Take your iTunes know-how past 11 to 12!
Updated August 7, 2016
Befuddled by Apple Music? Want to find the best view for listening to your albums? Hoping to make playlists to transfer to your iPhone? Wish you could organize your podcasts? Wondering what the difference is between loves and stars? In this FAQ-style ebook, Kirk McElhearn (author of "The iTunes Guy" column at Macworld) explains not only how the iTunes features work, but how normal people can make iTunes do what they want.
Relying on an easily browsed question-and-answer approach, Kirk shares his love of music and helps you understand the process of bringing media into iTunes, tagging it, adding album artwork, organizing it into playlists, and transferring it to an iPad, iPhone, or iPod.
Coupons in the back of the ebook help you save $5 off Equinux's SongGenie for adding metadata and $7 off Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil wireless audio streaming software.
Find answers to questions about how to:
Play: Learn the basics of playing audio and video, and start making quick playlists with Genius and Up Next.
Rip: Add content to iTunes with detailed steps for "ripping" music CDs and audiobooks. (If you want to rip audiobooks so they play nicely from iTunes, don't miss this chapter!) Also, find general advice for ripping video DVDs and learn which file formats work in iTunes.
Buy: Find tips on shopping in the iTunes Store, and get advice on sharing your purchases with family members and among your various Apple devices.
Tag: Kirk describes himself as "tag obsessed." If that description fits you, or if you just want to take control of your tags, this chapter is for you. Tags are descriptive bits of information -- known to geeks as "metadata" -- that describe your media. You can sort and filter based on tags, giving you myriad ways to manipulate your media. Learn which tags to bother changing, how to work with the Love tag, how to add lyrics and album art, and more.
View: iTunes has more views than flavors of ice cream at the corner grocery. Get the scoop on how to switch between views, where your album art is (or is not), and so forth.
Organize: Make a simple playlist of romantic songs, workout songs, Apple Watch songs, or whatever theme you like. Also, create smart playlists that, for example, comprise only your 5-star faves (or Loves!) or tunes you haven't heard recently. You'll also find help with operational issues like dealing with a huge library, multiple libraries, and where iTunes puts your media files.
Search: Find media in iTunes, plus learn tricks for narrowing a search and for locating duplicates.
Sync: You've put all your media in iTunes... now, how do you transfer it to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch? This chapter considers many different user scenarios and has help for people who have too much music. It also notes options for playing media through a second-, third-, or fourth-generation Apple TV.
Cloud: What exactly comprises an iCloud Music Library? How do Apple Music and iTunes Match figure out whether your music matches tracks in the Apple Music Library? What is Beats 1? Kirk answers these questions and more.
Share: Find answers to questions about sharing iTunes library media with others, primarily through Home Sharing on a local network.
Burn and Print: Learn how to copy music from iTunes to a CD. Also, get directions for printing a song list, for example, to include in the jewel case of said CD.
Back Up: This short chapter has tips and inspiration for backing up your (potentially irreplaceable) iTunes media.
Extend with AppleScript: Mac users can make iTunes do more with AppleScript. Learn about key AppleScripts that you can download to make iTunes jump through even more hoops.
