Buy

It’s easy to buy music online from a variety of vendors, but since the iTunes Store is an integral part of the iTunes program, I look at using the iTunes Store to add music, videos, and more to your iTunes library.

The iTunes Store sells the following content in the United States: music, music videos, audiobooks, movies, TV shows, and apps (Windows users can also buy ebooks through iTunes; Mac users now buy ebooks through the iBooks app). It also rents movies and is a gateway to free podcasts and free iTunes U lectures, videos, and PDFs. In other countries, the content available varies, but music and apps are sold in all countries where the iTunes Store is present.

In this chapter, I focus on the U.S. iTunes Store. I also explain how to move digital content you’ve purchased elsewhere into iTunes, in How Do I Add Files I Own to iTunes?.

Buy Topics

How Do I Shop in the iTunes Store?

Where Are My iTunes Store Purchases?

How Can iTunes Automatically Download My Purchases?

Which iTunes Store Content Has DRM?

How Can I Share My iTunes Store Content with Family Members?

How Do I Authorize and Deauthorize My Computer for iTunes Store Purchases?

How Many iOS Devices Can Log In to My iTunes Store Account?

How Do I Manage Which iOS Devices Share My iTunes Store Account?

Why Buy Music If I Have an Apple Music Subscription?

How Do I Use the iTunes Store Efficiently?

How Do I Use the Wish List?

How Do I Add Files I Own to iTunes?

Can I Get Smarter with iTunes U?

How Do I Shop in the iTunes Store?

To enter the iTunes Store, click the Store button in the navigation bar. The Store pane shows the type of media that’s chosen in the Media Picker—to shop for a different type of media, choose it from the Media Picker.

To learn more about an item, or to buy it, click it to open its page. Pages for different types of media have different content: movies offer trailers, audiobooks let you listen to previews, and so on.

When viewing an album’s page (Figure 39), you can preview a track by hovering over its track number and clicking, or you can preview the entire album by clicking “Preview All” beneath the track list.

To buy an item, click its price directly. Notice that the price is part of a pop-up menu. Open the menu to give the item as a gift, tell a friend about it via email, add it to your Wish List, share it on Facebook or Twitter, and more. You’ll find that some music tracks are available only with full album purchases. In this case, there’s no price by the track, but rather “Album Only,” as you can see in Figure 39, above. In general, tracks longer than 10 minutes are album-only tracks.

If you ever have problems with purchases, you can contact iTunes Store support (there’s a link for that at the bottom of every iTunes Store window).

To exit the Store, click a different button in the center of the navigation bar, or click the Back button at the left of the navigation bar—keep clicking until you back out of the Store.

Where Are My iTunes Store Purchases?

iTunes Store purchases that you’ve downloaded appear just like any other media. For example, to see a downloaded song, click Music in the Media Picker, select Library in the navigation bar, and then click one of the views in the sidebar, such as Artists, Albums, or Songs. Or, type its title in the Search box at the upper right. Or, if you’ve just downloaded it, choose Music in the Media Picker, click Library, and select Recently Added at the top of the sidebar or view your Purchased or Recently Added playlist.

For purchases that are not downloaded, see How Do I Re-download iTunes Store Content?, earlier.

How Can iTunes Automatically Download My Purchases?

Re-downloading is nice, but what is nicer is when new purchases download automatically to a different computer or iOS device. This means that when you buy a new album or app on your computer, it can automatically appear on your iPhone or iPad; and vice versa.

For automatic downloads to occur, you need to turn them on. This is a good thing, because you may not always want automatic downloads. One particular case is when two spouses, for example, share an iTunes Store account. Alice may not want all of Bob’s purchases on her iPhone, and Bob may not want Alice’s new music on his Mac.

To turn on automatic downloads in iTunes on your computer—which affects only that copy of iTunes on that computer—go to the Downloads pane of the iTunes preferences (Figure 40). The Downloads pane has checkboxes for Music, Movies, TV Shows, and Apps (and Books in Windows). Select the types of content you want to download automatically.

To turn on automatic downloads on an iOS device, tap Settings > iTunes & App Store. You can toggle a switch for each type of content (Figure 41), but consider whether you want to worry about your device filling up before you turn them on.

Which iTunes Store Content Has DRM?

DRM, or digital rights management, has been quite controversial. In the early days of the iTunes Store, all content sold was protected with DRM. Since April 2009, all music sold on the iTunes Store has been free of DRM. All other content sold by the iTunes Store, however, does use DRM: movies, TV shows, audiobooks, most ebooks, etc. This includes movie rentals, which have DRM and are time-limited. (Podcasts and iTunes U content, which are provided for free, do not have DRM.)

For a while, Apple gave you the option to pay to “upgrade” music purchased prior to April 2009, which was protected with DRM, to the iTunes Plus format, which is not only free of DRM but also digitized at a higher bit rate than DRM-laden music. When Apple added iTunes Match, however, they removed this option. But, if you have an iTunes Match subscription, you may be able to download versions of older purchased songs without DRM.

DRM prevents you from sharing movies, audiobooks, or other protected content with friends or family members, unless they use the same iTunes Store account as you—or you are a Family Sharing group (see the next topic for more).

Because iTunes Store music no longer has DRM, you can share it with friends, though it’s up to you to decide whether this is ethical. Apple embeds your Apple ID (the email address linked to your iTunes account) in the music files that you purchase, as well as those that are matched by iCloud Music Library when you re-download them. So, the­oretically, if music you buy ends up on peer-to-peer networks, Apple could trace it to you, though I haven’t heard of this happening.

How Can I Share My iTunes Store Content with Family Members?

Here are some ideas for sharing iTunes Store content within a family:

• Use one iTunes Store account for all purchases: In this scenario, you designate a single iTunes Store account to hold all media and apps from the iTunes Store. Everyone signs in to the iTunes Store with that account’s credentials; this method will work well with up to five “authorized” computers at once—Mac or PC—and (generally) on up to ten iOS devices (see the next two topics). If you have children, you should manage the purchases, since you may set up an iTunes Store account using a credit card, and you probably don’t want to give your kids your password.
• Use Family Sharing: This feature requires at least 10.10 Yosemite and iOS 8 (or iCloud for Windows and iOS 8 or later). It allows everyone in a designated family (as many as six people) to share all purchased iTunes Store content, and an Ask to Buy option can be enabled to limit what children can buy. Read Use iCloud Family Sharing, part of Digital Sharing for Apple Users: A Take Control Crash Course, to learn more.

• Use Home Sharing: With Home Sharing, each family member has a separate iTunes Store Apple ID, but Home Sharing is mediated with just one of those Apple IDs. Each person can load other iTunes libraries that are shared on the same network, and play or copy items. Also, a Home Sharing library can be accessed locally on an iOS device or Apple TV. Find out more in How Do I Share My iTunes Library over a Network?.
• Use Media Sharing: With Media Sharing, each family member has a separate iTunes Store Apple ID, and other computers on a local network can access content in any shared iTunes library, as I explain in How Do I Share My iTunes Library over a Network?.

How Do I Authorize and Deauthorize My Computer for iTunes Store Purchases?

You must authorize your computer to play iTunes Store content that contains DRM or to sync such content to an iOS device. The first time you try to perform one of these operations, a dialog asks you to enter your iTunes Store password. You can authorize a total of five computers—Macs or PCs—with the same iTunes Store account.

When you authorize a computer, iTunes looks at specific hardware information on the computer to identify that device. The authorization is connected to the physical computer, not to a specific Mac or Windows user account. So when you sell or give away a computer—or even if you send one in for service—make sure to deauthorize it first, by choosing Account > Authorizations > Deauthorize This Computer.

If you forget to do this and reach your five-computer limit, choose Account > View My Account. In the “Apple ID Summary” section, on the Computer Authorizations line, click the Deauthorize All button. You then must reauthorize any computers that use iTunes content, in order to access the media. You can deauthorize all your computers only once per year.

How Many iOS Devices Can Log In to My iTunes Store Account?

On the one hand, you can sync any iTunes Store content with DRM to an unlimited number of iOS devices—they don’t need to be authorized, but the computer they sync with must be authorized. (One exception is movie rentals: you can only move a rental to an iOS device; after the file transfers, iTunes deletes it, so it can be viewed on only one device.)

On the other hand, if you’re using an iOS device with iCloud Music Library, it must be “associated” with your account (association happens automatically if you sync content to a device or buy Apple content with the device). You can have a total of ten devices—iOS devices and computers—associated with your iTunes Store account.

Authorizations don’t affect non-iOS iPods: the iPod classic, nano, or shuffle.

How Do I Manage Which iOS Devices Share My iTunes Store Account?

Any associated device logged in to the iTunes Store with your Apple ID can access your purchased items and iCloud Music Library.

You can find out which devices are associated with your iTunes Store account by choosing Account > View My Account. In the “iTunes in the Cloud” section, click Manage Devices at the right of the Manage Devices entry. If you want to disassociate a device, click its Remove button. For example, if you sell or give away an iPod, you should remove it from the list of associated devices.

Note that if the Remove button is dimmed, this means that your iOS device has connected to the iTunes Store in the past 30 days. Sign out of the iTunes Store on that device and try again. If you’ve already sold or given away a device and forgotten to disassociate it, you’ll need to wait 30 days to do so.

Why Buy Music If I Have an Apple Music Subscription?

Now that Apple has entered the streaming music game, you may have decided to pony up for $10 a month to get access to (nearly) all the music in the iTunes Store. If so, is it worth buying music any more?

You’ll find that not everything you want is available to stream. Artists such as King Crimson, Garth Brooks, and others, and labels like ECM and Hyperion Records, have not licensed their music for streaming. And some artists release new albums only for download, for a number of weeks or months, before allowing them to be streamed.

Also, when your subscription runs out, everything you’ve stored in your iTunes library, other than music you own, will no longer play.

Streaming could be the new normal for music. But, so far, artists and smaller record labels aren’t making enough money from streaming. So if you really like an artist and want to be supportive, consider buying the music. You might even want to buy it on a CD.

How Do I Use the iTunes Store Efficiently?

Here are a few important tips for using the iTunes Store:

• Search with the elusive Power Search: iTunes Store searches can give hundreds of results. Several years ago, the iTunes Store had a Power Search link in its pages’ footer, which allowed you to narrow a search to only certain types of content and enter search terms in appropriate fields, such as Artist for music, Author for books, and Actor for movies. It’s gone from iTunes, but currently, this link opens the Power Search interface:

  itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearch

  I don’t know whether the Power Search interface will be around for long, but if you find searching the iTunes Store to be a chore, try using Power Search.

• Search from your Web browser: If the Power Search feature goes away altogether or if you prefer to search in your Web browser, you can search the iTunes Store using Google, Bing, or another search engine. Web searches work because Apple has Web pages for all its iTunes Store content. With Google, you can search for more specific keywords and use quotes to search for specific phrases.

  Perform a search like this (replace the terms in brackets with the item you’re searching for):

  <artist> <title> site:itunes.apple.com

  You can add other keywords, such as the name of a record label.

  So, if you wanted to search for Steve Reich’s album Music for 18 Musicians on the ECM label, you could run the following search:

  "steve reich" "music for 18 musicians" ECM site:itunes.apple.com

  (The quotes narrow the search to the exact phrases that are quoted.)

  Google returns a lot of results, the first of which should be the album you’re looking for. You’ll see results from several countries, so look at the URL: after itunes.apple.com, if you see /us/, that is a U.S. store page; /gb/ is for the UK; /de/ for Germany, and so on.

  Click an iTunes link in your search results to open its iTunes Store Web page, complete with a View in iTunes button that you can click to open that “page” in the iTunes Store.

• Learn to browse: Another sort-of-hidden feature is the iTunes Store’s Browse feature. At the bottom of the window, under Features, is a Browse link. Click the link to bring up a column browser that will let you explore the store’s content. Click a kind of media in the left column to see appropriate columns for that type of content. For some content types, browsing makes it easier to find specific items, but for others—such as Movies, where all you get is Genre—it is almost worthless.
• Use a wish list: To remember an item that you’ve spotted in the iTunes Store, but don’t want to buy right away, click the arrow button beside the price button and choose Add to Wish List. Or, to buy an item that you’ve previewed recently, check your Wish List. I explain all this in the next topic, just ahead.

How Do I Use the Wish List?

The iTunes Store Wish List is similar to the wish lists you see on many Web sites. Since the iTunes Store works on an immediate purchase basis—there’s no cart—the Wish List lets you remember what you want to buy, but not right away. Just click the pop-up menu that part of the item’s price button and choose Add to Wish List.

To access the Wish List, choose Account > Wish List and then sign in if needed.

The iTunes Store displays your Wish List (Figure 42). Click a button at the right side of the header bar to switch which type of media you are viewing.

You can click any item in the Wish List to view it in the iTunes Store, or click the price button to buy it right away.

But this iTunes Store page contains more than just items you’ve put aside for future purchases. At the right, it also shows what you’ve pre­viewed recently: music you’ve checked out, or movies whose trailers you’ve watched, even if you didn’t add them to your Wish List. You can buy an item by hovering over it and then clicking the price button next to its name.

Your Wish List also contains music you’ve identified on an iOS device using Siri. If you’re in a bar, or in a car, and you hear a song and want to know what it is, invoke Siri on your iOS device, and say, “What song is this?” Siri will listen, and if it can identify the song, it will display it on your device, with a link to the iTunes Store. It will also automatically add that song to your Wish List, in case you want to buy it.

Feel free to edit your Wish List. To delete an item, hover over it and click the x button that appears.

To delete your entire Previews list, click “Clear All” in the list’s header.

How Do I Add Files I Own to iTunes?

You may have files downloaded from other online vendors, or, well, you know, other sources. You can add them to iTunes in many ways:

• Drop them—either grouped or in a folder—on the iTunes icon.
• Choose File > Add to Library (Command-O) and select files or folders.
• Drop them in the Automatically Add to iTunes folder. This is located in the iTunes Media folder, which by default is in your Music folder. iTunes adds any new content in this “watched” folder to your iTunes library and then deletes it from the folder.
• Mac users can select files in the Finder, then copy (Command-C), switch to iTunes, and paste (Command-V). If a playlist is visible, the files are added to that playlist; if not, they are added to your library.

In addition to files downloaded from the iTunes Store, you can add the following types of files to iTunes:

• Music: You can add music files in the following formats: AAC, MP3, AIFF, WAV, and Apple Lossless.
• Podcasts: You can add audio podcasts in AAC or MP3 format, or video podcasts in .mov, .mp4, or .m4v format.
• Videos: You can add videos in QuickTime-compatible formats (with .mov, .m4v, or .mp4 extensions), though some may not play on portable devices.
• Audiobooks: Audiobooks can be added without DRM in any of the above audio formats. You can also add audiobooks with DRM pur­chased from Audible.
• Ebooks: If you’re running Windows, iTunes still manages ebooks for you. In this case, you can add DRM-free ebooks in EPUB or PDF format for use in iBooks on an iOS device running iOS 4 or later. (EPUBs from the iTunes Store may have DRM, and they work in iBooks.)
• Digital booklets: iTunes accepts “digital booklet” PDF files as, say, liner notes. You can tag and store digital booklets with albums if you want. See my article How to Add Liner Notes to iTunes to find out the best way to do this.

I’ll discuss tagging files so they show in the desired libraries in Tag.

Can I Get Smarter with iTunes U?

iTunes offers another free repository of knowledge called iTunes U. Access it from the Media Picker in the iTunes Store, and see courses, lectures, and other content from colleges and universities in the form of audio files, videos, and PDFs. Check out the subjects that interest you, and, in many fields, you’ll find a wealth of wonderful material.

You can learn more about iTunes U in a Macworld article I wrote, iTunes U: Free education to make you smarter.