Creating an iTunes Music Library

As your learned in Chapter 2, "Getting Started with an iPod," and read in each of the subsequent chapters, you manage the music you store on your iPod within the iTunes application. The iTunes Library and the playlists you create within iTunes are the sources of music you listen to with an iPod. The two general steps to creating these music sources are building your iTunes Library and creating iTunes playlists.

Building an iTunes Music Library

You can get music for your iTunes Library from three main sources: audio CDs, the iTunes Music Store, and the Internet. Although the specific steps you use to add music from these various sources to your Library are a bit different, the end result is the same. Your iTunes Library will contain all the music in your collection.

I don't provide the details of building and managing an iTunes Library here because Part II is dedicated to iTunes and provides all the information you need to use this excellent application. The chapters that specifically focus on building your Library are Chapter 16, "Building, Browsing, Searching, and Playing Your iTunes Music Library," and Chapter 17, "Labeling, Categorizing, and Configuring Your Music," but you'll also want to read Chapters 13 15 to install and learn how to use iTunes.

Creating iTunes Playlists

From the earlier chapters in this part of the book, you learned that the playlists stored within iTunes are transferred to your iPod so you can listen to them. You create and manage these playlists within iTunes. Chapter 18, "Creating, Configuring, and Using Playlists," provides an in-depth look at playlists and gives you all the information you need to create and manage your playlists.

note

Remember that there is one special playlist, called the On-The-Go playlist, that you can create on the iPod (except the shuffle).