Understanding Your Shopping Options


When it comes time to buy in the iTunes Music Store, you have two basic options: 1-Click or Shopping Cart. The 1-Click option works best when you have a broadband connection to the Internet. The Shopping Cart method works well for everyone but is primarily intended for people using a slow connection, such as a 56K dial-up account.

1-Click Shopping

This method is aptly named. When it's active, you can click the Buy Album button to purchase an album or the Buy Song button to purchase a song (see Figure 24.1). The item you elected to buy (a collection of songs, such as an album, or a single song) is immediately purchased and downloaded to your iTunes Library. The process requires literally one click (which is where the name came from, I suppose).

Figure 24.1. The Buy Album button enables you to purchase and download an album with a single mouse click; the Buy Song button does the same for individual songs.


If you have a broadband Internet connection, such as cable or DSL, this is a useful option because it makes buying music fast and easy. You can click a button, and the purchase and download process take place in the background while you do something else, such as look for more music.

If you have a slow connection, such as a dial-up account, this is probably not a good option for you. Because downloading songs will consume your connection's bandwidth, you won't be able to do anything else while music is being downloaded. So, you will have wait until the download process is complete before continuing to shop. In this case, you should probably use the Shopping Cart method instead.

Shopping Cart Shopping

When you use this method, music you select to purchase is moved into a Shopping Cart, which serves as a holding area for the music you want to purchase. When you find music you want to buy, you click the Add Album or Add Song button. The item whose button you click is moved into your Shopping Cart, which appears on the Source List underneath the Music Store source. When you select the Shopping Cart, you will see the music you have added to it (see Figure 24.2). From there, you can purchase the music by clicking the Buy button for albums or the Buy Song button for songs, at which point the music you purchase is downloaded to your computer and placed in your Library.

Figure 24.2. The Shopping Cart holds the music you are interested in.


If you have a slow Internet connection, the Shopping Cart method is useful because you can place music in the cart and then continue shopping for music in the store without being hampered by the music being downloaded to your computer. When you are done shopping, you can pop back to the cart and purchase music and then do something else while that music is downloaded to your computer.

Although the Shopping Cart is designed for slow connections, you can use this method with a fast connection in the same way. The benefit of this is that you can gather a collection of music without actually purchasing it. When you are ready to check out, you can move to the cart and select the music you do actually want to buy. In other words, you can use the Shopping Cart as a holding area for music you find that you might want to buy. When you are ready to purchase music, you move back to your cart and click the Buy buttons for the music you want.



Absolute Beginner's Guide to iPod and iTunes
Absolute Beginner's Guide to iPod and iTunes
ISBN: 789731770
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 194

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