iPod: The Missing Manual (Missing Manuals)

6.5 What to Do with Music You've Bought

As you know, the iTunes Music store gives you a lot more freedom to use your downloaded songs than other music services. There are a few restrictions, though.

6.5.1 Play It on Three Computers

You can play Music Storebought songs only on an authorized computer. Authorization is Apple's copy protection scheme.

Between work, home, and the family network, not everyone spends time on just one computer these days. So Apple lets you play your Music Store songs on up to three computers at once: Macs, PCs, or any combination. You just need to type in your Apple user name and password on each computer. Each must make an Internet connection to relay the information back to Music Store headquarters.

6.5.1.1 Authorizing Computers

You authorized your first machine when you signed up for an Apple Account for the iTunes store.

To authorize a song to play on another computer, follow these steps:

1. Find the song you want to transfer.

   This step, of course, involves finding the song on your hard drive.

   Method 1: On the Mac, open your Home Music iTunes iTunes Music folder; in Windows, open My Documents My Music iTunes iTunes Music. Music Store files are easily recognizable by their .m4p file name extensions.

   UP TO SPEED AAC, Copy Protection, and You Apple's AAC files are copy-protected , but not all AAC files are. Some, which you may have collected from other Websites, are freely copyable. How can you tell the difference? In iTunes, click the questionable track in the music library and then press -I (Mac) or Ctrl-I (Windows). The Summary tab of the song shows the album cover, technical information about its encoding, who bought it, and where it lives on the computer. If the Kind says "Protected AAC audio file," well, you've got your answer. (In this picture, the phrase [remote] means that you're checking out a song that's on another computer on the network.) Incidentally, the suffix on a protected AAC file (as viewed on your desktop, for example) is .m4p. iTunes 4 can play AAC files that were ripped in iTunes, and it can play protected AAC files downloaded from the iTunes Music Store. But beware: you may have problems playing non-iTunes AAC tracks from another online music service or Web site.

   Method 2: Just drag the song you want out of the iTunes window and onto your desktop.

2. Copy the song to the second computer.

   Copy the song file onto a CD or USB flash drive; email it to yourself; transfer it across the network; or whatever method you prefer for schlepping files from machine to machine.

   Deposit the songs in the iTunes Music folder on the Computer #2. (See "Method 1" above for the location of this folder.)

3. Bring the copied song into iTunes on the second computer.

   To do that, you can either choose File Add to Library (and then select and open them), or just drag their icons right into the iTunes window.

4. Type your Apple ID and password, and click OK.

This second computer is now authorized to play that songand any other songs you bought using the same Apple Account.

NOTE

Although you may feel like AAC stands for Always Authorizing Computers, remember that this whole authorizing business is necessary only to play songs you've bought. To play songs you've ripped into AAC format from CDs, for example, or to play everyday MP3 files, you don't have to authorize anything.

6.5.1.2 Deauthorizing Computers

You won't be able to play the purchased music on a fourth computer if you try to authorize it. When you connect to the authorization system over the Internet, it will see three other computers already on its list and deny your request.

That's a drag, but copy protection is copy protectionand it's three times better than earlier music services, which permit you to play downloaded music only on one machine (and only as long as you're still paying the monthly fee).

In any case, you have to deauthorize one of the other computers if you want to play the music on Number 4. To deauthorize a computer, choose Advance Deauthorize Computer, and then type in your Apple Account user name and password. The updated information zips back to Apple over the Internet.

NOTE

Thinking of putting that older computer up for sale? Before you wipe the drive clean and send it on its way, be sure to deauthorize it, so your new machine will be able to play your songs from the iTunes Music Store. Erasing a hard drive, by itself, does not deauthorize a computer.

6.5.2 Copy It to Your iPod

Not only can you download your purchased songs to your iPod, but you can download it to unlimited numbers of iPods. Apple placed no copy restrictions on iPod joy.

NOTE

If your iPod is a pre-2003 model, you must first update its software to version 1.3 or later. Otherwise, the iPod won't recognize files in the AAC format. (See Section 15.8 for details.)

When you buy a song, it lands in the iTunes playlist called Purchased Music. But you can easily drag it into other playlists you've concocted within iTunes. The songs, artists , and albums appear just like any other tracks in iTunes.

6.5.3 Burn It to a CD

You can also burn purchased tracks to blank CDs, so you can listen to them in the car or on the big component rack in the living room. Here, Apple has put in only one tiny, almost irrelevant form of copy protection: If you've made store-bought songs part of a certain playlist, you can't burn more than ten CD copies of it in a row without making at least one change to the song list.

And if you find that limitation restrictive , you must be so dedicated a music pirate that you wear an eye patch and a parrot on your shoulder.

6.5.4 Share it Across the Network

You can also share purchased music tracks with other people on your same office networkby playing them live, not by copying the actual files. Details on Section 4.11.

6.5.5 Back It Up

If your hard drive croaks and takes your entire music library with it, you have three alternatives. (a) Buy all of your Music Store songs all over again. (b) Copy the music from the iPod to your hard drive (Section 2.7). (c) Calmly reach for the backup CD or DVD you had the foresight to make before disaster struck.

6.5.5.1 Backing up your music library

To back up your entire music collection, you want to copy the iTunes folder.

• Macintosh . This folder is in your Home Music folder.

• Windows . The iTunes folder is in your My Music folder.

Backing up this folder, huge though it may be, backs up not just your songs, but all the other work you've done in iTunes (creating and naming your playlists, organizing your columns , and so on).

You can use any standard backup method for this:

• Copy the folder to another computer via network cable.

• Burn it onto a blank CD (if the folder fits) or a DVD (if you have a DVD-burning computer).

• Use a program like Dantz Retrospect to back it up onto Zip disks, multiple CDs, or whatever you've got.

When your hard drive croaks, restore your backed -up iTunes folder by dragging it back into your Music folder (Mac) or My Music folder (Windows). You're saved.

6.5.5.2 Backing up playlists

iTunes 4 also has a built-in backup feature. Note, however, that it can back up only one playlist at a time.

This backup procedure isn't the same thing as burning an audio CD. Here, you're burning a data disc. That's important if you want to preserve the original file formats in your iTunes music library and avoid turning your high-quality AIFF files, for example, into squished -down MP3 files. To make this important change to your Burning desires, see Figure 6-13.

After you've chosen the Data format for your backup disc, make a playlist that includes all the files you want to copy to the CD or DVD. Keep an eye on the total size at the bottom of the window to be sure it will fit on one disc: about 650 megabytes for a CD, 4.7 gigabytes for a DVD. (If not, you'll have to file your songs away into multiple playlistsone per backup discto spread out your collection over multiple discs.)

Burn it to disc by clicking the Burn Disc button on the iTunes window. Insert a blank disc when the machine asks for one, and then click the Burn Disc button again to start copying.

If your hard drive ever dies, copy this data disc's files back onto the computer and re-import them into iTunes to rebuild your library from the backup disc.

6.5.5.3 Backing up non-music data

If you've got a .Mac account (Apple's $100-a-year suite of online services), you can use the handy Backup program to save copies of your personal files to a remote Web site, recordable disc, or external hard driveincluding your list of iTunes playlists. See Figure 6-14 for details.)