Digital music: Downloading your music

The iPod nano: Put your music collection in your pocket and take it with you

In the third part of our guide to digital music and downloads, we explore the world of digital music downloads.

- Part one: A perfect storm
- Part two: Managing your music
- Jargon Buster
- Frequently ask questions

As mentioned in the guide to managing your music, the iTunes software application works as a standalone tool on your computer. However, it is also the front door to the hugely popular iTunes Store. Most physical music stores, even the biggest, can only offer 10,000 to 20,000 pieces of music. iTunes offers more than three million pieces of music - and the total grows daily.

The iTunes Store lets you buy one song for 79p, an album, or a collection right up to the entire recorded output from the likes of U2 or Bob Dylan in one unique digital package. Better still, those songs are available immediately and they’re yours forever. Some albums come with exclusives such as extra songs, a digital booklet, videos and more.

Try before you buy

You can try before you buy, as 30-second samples of every song are available to listen to online and you won’t need any additional software. So if you’re not sure whether it’s the song you’re after, try before you buy. Of course, the faster your internet connection, the faster you can browse, sample and download the songs you want. A fast connection is also of great benefit if you’re interested in the music videos that are also available for purchase.

All downloads, both music and video, are guaranteed to be virus-free, which is something that cannot be true if you download music or video from illegal sources.

Better still, when you buy a song or album from iTunes, you receive all the related artwork for that purchase free of charge, and the song information is automatically imported into your music library in iTunes when you buy the song, album or video.

Free music

Some music is available for free from iTunes. Each week, iTunes offers a Single of the Week, which is free to download, so it’s always worth visiting each Tuesday. You can also get to this through our downloads page.

Downloading is as simple as selecting the songs you want and adding them to your virtual shopping basket. Once you’ve paid, the songs automatically start transferring to your computer. If you want, all this is possible in just one click. You’ll be able to play these purchased songs on up to five computers. If you want to play them on a sixth you’ll need to deauthorise one of the previous five. This is to help protect the copyrights of purchased items.

Music on the move

To take your music with you on the move, you’ll need an iPod, iTunes-enabled phone or another music player. As soon as you plug your music player into your computer, iTunes will recognise it and offer to copy your music on to it. However, music bought from the iTunes Store will only play on the iPod and iTunes-enabled mobile phone. The artwork and song details will also be copied across to your player.

You can share the joys of digital music through the iTunes Store as well. You can purchase an iTunes Store gift certificate for a specific amount, create an allowance for someone for a specific amount, offer all the songs in a playlist you created, and buy a prepaid iTunes Gift Card from a number of retailers. In each case, the lucky recipient will be able, once signed into iTunes as a member, to download the music or videos of their choice on to their computer.

For ease of use, peace of mind and value for money, it’s easy to see why iTunes is so popular with millions of music fans around the world.

- Download the iTunes software from Apple for free