Working with iTunes

Now that you have iTunes installed, you can configure it to suit your preferences. Notice that the installation has placed the iTunes and QuickTime player icons (assuming that you accepted the default options) on your desktop.

To configure iTunes, follow these steps:

1.	Double-click the iTunes icon on your desktop. The iTunes software opens, and the first screen you see is the license agreement screen.
2.	Read the license agreement, and if you accept it, click Agree. The Welcome to iTunes page appears.
3.	Click Next. The Find Music Files page appears.
4.	Click Next. The Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized page appears.
5.	Click Next. The iTunes Music Store page appears.
6.	Click No, Take Me to My iTunes library. The iTunes library appears.

Note

Be careful with the Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized page. As the text onscreen tells you, if you change anything about a song file's name, iTunes will automatically reorganize your music. I prefer to control my music libraries, so I stay with the default setting here.

Note

This process could take some time if you have a lot of music on your computer. You might want to see if there is any other music you want to add to iTunes in your CD collection while this is taking place.

More About Music Files

iTunes stores music in the MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format by default. You have a choice when importing music from original media (such as CDs you own) as to which format they will be stored in. AAC is a wideband coding method that you should use as your preferred method of importing because the amount of data storage required for songs at high fidelity is lower than with previous MPEG standards. You also have the choice to import your songs in the MPEG-3 (MP3) and WMA formats. The reasons for choosing these formats vary; for example, if your WMA files are protected, you will not be able to convert them to AAC files. If you have a portable media player that is not compatible with AAC-encoded files, you will have to use either MP3 or WMA, depending on which is supported by your player.