Apple iTunes

I've noticed, while talking to friends lately, that there is an assumption that iTunes is only used with an iPod.

This is not true.

If you don't have an iPod yet, you should get iTunes anyway. iTunes comes with a Mac, but you can download it for Windows too. Why would you do that?

Because, eventually you're going to get an iPod. And the first thing you're going to want to do, is load up all of your existing CDs on it. But, this can be a long process. It might take days or weeks to load in every CD. But it's all done with iTunes.

Using iTunes, on a computer that is connected to the internet, you can rip the CD music to MP3 files and iTunes will then grab the song titles, album title, genre, etc. from the internet. You can build playlists and listen to music on your computer, right from iTunes. You can make your own CD from iTunes as well.

But, one of the coolest things that I do, in my home, is use iTunes with the Airport Express. You'll need Wi-Fi on your computer, but then you can play the music through the Wi-Fi to the Airport Express. And you can hook in your favorite stereo system to the Airport Express. So now you can play a huge playlist, or shuffle through your music, or whatever you want. And play it through your stereo system, rather than your little computer speakers.

iTunes is free. Loading music takes some time. But, when it's done, you can look into an Airport Express or an iPod, and get some immediate gratification.