Digital music: Jargon buster

Below are a series of terms that often crop up as jargon related to digital music and downloads. If you have any you'd like to add to this list, please email us at UKMusicTalk@aol.com.

AAC: Advanced Audio Coding - the music file format used by the iTunes Store and default format for music that you import or rip into iTunes from CD. Other file formats can be specified.

Copyright: The exclusive rights of the owner of a work to make and distribute copies, prepare derivative works, and perform and display the work in public.

Burning: The process of making a permanent copy of music on to CD.

Digital audio player: Also known as MP3 players, digital audio players come in many shapes and sizes, the most popular and widely used of which is Apple’s iPod range.

Downloads: Digital copies of songs and musical pieces transferred over the Internet.

DRM or Digital Rights Management: A software solution to restrict the usage and transmission of digital music files.

iMix: A playlist of songs that you can also share online through the iTunes Store with other users.

iPod: Apple’s digital audio player range that includes the video iPod, the nano and the shuffle, offering you a variety of forms and functions at different prices.

iTunes: Apple’s digital music management software.

iTunes Store: Apple’s online store available through the iTunes software.

MP3: The most common format for storing music on a computer.

Playlist: A user-created collection of songs from a music library.

Rip/ripping: The slang term for copying the music from CD on to a computer.

Smart playlists: A feature of iTunes that builds playlists automatically on the criteria set by the user, ie most played, most highly rated, etc.

Tagging: The ability to add information to a song in your music collection, such as ratings, genre, your notes, etc.

WAV: A digitised sound file format predominantly used by Microsoft Windows.