Sharing iTunes Music on a Network

You can share music in your iTunes Library with other computers with which you are networked and with anyone who has a user account on your Mac. You can also listen to music that is being shared with you.

To learn how to configure and manage a local network, p. 935.

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When you share your music, anyone who uses your Mac can listen to it, along with people using other Macs on your network. For example, if other people who use your Mac have their own user accounts, you can share your iTunes music with them by sharing it. If people have a user account on your Mac and share their music, you will be able to listen to it as well.

Configuring Your Mac to Share Music

To share your music with other Macs on your network, you just need to set your sharing preferences:

1.	Open the iTunes Preferences dialog box and click the Sharing icon. The Sharing pane will appear.
2.	Check the "Share my music" check box.
3.	Click the "Share entire library" radio button to share all the music in your Library, or click the "Share selected playlists" radio button and check the box next to each playlist you want to share in order to share only those playlists.
4.	Give your shared music a name by typing a name in the Shared Name field. This is the name of the source others will select to access your music.
5.	If you want to require a password for people to be able to share your music, check the "Require password" box and enter a password in the field.
6.	Click OK.
7.	If you required a password, provide it to the people with whom you want to share your music.

After you have shared your music, people can access it using the same steps you use to access music being shared with you.

NOTE

For your music to be accessible on the network, your Mac must remain awake. If you turn it off, or it goes to sleep, others won't be able to access your shared music any more.

Listening to Music Being Shared with You

NOTE

You can't move music from a shared source into your Library from within iTunes.

To search your network for music being shared with you, open the Sharing pane of the iTunes Preferences dialog box and check the "Look for shared music" check box. When you close the Preferences window, iTunes looks for any sources being shared with you. When it finds them, they appear in the Source pane as the Shared Music source. To listen to shared music, do the following:

NOTE

Shared sources have a light blue icon containing a single note.

1.	Select the shared source to which you want to listen. If more than one shared source is available to you, expand the Shared Music source. When you do, you'll see an icon for each set of music being shared with you.
2.	If the source you selected requires a password, enter the password at the prompt and click OK. The shared source will become available to you.
3.	Click the Expansion triangle next to the source to see playlists that have been shared with you. You can also use the Browser to browse shared music.
4.	Listen to the shared source just as you listen to your own playlists.

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To remove a shared source from your Source list, click its Eject button. You can open the Sharing pane of the iTunes Preferences window to see how many users are accessing music you are sharing.