iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap (2nd Edition)

IN THIS CHAPTER:

8 About Music Formats

9 Import a Music CD into iTunes

10 Get CD Track Names Manually

11 Add a Music File to Your iTunes Library

12 Import Your Existing Digital Music Collection into iTunes

13 Add Album Art to Songs

14 Submit CD Track Names to the Gracenote Database

15 Import a CD with Joined Tracks

16 Extract a "Secret Track" into the iTunes Library"Secret Track" into the iTunes Library

iTunes' foremost function is as a digital music organizer, a way for you to replace your bulky CD collection with a flexible, programmable digital music library that all fits inside your computer. To accomplish this, naturally, you'll have to get your music into iTunes somehow.

Music you add to the iTunes Library comes from any of the following sources:

• Imported ( ripped ) from CDs that you already own

• Imported from your existing collection of MP3, AAC, or unprotected WMA files

• Imported as an individual music file you receive or create yourself, or convert from an analog format such as a tape or vinyl LP

• Copied in automatically by iTunes during installation (see 2 Run iTunes for the First Time )

• Purchased from the iTunes Music Store

The iTunes Music Store, the method for acquiring new music that requires the least effort and the fewest middlemen, is covered in 18 Sign Up for the iTunes Music Store and related tasks in Chapter 4, "Using the iTunes Music Store." The tasks in this chapter cover the remaining methods of importing music, particularly the one for which iTunes' interface was primarily designed: importing the music from your existing CD collection.