Digital music: A perfect storm

There's no need to keep piles of CDs stacked up around your house

In the first part of our three-part guide to digital music, downloads and iTunes, we explore the background to the digital music we can enjoy today.

- Part two: Managing your music
- Part three: Digital downloads
- Jargon Buster
- Frequently ask questions

The digital music era began with the release of the first compact disc (CD) in the 1980s. Music had shifted from being a physical imprint on vinyl to a digital imprint on a CD. A laser read the 0s and 1s, and consuming music was changed forever.

The development of the internet was the second part of the perfect storm, which has created the music world we're in now. Sharing of information and data, those 0s and 1s again, became easier and faster, and internet usage grew as quickly as CDs sold.

The third part of the perfect storm was the widespread adoption of CD drives in everyday computers. Suddenly, music could be played on, copied through and shared using a computer, which in turn was connected to the internet.

Breaking the law

As internet usage and available speeds increased, an increasing number of people began to share their music collections. The software application that kick-started that sharing was the original Napster, which allowed you to see what music was available on computers connected to the Napster system and copy it to your computer.

Copying the music, as far as the UK was concerned, was breaking the law, but sharing that music was a further infringement on copyright laws. Napster made it so easy that at its peak 60 million people were sharing copyright-protected music via Napster - all illegally.

Swiftly, the music owners shut down Napster and started to offer legal alternatives. However, the limited range of music, competing formats and confusingly difficult music management software meant that legal downloading of music was a slow starter.

And now...

Internet speeds available now mean that downloading large digital music files is easier than ever before. Better still, the new legal download services provide a very broad and deep catalogue of music. Even the biggest high street music store will only be able to offer 20,000 titles, while digital music services can offer in excess of 3 million titles. Whole new breeds of digital audio players, such as Apple's iPod range, mean that you can carry around your entire music collection in your pocket.

What do you need?

Entering the digital music world is very easy. You need a computer with plenty of storage space, a CD drive, music management software, such as iTunes from Apple, and a fast internet connection, though as you'll see this last one is not a must-have.

If you have CDs, you already have a digital music collection. To make that available to use on a digital audio player, or simply through your computer, all you'll need to do is put the music CD into your computer's CD drive and download free music management software such as Apple's iTunes. That software will then make a copy of the music on your computer.

You can then put the CD away on the shelf. The more CDs you copy on to your computer, the more music you have available at your fingertips. You can then create personal playlists of your favourite songs, whether by band, mood or genre. Through the computer, you can listen to your music on headphones or connected speakers, or feed it through to your existing stereo system.

Again, using the iTunes software, you can create your own CDs to enjoy in the car, for example, or copy your music on to a digital audio player. You'll quickly discover that having your music collection available at the touch of a button is nothing short of magical.

To discover just how easy and fun manipulating your songs this way can be, check out the second part of our guide, all about managing your music.

- Download the iTunes software from Apple for free