Application 5: Transferring Digital Music to a Portable Audio Player

Application #5: Transferring Digital Music to a Portable Audio Player

One of the cool things about digital audio files is that they're portable. You can listen to them on your desktop PC, burn them to an audio CD, or download them to a portable audio player and take your music anywhere.

Most portable audio players (sometimes called MP3 players, though they'll also play WMA-format files) connect to your PC via the USB port. Just connect the USB cable between your player and your PC, fire up the file transfer software (typically included with your audio player), and download your music of choice.

Here's what you need to transfer digital audio files to a portable audio player:

tip

Some digital media player programs such as Windows Media Player and MusicMatch also include a file-transfer function, which makes copying music from your computer to your digital media player a snap. (You may need to download a plug-in from the manufacturer's Web site to make this function work, however.)

Upgrade Checklist for Transferring Digital Music to a Portable Audio Player

Open USB port (see Chapter 3, "Ports Ahoy: Upgrading System Inputs")

Portable audio player and connecting cable

File transfer software or digital media player program with file-transfer features, such as Windows Media Player or MusicMatch Jukebox