Sharing Your Music Anywhere with AirTunes and an AirPort Express


Sharing music with other computers is very cool, but what if you want to listen to your music someplace that doesn't have a computer? Using an AirPort Express wireless hub and iTunes's AirTunes feature, you can share your music with audio devices, such as a home stereo.

You can use an AirPort Express for a lot more than just sharing your iTunes music. It is a full-featured wireless hub, not that you would ever guess so because it is so small. It also enables you to wirelessly share USB printers and so on. The focus of this section is sharing iTunes music with a noncomputer device; explore the AirPort Express documentation to learn about its other features.

The general steps to use an AirPort Express to share music with an audio device are the following:

1.

Obtain and install an AirPort Express on your network.

2.

Connect your AirPort Express to a home stereo, a set of powered speakers, or other audio device.

3.

Use the AirPort Express Assistant to set up a new network.

4.

Set iTunes to broadcast music to that network.

5.

Listen to the music.

Obtaining and Installing an AirPort Express

You can purchase an AirPort Express at any retail location that carries Apple products, such as the online Apple Store (see Figure 19.8). At press time, an AirPort Express costs $129, which is quite a bargain considering its small size and excellent features.

Figure 19.8. An AirPort Express is a full-featured wireless hub that is just slightly larger than a deck of cards.


After you have obtained an AirPort Express, use the installation CD that comes with it to install the AirPort Express software on your computer.

Note

In order to share iTunes music with an audio device using AirPort Express, the computer on which the Music Library resides must have access to a wireless network so that it can broadcast its music to the AirPort Express.


Connecting the AirPort Express to an Audio Device

As you can see in Figure 19.8, on the bottom of the AirPort Express are three ports. You use the Ethernet port to connect the device to a cable modem, DSL modem, or wired network so you can use the AirPort Express as a hub. You use the USB port to wirelessly share a USB printer. You can use the Line Out port to connect the AirPort express to any audio device that has an input port.

After you have installed the AirPort Express software, connect the Line Out port on the AirPort Express to the Line In port on an audio device. For example, connect a set of power speakers' output cable to this port. Or, use a mini-jack to RCA stereo cable to connect the AirPort Express's Output port to an input port on a receiver.

Then, plug the AirPort Express into a wall outlet. It will become active and you'll see its activity lights turn on.

That is all the installation that is required. How simple is that!

Setting Up a New AirTunes Network

To broadcast your music to an AirPort Express, you first set up a network for that device.

1.

Launch the AirPort Express Assistant. On a Windows PC, choose Start, All Programs, AirPort, AirPort Express Assistant. On a Mac, open Applications, Utilities, AirPort Express Assistant. The Assistant will open and you'll see an information window explaining what you can do.

2.

Click Continue. Depending on how your current wireless network is set up, you might see prompts that ask you to configure your current wireless connection. These prompts should be self-explanatory so work through them until you see the Introduction screen in the Assistant.

3.

Click the Set Up a New AirPort Express radio button and click Continue

4.

If you have an existing wireless network, click Connect to My Current Wireless Network. If not, click Create a New Wireless Network. The rest of these steps assume you are creating a new network; using an existing network isn't much different. The computer will scan for the AirPort Express and you will see all available AirPort Express units on the Network Setup screen.

Tip

You can broadcast to multiple AirPort Express units at the same time. For example, you could connect one to a stereo in a basement and another to one in the living room.

5.

Click Continue to use the AirPort Express that was found. If multiple Express units are found, select the AirPort Express you want to use and click Continue. The Assistant will begin configuring the AirPort Express for the existing network. When it finds the network, you will be prompted to connect to it and the Network Setup screen.

6.

Enter the name of the network you are creating along with a name for the AirPort Express, then click Continue.

7.

Continue following the instructions in the Assistant until the AirPort Express is fully configured. The exact steps you will use depend on your specific network configuration. Fortunately, the Assistant makes it pretty easy in most situations. When the Assistant has completed its work, your AirPort Express will be ready to use.

Configuring iTunes to Broadcast to a Network

After your AirPort Express has been configured, you set iTunes to broadcast to it.

1.

Open the Audio pane of the iTunes Preferences dialog box (see Figure 19.9).

Figure 19.9. Use the Audio pane of the iTunes Preferences dialog box to configure AirTunes.


2.

Check the Look for Remote Speakers Connected with AirTunes check box.

3.

Check the Disable iTunes Volume Control for Remote Speakers check box if you don't want the position of the Volume slider in iTunes to impact the volume of the audio device to which you are broadcasting. Generally, this is a good option so that you don't accidentally change the volume at the remote device when you are using iTunes.

4.

Click OK to close the Preferences window. You'll return to the iTunes window.

Listening to the Shared Tunes

Now, you can listen to your iTunes music from the remote audio device.

1.

Choose the remote device on which you want to play music on the Speaker pop-up menu that has appeared in the lower-right corner of the iTunes window (see Figure 19.10). The name you choose should be the name of the AirPort Express connected to the device on which you want to play the music.

Figure 19.10. By choosing Express_1, music I play will be heard on the audio device (in this case, a pair of powered speakers, connected to the AirPort Express called "Express_1").


2.

Play the music you want to hear, such as playlist, CD, your Library, and so on. You'll see a message telling you that iTunes is connected to the selected speakers in the Information area. When that process is complete, music will begin playing over the device to which the AirPort Express is connected.

3.

Use the audio device's volume control to adjust the volume. (If you didn't check the Disable iTunes Volume Control for Remote Speakers check box, you can also control the volume with the iTunes Volume slider).

Note

Interestingly, if your wireless hub connects wired computers to your network, too, you can broadcast music from any computer with iTunes connected to the network.

Because the music source is iTunes, you control music playback from the computer streaming music to the AirPort Express, such as to start or stop it, change the playlist, and so on. You can control only the volume from the audio device, such as by muting it, increasing it, and so on.

To play iTunes music on the computer again, choose Computer on the Speaker pop-up menu.

The Absolute Minimum

The ability to share your music with other computers on your network and being able to listen to the music on other people's computers is pretty cool, don't you think? Following are some points to keep in mind to help your sharing:

  • In order to share music, the computer sharing it must be turned on and cannot be in Standby (Windows) or Sleep (Mac) mode. If the computer goes to one of these modes or is turned off, the shared music will no longer be available.

  • Similarly, iTunes must be running for music to be shared. If you quit iTunes while sharing music, the music you were sharing will no longer be available to others.

  • When it comes to sharing, iTunes doesn't care whether a machine is a Windows computer or a Mac. You can share music or listen to shared music from either platform.

  • When you access shared music, you can only listen to it. You can't add it your Library, put it in playlists, change its information, put in on a CD, or other tasks that you can do with the music in your own Library.

  • You can share your music with up to five computers at the same time.

  • If you access music that was purchased at the iTunes Music Store, you must validate that you have permission to listen to that music by authorizing it. Music that you purchase from the iTunes Music Store can only be used on five computers at a time, and someone sharing music you purchased counts as one of those five. To be able to listen to shared music at all, you must be able to provide the account and username under which it was purchased. You'll learn about this in more detail in Part III, "The iTunes Music Store."




iPod + iTunes Starter Kit
iPod and iTunes Starter Kit (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 078973463X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 187

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