Section 59. Listen to Shared Music on the Local Network


59. Listen to Shared Music on the Local Network

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

2 Run iTunes for the First Time

58 Share Your Music over the Local Network


SEE ALSO

23 Authorize a Computer to Play Purchased Music

60 AirTunes: Connect iTunes to a Stereo with AirPort Express


If someone else in your household, with his computer connected to the house network, has iTunes installed and set up to share music (see 58 Share Your Music over the Local Network ), you can connect to that shared music library using your own copy of iTunes and stream his music to your computer just as though it were stored on your local machine. This arrangement enables music stored on any computer within a household or corporate network to be essentially "borrowed" and played on other computers under the same roof, just as a physical CD could be borrowed and played .

NOTE

Listening to someone else's purchased AAC music requires that your computer be authorized to play that person's music. Because each person has his or her own iTunes Music Store account and five authorizations to deploy, that person can log in and authorize another computer in the house to access his or her own music. See 23 Authorize a Computer to Play Purchased Music for details.


iTunes is not a file-sharing applicationwhen you listen to shared music over the network, you're merely streaming the music from the remote iTunes to your speakers , not copying the other person's music files to your computer. You can only listen to another person's iTunes' music if their copy of iTunes is running.

59. Listen to Shared Music on the Local Network


1.
Configure iTunes to Look for Shared Music

Open the iTunes' Preferences window (choose Edit, Preferences in Windows or iTunes, Preferences on the Mac). Click the Sharing tab.

Enable the Look for shared music check box to cause your copy of iTunes to start watching the network for other copies of iTunes.

NOTE

iTunes uses a technology called Bonjour , Apple's implementation of an open-source protocol called ZeroConf, to discover services on the local network such as shared iTunes music. Bonjour is built into many other applications in Mac OS X, but isn't in widespread use on Windows. Nonetheless, music sharing can flawlessly take place between Windows and Mac versions of iTunes on the same network.

2.
Let iTunes Discover Shared Music on the Network

Click OK to close the Preferences window and begin seeking other sources of music on the network. Watch the Source pane. Within a couple of seconds, you should see the names of other users' shared iTunes libraries appearing beneath the Music Store entry and any connected iPods or mounted CDs that are physically available to your computer.

NOTE

If you're running a personal firewall on your computer, you might have to "poke a hole" (create an exception rule) in the firewall to allow iTunes' music-sharing traffic to get through. Define the rule to allow traffic on TCP port 3689 . (In Mac OS X, a predefined rule is available in the system firewall for this port; select the Firewall tab on the Sharing pane in the System Preferences application, and enable the check box for iTunes Music Sharing .)

If only one other person currently running iTunes is present on the network, that person's shared music appears by name directly in the Source pane; if more than one other person is present, the multiple sources are grouped under the Shared Music heading. Click the triangle next to this option's icon to expand the category and see all the shared music libraries inside it.

3.
Connect to a Shared Music Library

Click once on a shared music library to select it. Immediately, iTunes attempts to connect to it and begins downloading information about the music tracks and playlists that are available.

If the shared music library is protected by a password, you're prompted to enter that password to gain access to the selected music source. If you don't enter the password correctly, you're returned to the main Library view.

NOTE

You can recognize password-protected shared music collections by the "lock" icon that appears next to their names under the Shared Music heading in the Source pane.

When all the information about the shared music library is downloaded (which should take no more than a few seconds), an expansion triangle appears to the left of the shared music library's name, and an Eject icon appears to its right; this second icon is used to disconnect you from the shared music library. Disconnecting is a good idea when you're done listening to a remote shared music library because it prevents unnecessary network traffic while you're not using iTunes.

4.
Browse and Play Shared Music

If you select the entire shared music library, you can browse the whole thing just as though it were on your local computer. The Browse lists ( Genre, Artist , and Album ) work the same as in your own Library view. Navigate to an artist or album you want to hear and double-click to start playing the music.

You can also view the remote user's shared playlists. Click the expansion triangle to the left of the shared library's name; all the playlists on the remote user 's computer are listed under the name of the shared library. Select a playlist to view it, and click Play to start it playing.

NOTE

Because you can't burn a remote playlist to a CD, the button in the upper-right corner of the iTunes' windowwhich normally is a Burn button when you're viewing a playlistis a Browse button in this case. You can use the Browse view on playlists even in your local copy of iTunes, toojust select Edit, Show Browser .

5.
Authorize to Play Protected Music

You can freely listen to any music in the remote user's librarywith the exception of protected AAC files purchased from the iTunes Music Store . Your computer must be authorized for the remote user's iTunes Music Store account before her purchased music can play on your computer.

Select and attempt to play a protected file by double-clicking its name or by clicking the Play button. A dialog box pops up that challenges you for the iTunes Music Store account password matching the account that was used to buy the music. Unless the remote user has shared her password with you, you essentially have two options: either cancel the attempt and don't try to listen to any more of the person's purchased songs, or get the person to come into your room and authorize your computer by typing her password and clicking Authorize . When the iTunes Music Store account for that song has been validated (by connecting to the central iTunes Music Store server), you're free to play any other music that was bought using that same account.

TIP

Remember that there are only five authorization spots available for a given iTunes Music Store account. If the other person has to regain the authorization she's given to you, she must deauthorize your computer as described in 23 Authorize a Computer to Play Purchased Music ; afterwards, you will no longer be able to play her purchased music files.




iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap
iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672328992
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 152
Authors: Brian Tiemann

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