Section 24. Find More Music by Artists in Your Library

24. Find More Music by Artists in Your Library

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

9 Import a Music CD into iTunes

20 Purchase Audio from the iTunes Music Store

SEE ALSO

29 Request Music from the Music Store

30 Watch for Newly Added Music Using an RSS Feed

As you browse your music in the iTunes Library , you'll see little gray right-arrow icons next to song names , artists, and albums in the song listing. These arrows are linksknown as QuickLinks that take you to matching pages in the iTunes Music Store , allowing you to quickly find more music by any artist in your library. You can disable these links if you find they clutter up your music-browsing experience.

KEY TERM

QuickLinks Gray "arrow" icons in song info fields in iTunes that lead to similar music in the iTunes Music Store .

1.	Add Music to Your iTunes Library First build your iTunes Library by adding CDs to it ( Import a Music CD into iTunes ) or purchasing music from the music store. Every distinct artist name is listed in the Artist list at the top of the iTunes' window in Library view; likewise, every distinct Album name is shown in its own list.
2.	Show Links to Music Store Open the iTunes Preferences windowchoose Edit, Preferences (Windows) or iTunes, Preferences (Mac). Click to the General tab. Find the check box labeled Show links to Music Store . Make sure that this check box is enabled if you want to show the little gray QuickLinks in the iTunes' window; click OK . 24. Find More Music by Artists in Your Library
3.	Follow Links to Artists, Albums, and Tracks in the iTunes Music Store As you browse your music in iTunes, notice the gray arrow icons next to every song name, artist, or genre . If you have an active Internet connection, click any of these QuickLink icons to take you to a corresponding page in the iTunes Music Store . Each link is aware of the context formed by the other info tags on the song whose links you follow. For example, clicking the arrow icon on a song name tries to find a song not just with the same name in the music store, but also with the same artist and album names; this way you're sure to reach the download page for the album containing the same track whose icon you clicked in case you want to download more tracks from that same album. Clicking the arrow icon on an artist takes you to that artist's discography page. If the artist or album name you click isn't found in the music store database, you're instead shown a list of the closest matches. Notice that within the iTunes Music Store , the same gray arrow icons appear on all listed artists and albumsjust like in your iTunes Library . Use these links to navigate to other work by the same artists within the music store.

TIPS

iTunes must be able to match the song, artist, and album names exactly with the names in its own database to find useful matches for you. Be sure that your music is organized with the artist names spelled exactly as they are in the music storeif the store spells it Emerson, Lake & Palmer or "Weird Al" Yankovic , make sure that the quotes and commas and ampersands are in the same places on the songs in your local library! Refer to 61 Organize Your Songs for more tips on organizing your music for maximum efficiency.

If you're a Mac user with Mac OS X Tiger and use iChat to communicate with your friends , you can set your status to Current iTunes Track ; others viewing your status will see the name of your currently playing song, along with a QuickLink icon that leads them to the appropriate music store page in iTunes.