Chapter 2: Jamming with iTunes and iPod

In This Chapter

Playing music with your Mac

Arranging and organizing your music collection

Tuning into the world with Internet radio

Sharing your songs across a network

Creating eye candy with the Visualizer

Buying the good stuff from the iTunes Store

Good news! Every installation of OS X comes with the finest stereophonic gadget in town: a great audio application called iTunes. With iTunes, you can listen to your favorite songs and podcasts, organize your music collection, watch video or a full-length movie, listen to radio stations from around the world, buy music and video online, burn CDs and DVDs, and much more! In no time, you’ll be pondering how much new speakers with a subwoofer will cost for your Mac.

In this chapter, I show you how to play audio CDs, podcasts, videos, and Internet radio, but that’s just the beginning. You discover how to use iTunes’ Library to get one-click access to any song in your collection. I even show you how to tune into Internet radio (and share your favorite songs with others on your network), burn audio CDs, enjoy free online lectures and educational presentations, plug in your iPod, and buy the latest hits from the iTunes Store. Heck, iTunes can even suggest new music for your library based on what you’re listening to now. (And I demonstrate how to make your iTunes window look just as good as your music sounds, with visualizations.)

Just in case, though, keep your dad’s hi-fi . . . it might fetch a hefty sum as an antique on eBay.

What Can I Play on iTunes?

Simply put, iTunes is a media player that plays audio and video files. These files can be in any of many different formats. Some of the more common audio formats that iTunes supports are

MP3: The small size of MP3 files has made them popular for file trading on the Internet. You can reduce MP3 files to a ridiculously small size (albeit at the expense of audio fidelity), but a typical CD-quality, three-minute pop song in MP3 format has a size of 3–5MB.

AAC: Advanced Audio Coding is an audio format that’s very similar to MP3; in fact, AAC files typically offer better recording quality at the same file sizes. However, this format is less compatible with non-Apple MP3 players and software. (Luckily, you can still burn AAC tracks to an audio CD, just as you can MP3 tracks.) The tracks that you download from the iTunes Store are in AAC format.

The iTunes Store’s iTunes Plus tracks are also in AAC format, and they’re encoded at a higher-quality 256 Kbps rate — hence, their higher price.

Apple Lossless: Another format direct from Apple, Apple Lossless format provides the best compromise between file size and sound quality. These tracks are encoded without loss of quality although Apple Lossless tracks are somewhat larger than AAC. This format is generally the favorite of discerning audiophiles.

AIFF: This standard Macintosh audio format produces sound of the absolute highest quality. This high quality, however, also means that the files are pretty doggone huge. AIFF recordings typically require about 10MB per minute of audio.

WAV: Not to be outdone, Microsoft created its own audio file format (WAV) that works much like AIFF. It can reproduce sound at higher quality than MP3, but the file sizes are very large, very similar in size to AIFF files. (Think 10MB per minute of audio.)

CD audio: iTunes can play audio CDs. Because you don’t usually store CD audio anywhere but on an audio CD, file size is no big whoop — but once again, 10MB of space per minute of music is a good approximation.

MP2: A close cousin of the far more popular MP3 format, MP2 is the preferred format in radio broadcasting, and is a standard audio format for HDV camcorders. It produces file sizes similar to MP3 format.

Movies and video: You can buy and download full-length movies, TV shows, music videos, and movie trailers from the iTunes Store . . . and, with an Apple TV unit connected to your home theater system, you can watch those movies and videos from the comfort of your sofa on the other side of your living room (or even from your bedroom on the other side of your house).

Podcasts: These audio downloads are like radio programs for your iPod, but iTunes can play and organize them, too. Some podcasts also include video and photos to boot.

iTunes U: iTunes offers educational materials (think slideshows, presentations, and class recordings) from a wide variety of colleges and technical institutions — and virtually all free for the download.

Ringtones: iPhone owners, rejoice! iTunes automatically offers to create ringtones for your iPhone (and iPad, and iPod touch) from the tracks you bought from the iTunes Store or tunes you composed yourself. You can even use these ringtones on your Mac, with Mountain Lion’s FaceTime and Messages applications.

Audiobooks: No longer do you need cassettes or audio CDs to enjoy your spoken books. iTunes can play them for you, or you can send them to your iPod for listening on the go.

Streaming Internet radio: You can listen to a continuous broadcast of songs from one of tens of thousands of Internet radio stations, with quality levels ranging from what you’d expect from FM radio to the full quality of an audio CD. You can’t save the music in iTunes, but it’s still great fun. (In fact, I run my own station . . . more on MLC Radio later in this chapter.)

Playing an Audio CD

Playing an audio CD in iTunes is simple. Just insert the CD in your computer’s disc tray or disc slot, start iTunes by clicking its icon on the Dock, and click the Play button. (Note that your Mac might be set to automatically launch iTunes when you insert an audio CD.) The iTunes interface resembles that of a traditional cassette or CD player. The main playback controls of iTunes are Play, Previous Song, Next Song, and the volume slider, as shown in Figure 2-1.

Click the Play button to begin listening to a song. While a song is playing, the Play button toggles to a Pause button. As you might imagine, clicking that button again pauses the music. If you don’t feel like messing around with a mouse or trackpad, you can always use the keyboard. The spacebar acts as the Play and Pause buttons. Press the spacebar to begin playback; press it again to stop.

Click the Next Song button to advance to the next song on the CD. The Previous Song button works like the Next Song button but with a slight twist: If a song is currently playing and you click the Previous Song button, iTunes first returns to the beginning of the current song (just like an audio CD player). To advance to the previous song, double-click the Previous Song button. To change the volume of your music, click and drag the volume slider.

As with other Macintosh applications, you can control much of iTunes with the keyboard. Table 2-1 lists some of the more common iTunes keyboard shortcuts.

Playing Digital Audio and Video

In addition to playing audio CDs, iTunes can play the digital audio files that you download from the Internet or obtain from other sources in the WAV, AAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF, MP2, and MP3 file formats.

Enjoying a digital audio file is just slightly more complicated than playing a CD. After downloading or saving your audio files to your Mac, open the Finder and navigate to wherever you stored the files. Then simply drag the music files (or an entire folder of music) from the Finder into the Music entry in the iTunes Source list. The added files appear in the Music section of your iTunes Library. Think of the Library as a master list of your digital media. To view the Music Library, select the Music entry in the left-hand column of the iTunes player, as shown in Figure 2-2. Go figure.

You can also drag a song file from a Finder window and drop it on the iTunes icon in the Dock, which adds it to your Music Library as well.

If you drop the file on top of a playlist name in the Source list, iTunes adds it to that particular playlist as well as the main Library. (More about playlists in a bit.)

To play a song, just double-click it in the Music list. Alternatively, you can use the playback controls (Play, Previous Song, and Next Song) that I discuss earlier in this chapter (refer to Figure 2-1).

The Source list of iTunes can list up to eight possible sources for music:

Library: This section includes Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Books, iTunes U, Apps (for iPhone and iPad), Ringtones (for iPhone), iPod Games, and Radio. (Think Internet radio, which I discuss further in the section “iTunes Radio.”)

Store: I discuss this later, in the section “Buying Digital Media the Apple Way.”

Shared: If another Mac on your local network is running iTunes and is set to share part or all of its library, you can connect to the other computer for your music. (Shared music on another Mac appears as a separate named folder in the Source list.)

Devices: If an iPod is connected, it appears in the list. (And yes, Virginia, other models of MP3 players from other companies will also appear in the list if they are supported within iTunes.) If you connect an iPhone or iPad to your Mac, it’ll show up here as well.

Genius: Click the Genius heading and then click the Turn On Genius button to allow iTunes to automatically create playlists from songs in your iTunes music library. You can also allow Genius to recommend music, movies, and TV shows based on the titles you already have in your iTunes Library. (More on this feature later in the chapter.)

Audio CD: A standard audio CD . . . anything from the Bee Gees to Death Cab for Cutie.

Home Sharing: You can turn on Home Sharing to share your Mac’s media library across your wireless network with up to five other Mac computers, as well as iPhones, iPads, and the iPod touch. (More on Home Sharing later in this chapter.)

Playlists: Think of playlists as folders you use to organize your music. (More on playlists later in this chapter.)

If you’ve invested in an Apple TV, it appears in the list as well, allowing iTunes to share media with your Apple TV, which in turn sends it to your ED- (enhanced definition) or HD- (high definition) TV.

Notice also that the Library lists information for each song that you add to it, such as

Name: The title of the song

Time: The length of the song

Artist: The artist who performs the song

Album: The album on which the song appears

If any song you’re adding doesn’t display anything for the title, album, or artist information, don’t panic; most MP3 files have embedded data that iTunes can read. If a song doesn’t include any data, you can always add the information to these fields manually. I show you how later, in the section “Setting or changing the song information manually.”

Clicking any column heading in the Library list causes iTunes to reorder the Library according to that category. For example, clicking the Name column heading alphabetizes your Library by song title. I click the Time heading often to sort my Library according to the length of the songs. Oh, and you can drag column titles to reorder them any way you like (as long as the Name column remains at the far left).

iTunes can display your Music Library in four ways: By default, the application uses the List view you see in Figure 2-1, where each song is one entry. A click on the second view button sorts your library into tracks by album. Click the third view button (at the top of the iTunes window) to group tracks together by album artwork in Grid view. Click the fourth view button, and you’re browsing by album cover in Cover Flow view, complete with reflective surface!

Browsing the Library

After you add a few dozen songs to iTunes, viewing the Library can become a task. Although a master list is nice for some purposes, it becomes as cumbersome as an elephant in a subway tunnel if the list is very long. To help out, iTunes can display your Library in another format, too: namely, browsing mode. To view the Library in browsing mode, click the View menu and click the Show Browser item, or press the +B keyboard shortcut.

The Browse mode of iTunes displays your library in a compact fashion, organizing your tunes into four sections:

Genre

Artist

Album

Song Name

Selecting an artist from the Artist list causes iTunes to display that artist’s albums in the Album list. Select an album from the Album list, and iTunes displays that album’s songs in the bottom section of the Browse window. (Those Apple software designers . . . always thinking of you and me.) You can also switch between sort fields for the Browse window from the View⇒Column Browser menu item.

Finding songs in your Music Library

After your collection of audio files grows large, you might have trouble locating that Swedish remix version of “I’m Your Boogie Man.” To help you out, iTunes has a built-in Search function. To find a song, type some text into the search field of the main iTunes window. While you type, iTunes tries to find a selection that matches your search text. The search is quite thorough, showing any matching text from the artist, album, song title, and genre fields in the results. For example, if you type Electronic into the field, iTunes might return results for the band named Electronic or other tunes that you classified as electronic in the Genre field. (The section “Know Your Songs,” later in this chapter, tells you how to classify your songs by genre, among other options.) Click the magnifying glass at the left side of the Search field to restrict the search even more: by Artists, Albums, Composers, and Songs.

Removing old music from the Library

After you spend some time playing songs with iTunes, you might decide that you didn’t really want to add 40 different versions of “Louie Louie” to your Library. (Personally, I prefer either the original or the cast from the movie Animal House.) To remove a song from the Library, click the song to select it and then press the Delete key on your keyboard.

You can also remove a song from the Library by dragging it to the Trash on the Dock.

Watching video

Watching video in iTunes is similar to listening to your music. To view your video collection, click one of these entries in the Source list:

Movies

TV Shows

iTunes displays your videos as thumbnails or in cover flow view. Music videos appear as a smart playlist. (Read more about these in the sidebar, “Some playlists are smarter than others.”)

From your collection, you can

Double-click a video thumbnail or an entry in the list.

Drag a QuickTime–compatible video clip from the Finder window to the iTunes window. (These typically include video files ending in .mov, .mv4, or .mp4.)

iTunes plays video in the box below the Source list or in full-screen mode, depending on the settings you choose from the View⇒Video Playback menu item. In full-screen mode, move your mouse to display a control strip at the bottom of the screen, sporting the standard slider bar that you can drag to move through the video (as well as a volume control and Fast Forward/Reverse buttons). You can also pause the video by clicking the Pause button.

Keeping Slim Whitman and Slim Shady Apart: Organizing with Playlists

As I mention earlier, the iTunes Music Library can quickly become a fearsomely huge beastie. Each Library can contain thousands upon thousands of songs: If your Library grows anywhere near that large, finding all the songs in your lifelong collection of Paul Simon albums is not a fun task. Furthermore, with the Library, you’re stuck playing songs in the order that iTunes lists them.

To help you organize your music into groups, use the iTunes playlist feature. A playlist is a collection of some of your favorite songs from the Library. You can create as many playlists as you want, and each playlist can contain any number of songs. Whereas the Library lists all available songs, a playlist displays only the songs that you add to it. Further, any changes that you make to a playlist affect only that playlist, leaving the Library untouched.

To create a playlist, you can do any of the following:

Choose File⇒New Playlist.

Press +N.

Choose File⇒New Playlist from Selection. This creates a new playlist and automatically adds any tracks that are currently selected.

Click a song to select it; click the Genius button at the lower-right corner of the window. (The Genius button bears a striking “atom” symbol.) iTunes builds a playlist of songs that are similar in some way (typically by matching the genre of the selection or the beats per minute, but also based on recommendations from other iTunes members). Note that your Mac needs an Internet connection to create a Genius playlist, and the larger your music library the longer it will take iTunes to build your playlist.

Click the iTunes DJ entry in the Playlist section at the left side of the window. iTunes delivers a random selection of songs taken from your iTunes Music Library — perfect for your next spontaneous party! You can change the order of the songs in the iTunes DJ playlist (known as Party Shuffle in older versions of iTunes), add songs from your Library, or delete songs that don’t fit the scintillating ambience of your gathering. Enjoy!

Drag a folder containing audio files from a Finder window onto the Playlists heading.

Click the New Playlist button in the iTunes window (the plus sign button in the lower-left corner). You get a newly created empty playlist (the toe-tappin’ untitled playlist).

All playlists appear in the Source list. To help organize your playlists, it’s a good idea to . . . well, name them. (Aren’t you glad now that you have this book?) For example, suppose that you want to plan a party for your polka-loving friends. Instead of running to your computer after each song to change the music, you could create a polka-only playlist. Select and start the playlist at the beginning of the party, and you won’t have to worry about changing the music the whole night. (You can concentrate on the accordion.) To load a playlist, select it in the Source list; iTunes displays the songs for that playlist.

The same song can appear in any number of playlists because the songs in a playlist are simply pointers to songs in your Music Library — not the songs themselves. Add and remove them at will to or from any playlist, secure in the knowledge that the songs remain safe in the Library. Removing a playlist is simple: Select the playlist in the Source list and then press Delete.

Removing a playlist does not delete any songs from your Library.

Know Your Songs

Besides organizing your music into Elvis and non-Elvis playlists, iTunes gives you the option to track your music at the song level. Each song that you add to the Music Library has a complete set of information associated with it. iTunes displays this information (see upcoming Figure 2-3) on the Info tab, including

Name: The name of the song

Artist: The name of the artist who performed the song

Album Artist: The name of the artist responsible for a compilation or tribute album

Album: The album where the song appears

Grouping: A group type that you assign

Composer: The name of the astute individual who actually wrote the song

Comments: A text field that can contain any comments on the song

Genre: The classification of the song (such as rock, jazz, or pop)

Year: The year the artist recorded the song

Track Number: The position of the song on the original album

Disc Number: The original disc number in a multi-CD set

BPM: The beats per minute (indicates the song’s tempo)

You can display this information by clicking a song name and pressing +I. The fields appear on the Info tab.

Setting the song information automatically

Each song that you add to the iTunes Music Library might have song information included with it. If you add music from a commercial audio CD, iTunes connects to a server on the Internet and attempts to find the information for each song on the CD. If you download a song from the Internet, it often comes with some information embedded in the file already; the amount of included information depends on what the creator supplied. (And believe me, it’s often misspelled as well — think Leenard Skeenard.) If you don’t have an Internet connection, iTunes can’t access the information and displays generic titles instead.

Setting or changing the song information manually

If iTunes can’t find your CD in the online database or someone gives you an MP3 with incomplete or inaccurate information, you can change the information yourself — believe me, you want at least the artist and song name! To view and change the information for a song, perform the following steps:

1. Select the song in either the Music Library list or a playlist.

2. Press +I or choose File⇒Get Info.

3. Edit the song’s information on the Info tab, as shown in Figure 2-3.

The more work you put into setting the information of the songs in your Music Library, the easier it is to browse and use iTunes. Incomplete song information can make it more difficult to find your songs in a hurry. If you prefer, you don’t have to change all information about a song (it just makes life easier later if you do). Normally, you can get away with setting only a song’s title, artist, and genre. The more information you put in, however, the faster you can locate songs and the easier they are to arrange. iTunes tries to help by automatically retrieving known song information, but sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves and do a little work. (Sorry, but some things just can’t be automated.)

“What about cover art, Mark?” Well, I’m overjoyed that you asked! iTunes can try to locate artwork automatically for the tracks you select. (Note that embedding large images can significantly increase the size of the song file.) Follow these steps:

1. Select the desired songs from the track list.

2. Choose Advanced⇒Get Album Artwork.

You can set iTunes to automatically attempt the addition of album artwork every time you rip tracks from an audio CD, or when you add songs without artwork to your Music Library. Click iTunes and choose Preferences; then click the Store button and select the Automatically Download Missing Album Artwork check box.

Want to manually add album covers to your song info? If you select just one song in the track list, display the Info dialog and click the Artwork tab. If you select multiple songs from the same album, display the Info dialog. Now launch Safari, visit Amazon.com, and do a search on the same album (or search an online artwork library, such as AllCDCovers.com). Drag the cover image from the web page right into the Info dialog, and drop it on top of the “sunken square” Artwork image well. When you click OK, the image appears in the Summary pane, and you can display it while your music is playing by pressing +G, or by clicking the Show or Hide Song Artwork button at the lower left of the iTunes window.

By the way, if you buy tracks or an album from the iTunes Store, Apple always includes album covers automatically.

Ripping Audio Files

You don’t have to rely on Internet downloads to get audio files: You can create your own MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV files from your audio CDs with iTunes. The process of converting audio files to different formats is ripping. (Audiophiles with technical teeth also call this process digital extraction, but they’re usually ignored at parties by the popular crowd.) Depending on what hardware or software you use, each has its own unique format preferences. For example, most iPod owners prefer MP3 or AAC files, but your audio CDs aren’t in that format. Being able to convert files from one format to another is like having a personal translator in the digital world. You don’t need to worry if you have the wrong format: You can simply convert it to the format that you need.

The most common type of ripping is to convert CD audio to MP3 (or AAC) format. To rip MP3s from an audio CD, follow these simple steps:

1. Launch iTunes by clicking its icon on the Dock.

Alternatively, you can locate it in your Applications folder or within Launchpad.

2. Choose iTunes⇒Preferences.

3. In the Preferences window that appears, click the General toolbar button.

4. Click the Import Settings button that appears at the bottom of the iTunes window.

5. Choose MP3 Encoder from the Import Using pop-up menu.

6. Choose High Quality (160 Kbps) from the Setting pop-up menu and then click OK.

This bit rate setting provides the best compromise between quality (it gives you better than CD quality, which is 128 Kbps) and file size (tracks you rip will be significantly smaller than “audiophile” bit rates such as 192 Kbps or higher).

7. Load an audio CD into your Mac.

The CD title shows up in the iTunes Source list (under the Devices heading), which is on the left side of the iTunes window. The CD track listing appears on the right side of the window.

If iTunes asks you whether you want to import the contents of the CD into your Music Library, you can click Yes and skip the rest of the steps; however, if you’ve disabled this prompt, just continue with the remaining two steps.

8. Clear the check box of any song that you don’t want to import from the CD.

All songs on the CD have a check box next to their title by default. Unmarked songs aren’t imported.

The Browse button changes to Import CD.

9. Click the Import CD button.

There’s also another form of ripping: If you have a USB turntable or cassette deck connected to your Mac, you can digitize your old analog recordings on albums and cassettes into shiny digital audio files using the application that comes with the device. Often it’s simpler to just buy the same music from the iTunes Store, but if your treasured music isn’t available from the iTunes Store or on audio CD, it’s the next best thing!

Tweaking the Audio for Your Ears

Besides the standard volume controls that I mention earlier in this chapter, iTunes offers a full equalizer. An equalizer permits you to alter the volume of various frequencies in your music, allowing you to boost low sounds, lower high sounds, or anything in between. Now you can customize the way your music sounds and adjust it to your liking.

To open the Equalizer (as shown in Figure 2-4), do one of the following:

Choose Window⇒Equalizer.

Press +Option+2.

The Equalizer window has an impressive array of 11 sliders. Use the leftmost slider (Preamp) to set the overall level of the Equalizer. The remaining sliders represent various frequencies that the human ear can perceive. Setting a slider to a position in the middle of its travel causes that frequency to play back with no change. Move the slider above the midpoint to boost that frequency; conversely, move the slider below the midpoint to reduce the volume of that frequency.

Continue adjusting the equalizer sliders until your music sounds the way you like it. When you close the Equalizer window, iTunes remembers your settings until you change them again. In case you prefer to leave frequencies to the experts, the iTunes Equalizer has several predefined settings to match most musical styles. Open the pop-up menu at the top of the Equalizer window to choose a genre.

After you adjust the sound to your satisfaction, close the Equalizer window to return to the iTunes interface and relax with those funky custom notes from James Brown.

A New Kind of Radio Station

Besides playing back your favorite audio files, iTunes can also tune in Internet radio stations from around the globe. You can listen to any of a large number of preset stations, seek out lesser-known stations not recognized by iTunes, or even add your favorite stations to your playlists. This section shows you how to do it all.

iTunes Radio

Although it’s not a radio tuner in the strictest sense, iTunes Radio can locate virtual radio stations all over the world that send audio over the Internet — a process usually dubbed streaming. iTunes can track down hundreds of Internet radio stations in a variety of styles with only a few mouse clicks.

To begin listening to Internet radio with iTunes, click the Radio icon located beneath the Library icon in the Source list. The result is a list of more than 20 types of radio stations, organized by genre.

When you expand a Radio category by clicking its disclosure triangle, iTunes queries a tuning server and locates the name and address of dozens of radio stations for that category. Whether you like Elvis or not-Elvis (those passing fads, like new wave, classical, or alternative), something’s here for everyone. The Radio also offers news, sports, and talk radio.

After iTunes fetches the names and descriptions of radio stations, double-click one that you want to hear. iTunes immediately jumps into action, loads the station, and begins to play it.

Tuning in your own stations

Although iTunes offers you a large list of popular radio stations on the web, it’s by no means comprehensive. Eventually, you might run across a radio station that you’d like to hear, but don’t find listed in iTunes. Luckily, iTunes permits you to listen to other stations, too. To listen to a radio station that iTunes doesn’t list, you need the station’s web address.

In iTunes, choose Advanced⇒Open Stream (or press +U). In the Open Stream dialog that appears (as shown in Figure 2-5), enter the URL of your desired radio station and then click OK. Within seconds, iTunes tunes in your station.

Radio stations in your playlists

If you find yourself visiting an online radio station more than once, you’ll be glad to know that iTunes supports radio stations in its playlists. To add a radio station to a playlist from the Radio list, do the following:

1. Open the category that contains the station you want to add to your playlist.

2. Locate the station that you want to add to your playlist and drag it from the Radio list to the desired playlist on the left.

If you haven’t created any playlists yet, see the section “Keeping Slim Whitman and Slim Shady Apart: Organizing with Playlists” earlier in this chapter to find out how.

Adding a radio station that doesn’t appear in the Radio list is a bit trickier but possible nonetheless. Even though iTunes allows you to load a radio station URL manually by using the Open Stream command in the Advanced menu, it doesn’t give you an easy way to add it to the playlist. Follow these steps to add a specific radio station to a playlist:

1. Add any radio station from the Radio list to your desired playlist.

Any station in the list will do, as you’ll immediately change both the station’s URL and name to create your new station entry in the playlist.

2. Press +I or choose File⇒Get Info to bring up the information dialog for that station.

3. Click the Summary section and change the URL by clicking the Edit URL button.

4. Enter the desired URL (refer to Figure 2-5) and click OK.

5. Click the Info tab, type the new station name, and then click OK.

iSending iStuff to iPod

If you’re sharp enough to own an iPod, you’ll be happy to know that iTunes has features for your personal audio and video jukebox as well. iPods, Apple’s multimedia players, comprise an entire family of portable devices (ranging from $49 to about $249) that can hold anywhere from about several hundred to literally thousands of songs, as well as podcasts, photos, and video. This great gadget and those like it have become known worldwide as the preferred portable digital media player.

If you own an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad, you can also buy all sorts of applications for these devices on the iTunes Store, and iTunes even keeps track of these applications as part of your iTunes library.

You connect your iPod to any Macintosh or Windows PC with USB 2.0 ports with the included cable. After the iPod is connected, it automatically synchronizes to the playlists in iTunes. The iPod and the iTunes software communicate with each other and figure out what items are in your iTunes Library (as compared with the iPod Library). If they discover songs, podcasts, and video in your iTunes Library that are missing from your iPod, the items automatically transfer to the iPod. Conversely, if the iPod contains stuff that’s no longer in iTunes, the iPod automatically removes those files from its drive.

Go back and reread that last sentence about the iPod automatically removing files from its drive. (I’ll wait here.) Apple added this feature in an effort to be attentive to copyright concerns. The reasoning is that if you connect your iPod to your friend’s computer, you can’t transfer songs from the iPod to that computer. Of course, you could always look at it from the marketing perspective as a feature that makes sure your Mac and iPod are always in total sync. Whatever the case, pay close attention and read all warning dialogs when connecting to a computer other than your own, or you might wipe out your iPod’s library.

The best thing I can say about the iPod and iTunes combination is . . . well . . . that there isn’t anything else to say about them. The auto-sync feature is so easy to use, you forget about it almost immediately.

This chapter — even as long as it is — just can’t explain all the ins and outs of the iTunes/iPod relationship! For a complete look at both iTunes and the iPod, I can heartily recommend a fellow For Dummies book, iPod & iTunes For Dummies, 9th Edition, by Tony Bove.

Sharing Your Media across Your Network

Ready to share your music, podcasts, and video — legally, mind you — with other folks on your local network? You can offer your digital media to other iTunes users across your home or office. Follow these steps:

1. Choose iTunes⇒Preferences to open the Preferences dialog.

2. Click Sharing.

3. Select the Share My Library on My Local Network check box.

4. Specify whether you want to share your entire library or only selected playlists and files.

Sharing selected playlists is a good idea for those Meatmen and Sex Pistols fans who work at a cubicle farm in a big corporation.

5. If you want to restrict access to just a few people, select the Require Password check box; then type a password in the text box.

6. Click OK.

Your shared folder appears within the Source list for all iTunes users who enabled the Look for Shared Libraries check box on the same pane of their iTunes Preferences dialog. Note that the music you share with others can’t be imported or copied, so everything stays legal.

Want to change that frumpy default name for your shared media library to something more exotic, like “Dan’s Techno Beat Palace”? No problem — display the Preferences dialog again, but this time click the General button and click in the Library Name text box. Edit your network entertainment persona to your heart’s content.

You can also share your media library using Home Sharing, which allows up to five devices to join in the fun — that includes both Mac computers and iOS devices (your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, running iOS 4.3 or later). Home Sharing requires a network connection for all of your devices, and you’ll have to enter the same Apple ID information on each device — Book I, Chapter 3 contains information about creating your Apple ID. To turn on Home Sharing within iTunes, click Advanced on the iTunes menu and choose Turn On Home Sharing. (Don’t forget to repeat this setup on each computer.) After Home Sharing is enabled, shared libraries will appear in the Source list under the Shared heading.

Burning Music to Shiny Plastic Circles

Besides being a great audio player, iTunes is adept at creating CDs, too. iTunes makes the process of recording songs to a CD as simple as a few mouse clicks. Making the modern version of a compilation (or mix) tape is easier than getting a kid to eat ice cream. iTunes lets you burn CDs in one of three formats:

Audio CD: This is the typical kind of commercial music CD that you buy at a store. Most typical music audio CDs store up to 800MB of data, which translates into about 80 minutes of music.

Data CD or DVD: A standard CD-ROM or DVD-ROM is recorded with the audio files. This disc can’t be played in any standard audio CD player (even if it supports MP3 CDs, which I discuss next). Therefore, you can listen to these songs only by using your Mac and an audio player, such as iTunes or a PC running Windows.

MP3 CD: As does the ordinary computer CD-ROM that I describe, an MP3 CD holds MP3 files in data format. However, the files are arranged in such a way that they can be recognized by audio CD players that support the MP3 CD format (especially boomboxes, DVD players, personal CD players, and car stereos). Because MP3 files are so much smaller than the digital audio tracks found on traditional audio CDs, you can fit as many as 160 typical four-minute songs on one disc. These discs can also be played on your Mac via iTunes.

Keep in mind that MP3 CDs aren’t the same as the standard audio CDs that you buy at the store, and you can’t play them in older audio CD players that don’t support the MP3 CD format. Rather, this is the kind of archival disc that you burn at home for your own collection.

To begin the process, build a playlist (or select an existing playlist that you want to record). If necessary, create a new playlist and add to it whatever songs you would like to have on the CD. (See the earlier section, “Keeping Slim Whitman and Slim Shady Apart: Organizing with Playlists,” if you need a refresher.) With the songs in the correct order, right-click the playlist and choose Burn Playlist to Disc to commence the disc-burning process. Click the desired recording format (again, usually Audio CD) in the Burn Settings dialog that appears.

To save yourself from sonic shock, I always recommend that you enable the Sound Check check box before you burn. iTunes adjusts the volume on all the songs on your audio CD so that they play at the same volume level.

Ready to go? Click Burn and load the blank disc. iTunes lets you know when the recording is complete.

Feasting on iTunes Visuals

By now, you know that iTunes is a feast for the ears, but did you know that it can provide you with eye candy as well? With just a click or two, you can view mind-bending graphics that stretch, move, and pulse with your music, as shown in Figure 2-6.

To begin viewing iTunes visuals, choose View⇒Show Visualizer (or press +T). Immediately, most of your iTunes interface disappears and begins displaying groovy lava lamp-style animations (like, sassy, man). To stop the visuals, choose View⇒Hide Visualizer (or press +T again). The usual sunny aluminum face of iTunes returns.

You can also change the viewing size of the iTunes visuals in the View menu. From the View menu item, choose Full Screen (or press +F). To escape from the Full Screen mode, click the mouse or press Esc.

You can still control iTunes with the keyboard while the visuals are zooming around your screen. See Table 2-1 earlier in this chapter for a rundown on common keyboard shortcuts.

The iTunes Visualizer has many hidden features. While viewing the Visualizer, press ? to see a list of hidden Visualizer settings.

But wait, more Easter eggs are to be found! Again, while viewing the Visualizer, press one of following keys:

M: Changes the Visualizer pattern

P: Changes the Visualizer color scheme

Press either of these keys repeatedly to cycle through the various patterns and color schemes lurking deep within the Visualizer. (Personally, I’m a random Visualizer guy . . . there are so many patterns and schemes, I just let my Mac do all the work.)

Additionally, you’ll find third-party Visualizer plug-ins available for downloading on Apple’s website and other Mac-related download sites — heck, some even display lyrics, karaoke-style! Choose a different Visualizer plug-in from the View⇒Visualizer menu item. (Call me old-fashioned, but I like the default iTunes Visualizer.)

Exercising Parental Authority

Do young children use your Mac? I’ll be honest here: A large amount of content within the iTunes Store, including audio, movies, and even apps, is stuff that I don’t consider suitable for kids. And what about the media that others in the family may decide to share? Such is the world we live in today, and the good folks at Apple recognize that you may not want to inadvertently allow your kids to have access to explicit content.

Luckily, you can use the Parental settings within iTunes to build a secure fence around content that’s for “grown-ups only.” Heck, you can even banish items from the Source list entirely. Figure 2-7 illustrates the Parental Preferences pane within the iTunes Preferences dialog.

You must log in with an Administrator account to change these settings, just like with the Parental Controls within Mountain Lion’s System Preferences dialog. If the settings are locked — the padlock icon at the bottom of the dialog is closed — click it and supply your administrator password to unlock them. (Read more about Parental Controls in Book II, Chapter 5.)

To enable parental control, follow these steps:

1. Choose iTunes⇒Preferences.

2. Click the Parental tab.

3. Select any of the Disable check boxes to prevent access to those features.

Disabling features inside iTunes applies to all user accounts — no matter who is logged in! You’ll notice that any features you disable disappear completely from the Source list at the left side of the iTunes window once you click OK at the end of these steps.

4. Click the Ratings For pop-up menu and choose your country.

Because Apple maintains separate iTunes Stores for different nations, you can choose which country’s iTunes Store to monitor. If you like, you can disable the display of content ratings within your iTunes library by deselecting the Show Content Ratings in Library check box.

5. To restrict specific content within the iTunes Store, select the check box next to the source, and then make choices from the corresponding pop-up menu to choose the restriction level.

Note that these restrictions apply only to content in the iTunes Store and media shared with your Mac. Content within your iTunes library is never restricted.

6. Click the padlock icon at the bottom of the dialog to close it and prevent any changes.

7. Click OK.

Buying Digital Media the Apple Way

Before we wave goodbye to the happy residents of iTunes iSland, I won’t forget to mention the hottest spot on the Internet for buying music and video: the iTunes Store, which you can reach from the cozy confines of iTunes. (That is, as long as you have an Internet connection. If you don’t, it’s time to turn the page to a different chapter.)

Click the iTunes Store item in the Source list, and after a few moments, you’re presented with the latest offerings. Click a link in the store list to browse according to media type, or click the Power Search link to search by song title, artist, album, or composer. The Back/Forward buttons at the top of the iTunes Store window operate much the same as those in Safari, moving you backward or forward in sequence through pages you’ve already seen. Clicking the Home button (which, through no great coincidence, looks like a miniature house) takes you back to the Store’s main page.

To display the details on a specific album, track, video, podcast, or audiobook (whew), just click it. If you’re interested in buying just certain tracks (for that perfect road warrior mix), you get to listen to 90 seconds of any track — for free, no less, and at full sound quality. To add an item to your iTunes Store shopping cart, click the Add Song/Movie/Album/Video/Podcast/Audiobook button (sheesh!). When you’re ready to buy, click the Shopping Cart item in the Source list and then click the Buy Now button. (At the time of this writing, tracks are usually 99 cents a pop, and an entire album is typically $9.99 . . . what a bargain!)

The iTunes Store creates an account for you based on your e-mail address, and it keeps secure track of your payment information for future purchases. After you use the iTunes Store once, you rarely have to log in or retype your credit card information again.

The tracks and files that you download are saved to a separate playlist called Purchased. After the download is finished, you can play them, copy them to other playlists, burn them to CD or DVD, share ’em over your network, or ship them to your iOS devices using iCloud, just as you can any other item in your iTunes Library.

You can also put the Genius button to work for you, in league with the iTunes Store. Click the Show Genius Sidebar button at the lower-right corner of the iTunes window — it looks like an arrow inside a square — and iTunes displays the Genius Sidebar, where iTunes recommends music that you can buy from the iTunes Store that’s similar to the albums in your Music Library. Click the button again to banish the sidebar.

With Apple’s iCloud sync feature, iTunes can automatically download the media you purchase on another iCloud device (including another Mac, a PC running Vista or Windows 7, and your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch). To set up automatic downloading, choose iTunes⇒Preferences to open the Preferences dialog, and then click the Store tab. After you’re signed in at the iTunes Store, you can choose to download music, app, or book purchases, and you have the option to check for new downloads automatically. Click OK to save your changes.

Remember all those skeptics who claimed that buying digital audio and video could never work over the Internet because of piracy issues and high costs? Well, bunkie, hats off to Apple: Once again, our favorite technology leader has done something the right way!