iTunes Music Store

Everybody loves their iPod don't they? Well the iPod would be effectively useless without the programme known as iTunes.

I've been using iTunes for a few years now & use it as my main music player, I used to use windows media player but iTunes blows that completely out of the water.

ITunes is completely free & very easy to download, you can download it from the apple website, just type in iTunes on google or probably the simplest thing is to connect your iPod usb cable to your computer or laptop & if you don't already have it installed it will install it for you. This only takes about 5 minutes & during the download it will let you choose which file you want to import your music from. This means that any music you may have downloaded already you can import into your iTunes library simply by finding the file they are stored in & clicking import to iTunes.

Apple have really raised the bar & set the standard for music downloading in the last couple of years & of course as they keep updating their iPods they need to update their iTunes. You will get a pop up message when you open up your iTunes library whenever there has been an upgrade to iTunes & it will ask you if you would like to upgrade now, later or alternatively you can tell them not to ask you again. This however is not recommended. Upgrades only take a minute or two & can really improve your system. ITunes can be a bit daunting when you first download it & see your library as it has so many things to do in it. However after about 5 minutes you will have easily figured out how everything works.

The iTunes store is an amazing feature included with iTunes, it gives you the opportunity to download literally anything you want from films, to albums, to single songs & even TV programmes. The list is endless. To get to the iTunes store you simply click on the link which is on the left hand column near your 'music' link. It has a green icon next to it in the shape of a shopping bag so it's very easy to spot. When you click on this it will take you to the iTunes home page, this is where you can see the latest things that have been added to the store, you can also see the top 10 chart, this is the top 10 songs that people have downloaded from iTunes not the official UK music chart. With all things in the shop you can view previews of them before you buy, which is very useful if it's something you're not too familiar with. If you do choose to buy something simply click on buy which will take you to your log in screen. If you already have an iTunes account you simply put in your username & password if not you will have to set one up before you can buy anything. This is very simple to do, you just put in all your information like name, date of birth & your credit/debit card details, this is perfectly safe to do. Then you will be able to buy it. Considering how big the file is it may take a minute or two to download. When it does it can be found in your purchased items link which is directly below the iTunes link in your library.

Itunes really is incredibly simple to use, I know a lot of people will be thinking yes it's easy when you know how but believe me within 5 minutes of downloading this you will have got the hang of it, it really is that simple.

Another great thing about iTunes is that when you download for instance an album from the iTunes store it will come with the album art which is a great feature as not only will it show up on your iTunes library but it will also show up on your iPod.

Syncing songs to your iPod couldn't be easier. You simply plug in the usb to your iPod & then to the computer, the iPod will automatically connect to your iTunes library. Your iPod will show up in the left hand column below the iTunes store link. You can then go through your library & put songs from your library onto your iPod. This is done by a simple drag & drop method. You simple click on the song you want to have on your iPod & drag it into the left hand column where it your iPod, you drop the file into the music section. When you have added all the items to your iPod it should have synced automatically but if for whatever reason it doesn't you simply click on file on the top left of the screen then click on 'sync iPod' which is located near the bottom of the list. When it has synced which will only take a few seconds but of course this depends on how many files you have added you will see the message 'sync complete' at the top of the page where what song you're playing is displayed. This simply means that everything has finished & the songs will now be on your iPod. All you have to do then is click on eject which is next to 'your iPod' in the left hand column. You can always just pull the cable out but it recommended to use the eject button as it makes sure that everything is synced & ready to be disconnected first. When you click eject it will take a few seconds but you will see the message 'ok to disconnect' displayed on your iPod. This means everything has finished & been checked & you can now unplug the usb from the iPod & computer.

Overall I think iTunes is a great music player & the perfect accessory for your iPod. You can even download it if you don't have an iPod as you can burn cd's using iTunes.

The only thing that sometimes bugs me about iTunes is that the more songs you have in your library the slower it will become, sometimes it can take a second or two to load onto different screens however this is to be expected if you have a few thousand songs in your library. This is the only negative with iTunes & the positives far outweigh the negatives so I would recommend that everyone download this whether you have an iPod or not. It's free so you have nothing to lose!