Chapter 4. Project 3: Creating a Network Jukebox

This chapter looks at networking as it relates to entertainmentspecifically, music. You will see what it takes to create a collection of music on the various computers in your home network and then learn how to access that music from any computer.

More About Itunes

iTunes is software that lets you organize and listen to your music and other audio files on your computer, using the audio hardware in your computer. The following are some of the things you can do with iTunes:

• Listen to CDsListening to music with iTunes is as easy as putting a CD into your computer and clicking Play. When you insert a CD, iTunes starts, and the CD appears in the Source list.

• Add music from CDs or from the Internet to your iTunes libraryAfter you import music to your library, you can play it, transfer it to your MP3 player, edit the song information, and more. To listen to a song, you double-click it in your library.

• Buy songs from the iTunes Music StoreYou can even have the music automatically downloaded to your hard disk and imported into your library.

• Create lists of your favorite songsiTunes lets you organize your music into playlists. You can create playlists to suit a specific need, such as a party mix.

• Transfer music to your MP3 playerIf you have an MP3 player, you can set it to update automatically with songs from your music library.

• Make your own CDs or DVDsYou can use iTunes to make your own custom discs containing songs in a playlist.

• Subscribe to and listen to podcastsPodcasts are downloadable short-length shows delivered by iTunes.

• Share your music library across computersMusic sharing lets you stream your library across a local network so you can listen to your music on multiple computers without having to import it into iTunes on each computer.

• Listen to Internet radio stationsInternet radio stations broadcast music that you can listen to with iTunes.

• Share your music library across computersMusic sharing lets you stream your library across a local network so you can listen to your music on multiple computers without having to import it into iTunes on each computer.

• Listen to Internet radio stationsInternet radio stations broadcast music that you can listen to with iTunes.

Imagine that you have a collection of CDs from various eras and genres that the people in your house listen to. Mom and Dad might want to hear the oldies, while the kids want to hear the latest CDs they've bought recently. You can obviously play these CDs on your stereo equipment, but as computers are becoming more prevalent and the audio hardware included is of continually better quality, you can just as easily and privately play them on your own computer.