iTunes with Jennifer Kerr - 10/18/13
Windows user but got iPod about 6 years ago
CDs to upload music it to Windows > to iPod
Now using a Mac laptop and iPhone (with music)
Click the link to read Jennifer's official outline ;-)
My History:
I started with iTunes with an iPod about six+ years ago, putting songs on it from iTunes on a PC. It went generally well; I put songs into iTunes from CDs and from MP3 files on an external drive. I rarely (like twice) ever bought any from iTunes Store.
When I “went Apple” during the last year, I had to transfer my 900+ songs into my MacBook Pro iTunes (using a flash drive and Dropbox incrementally). The album art did not transfer at all and it no longer recognizes the two songs I had purchased from iTunes. But they all seem to play fine.
Using iTunes on an iPhone and iPad:
You cannot get music directly and for free (only with iTunes Radio, see below).
To get music on your iPhone or iPad you can:
1.Buy and download from iTunes store; these songs will go to all your devices. The nice thing is you can buy only one song from an album! Usually 99 cents or $1.29.
2.Sync content with iTunes using your computer—PC or Mac. (Not just music, but also photos, videos, podcasts, apps and more—for more info, see iTunes Help on your computer). If you use iCloud to store your contacts, calendars and bookmarks, don’t also sync them using iTunes!
a. You can do it automatically with WiFi, but then it’s everything on iTunes going to every device! You probably don’t want this! To do this: Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer with the USB cord, select the device, click on Summary and select “Sync with this iPhone/iPad over Wi-Fi.” From then on, the devices will sync when connected to a power source, both are connected to the same wireless network and iTunes is open on the computer.
b. You can do it manually and selectively with the USB connection, more later.
To Play Music on your iPhone or iPad:
Tap the Music icon. You can then go to Albums, Songs, Artists, etc., and tap on what you want to hear.
You can control the volume and stop and start the songs several ways: within the app, in control center even with the passlock is on and on the white Apple earbuds (a small device high on the white bud: plus or minus for the level, tap the flat middle to stop or start music). When listening on earphones or buds and need to stop in a hurry, pull the plug out; the song will stop!
Shuffle (one of my favorite digital benefits) is way better with iOS7. Before you had to shake the iPhone to shuffle, but it also shuffled by itself if you walked strenuously or stepped off a curb! Now you can tap Shuffle in Songs or Now Playing.
To delete songs, go to Songs, gently swipe to the left and a red Delete square will come up (if you are not gentle with your swipe, the song will just start playing annoyingly). You cannot delete whole albums or artists; you must go to iTunes on your computer to do that.
“Create” at the bottom of Now Playing: You can create an iTunes Radio station based on this song (see iTunes Radio below). If you want to rate songs, tap the parallel horizontal lines on the top left of some screens.
If you have Siri, you can tell it/her to play music. Be specific: Siri, play music, album, Dark Side of the Moon.
Getting Music from your Mac or PC:
Attach iPhone or iPad with USB cord.
On the left side, click on your iPhone or iPad name.
Look at bottom color graph and mouse over the colors, it will tell you how much of everything (music, videos, apps, books, pictures aka "everything!) you have and how much room is available! Note the Sync button on bottom right!
Click on Summary along the top; this will tell you the curent backup, wifi, sync status.
Click on Info; this will tell you how you are backing up and syncing.
Click on On This Phone, you will see all your music by songs in alphabetical order.
To add or remove music, Click on Music. You will see options for syncing music; I prefer Selected (more control).
You can add or remove music by checking or unchecking artists, albums, playlists, genres, etc., your choice.
As you add or delete, the left color bar below will change to reflect how much music you would have on your device.
When you’re done, click Apply in lower right and it will sync.
To eject your iPhone or iPad when you’re done, click on triangle with line under it.
iTunes Radio:
This is new with iOS7. It is like Pandora, free streaming “radio” (but uses your phone minutes or time when not on WiFi!!). It has some ads, so far just Apple ads, but that will probably change.
Like Pandora, the stations are mixtures of music Apple thinks match the theme (i.e, a bunch of different artists).
The Featured Stations. Apple created those.
My Stations, click the plus sign. You can either name an artist, genre or song or choose one of their genres. Theirs also will have sub-genres.
You can give feedback to the stations when they are playing a song; tap the Star and you can have it play more or fewer songs like the current one.
You can skip songs, but only “a limited number” in an hour (3 or 4 in my experience).
Of course, you can buy any song you hear and the price is conveniently displayed for you!
iTunes Match (also new with iOS7):
If you pay $24.99 a year, iTunes Match lets you store your entire music collection in iCloud, even music you’ve imported from CDs or purchased somewhere other than iTunes (or maybe never really “purchased”). When all these songs are in iCloud, they are available on all your devices. And with iTunes Match, your iTunes Radio listening will be ad-free.
Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to iCloud for you. There are more than 26 million songs in the iTunes Store (!). For the few songs that aren’t, iTunes uploads from your iTunes. The music iTunes matches plays back from iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality (I presume that’s good!) even if your original copy was of lower quality.
Once your music is in iCloud, you can play it from any of your devices. You can store up to 25,000 songs in iCloud, but only what you play or download is stored on your device.
