced -> Get Album Artwork, but you will need an iTunes store account to do this.

Buy And Download Songs

One of the great things about iTunes is that, apart from being a music and video player, it is also a music shop. To see what's available for purchase, click on the iTunes Store link on the left side of the window. You can browse the store for all sorts of items from music to TV programs and from videos to games. When you're ready to purchase, select the item to buy and click on the Buy button. If you haven't already set up an account, you can now do so. You can then pay for your purchase and it will begin downloading automatically. When the download is complete (leave your computer connected to the Internet until it is done), the content will appear in your iTunes library in the Purchased area as well as in the relevant content area. So, if you purchased a music track it will also appear in the Music area. Once you have downloaded the track to iTunes, you can listen to it here or download it to your iPod.

Play Tracks

You can play any content in iTunes by selecting the desired track and clicking on the Play button at the top left of the screen. The track you are listening to will be marked with a small speaker icon.

While being able to click and play a track or an entire album is useful, it is more useful to be able to select tracks from a number of albums and to play them one at a time. To do this, you need to create a playlist, which is a list of tracks that will be played in the order they appear in the playlist. The tracks can be all from one album, or a selection from a number of albums, but they must all be in your iTunes library.

To create a playlist, click on the Create a Playlist button in the bottom left corner of the iTunes window (a large plus (+) sign) or choose File -> New Playlist. This creates a new empty playlist for you. The playlist name is highlighted in the list of the left and you can simply type over it to give your playlist a new name.

To add songs to your playlist, click on the Music link to view the music in your collection and drag and drop the songs onto the playlist name. Return to the playlist once you've added the songs to it and drag the tracks into the desired order. If there is a song there that you don't want to include in the list, click on it and press Delete to remove it from iTunes itself. A single track can be included in any number of playlists and only one copy of it will be stored on your disk.

To play a playlist, select it and click on Play. If you have a track in the playlist selected when you do this, the playlist will start playing at that track.

Other Content

In addition to downloading and playing music, you can also download videos and podcasts. Some podcasts include video and some are audio only. You can find and subscribe to podcasts through the iTunes store - most are free and, once you've subscribed, iTunes will check for new podcasts automatically and download them ready for you to play. Podcasts are usually created by individuals or small groups and are available for a range of interests from entertainment to learning.

If a podcast includes video content, it will open and play in the iTunes window. When viewing video of any type in the iTunes window, you can size it to full screen by holding your mouse over the screen until the controls pop up, then clicking on the icon at the far right.

You can also listen to radio using iTunes by clicking the Radio link in the Library. If this isn't visible, choose Edit -> Preferences -> General tab and, in the Show area, click on the Radio checkbox. Once you have Radio selected, you can choose a genre, and then browse the stations. When you find one that appeals you, just click on it to start listening.

Using Genius

The new Genius features in iTunes 8 can create playlists of similar music for you. By default, it is turned off, but you can enable it by clicking on the Genius entry in the Playlists area and choosing Turn On Genius. Step through the process of setting up Genius by authorising iTunes to communicate with the iTunes cloud (a collection of information about what people listen to). The general idea behind Genius is that if you like one track, you will probably like other similar music. Genius uses the information it collects from all iTunes users to predict other music you might like, either from your own collection or from the iTunes store. When you click on a song in your library, you can click on the Genius icon and a list of songs that are similar will appear in the Genius area in a temporary playable playlist. The Genius sidebar on the right of the screen displays music from the iTunes store that is similar to the track you have selected, but which you don't yet own and may be interested in purchasing. You can save the Genius playlist by clicking the Save Playlist button at the top of the iTunes window. To start over, click on the Refresh button to create a new Genius list or click on another song and click on the Genius button to get recommendations relating to it.

Rating The Tracks

To identify the tracks you like, you can use the iTunes rating system to rate them on a scale of one to five stars. If you use five stars to mark the tracks you like best and four stars for next best and so on, you can create playlists of your favourite tracks based on the ratings you give them.

To rate a track, click on it and in the ratings column to the left of the track, drag over the stars with your mouse to the right until the desired number of stars are coloured. To downgrade a rating, simply drag to the left.

A playlist based on the ratings is called a Smart Playlist. To create one, click on File -> New Smart Playlist and, from the first drop-down list, select Rating. In the second drop-down list, select Is Greater Than and then select the number of stars in the third box. You can select to limit the results to a specific number of items and then determine how these are selected - from those you play most or the least played, for example. Enable the Live updating checkbox and new songs that match the rating will be automatically added to the Smart Playlist in the future.

iTunes offers features that everyone interested in anything from audio books and music to TV and movies can use. You'll find yourself putting it to good use almost everyday.