Why Music Lovers Love iTunes

Since the invention of the Walkman in the 1980s, music lovers everywhere have been able to take their music wherever they go. The introduction of the iPod MP3 player in the year 2001 has refueled the portable music craze, and taking music with you is easier now than it's ever been before. With this newest revolution comes an onslaught of music download sites offering listeners a seemingly unlimited selection of music and audio choices. One of the most popular sites in the downloading wars is Apple’s iTunes.

iTunes Defined

iTunes is software that enables users to add, organizes and listen to a digital music library, both on a computer and with a portable listening device such as an iPod. iTunes has transformed the way consumers buy and listen to music and other downloadable content. Brilliant in its simplicity, iTunes offers much in the way of variety and flexibility. Easy to download and use, it works a lot like other music playing programs, and plus it can be used on both Macintosh and Windows operating systems.

Standard Features

The iTunes jukebox offers a variety of user-friendly features including audio file playback, streaming music, internet radio, modest graphics capabilities, and—when available—will even display the file information from the CD track that's currently playing. The software also allows users to organize and manage their music and audio files by various categories, including genre, artist, and other customizable classifications.

iTunes is able to convert a wide variety of audio files, including AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless, MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA files. In addition, users can burn and rip CD’s, download files to a portable device and share music.

Special Features

Along with its standard features, iTunes offers a variety of advanced features. The autosyncing element will automatically detect an iPod connection and download content to the iPod that has been recently added to the iTunes library (this feature can be turned off by users if they prefer to select their songs individually). You can easily create playlists based on user-determined parameters including things such as genre, release date, or user rating. When a song is added to the library, iTunes matches the song to the preset factors and adds it to the correct list.

One of the favorite features of many iTunes users is the integration of the software with the iTunes music store. This online vendor has a over 3.5 million songs, thousands of videos, 20,000 audiobooks, music videos, podcasts, feature films, television shows, video games, and CD album art. Users have the ability to download this content to the iTunes software or their iPods (if the user's unit has the correct capabilities).

Another revolutionary feature is the ability to download podcasts. By providing the URL of the podcast provider, users can download and listen to content from online conferences, lectures, and meetings. Several universities have agreed to take part in iTunesU, which offers free podcast uploading and downloading. Many businesses are even using the technology for meetings and training sessions for employees who frequently travel or telecommute.

On particularly handy feature of the iTunes software is the ability to join CD tracks. This technology removes the pauses from between music files so that there's a seamless transition between songs. The user also has the ability to edit embedded ID3 tags, which include information such as artist’s name, album title, song release date, genre, and even the album cover artwork. The user can update this information to include things about the song that they find relevant.

How to use iTunes

As with many other software applications created by Apple, iTunes is very user friendly. First, the free software must be downloaded. After the software is installed, it will ask if it should move any music files already on your computer to the iTunes library. By clicking "yes," the software automatically finds, imports, and organizes all music files by artist and album title. Be careful, though, because this action will result in a duplication of many of the files in your library.

Uploading music is just as easy. You can either manually choose where the music will be placed by clicking on “file” and creating a special file name for the music; if you click “import,” iTunes will search for music and ask if you'd like to import it. After the music is imported, the user's able to create playlists, burn CDs, and add music to an iPod.

The last of these is really the key for most iTunes lovers. If you can't transfer your music to your MP3 player (iPod or otherwise) to take with you on the plane, train, automobile, or wherever ... then what's the point? At least for most people.

And the Beat Goes On

The advent of online music services such as iTunes has provided a wonderful opportunity for independent artists to share their music with the world. And with music at only $.99 per song (or even less), anyone can enjoy a wider selection of music choices without the need to buy an entire album. And now, you can even download most songs DRM-free for a mere $0.20 more.

iTunes continues to add features to its store and recently introduced the iPhone, a smart device that provides a mobile phone, digital planner, music and video features all in one unit. If all of that's still not enough media in one place for you, hold tight! Plans are underway for the introduction of Apple iTV, a portable music and television player.

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