I am the music man (iTunes)

Member Name: wendz86

Product:	iTunes
Date:	08/08/09 (109 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, lots of playing options

Disadvantages: None really

I first got i-tunes a few years ago when I decided that i wanted to start downloading songs to listen to on my computer. I was at uni at the time and other people that I lived with recommended i-tunes to me and so I decided to give it a go.

I-tunes is an application that you can download onto your computer. It is free to download and all you need to do is go on to the apple website and download the latest version. The download doesn't take long and then the application is on your desktop. A little icon appears on your menu and also you can have it on your desktop so that you click this, which opens the programme up.

I-tunes is basically a music player that you can use to store and listen to your music. You can get music onto the player by either downloading it, importing it from other files or importing it from a cd. I like the fact that I was able to get music from all areas and put this onto the player. It didn't have to be music that I had purchased. If i get CD's, which is very rarely now I just put these into my computer and then import the songs on. This means that I don't have to worry about finding the CD every time I need to listen to it. I also imported all the music I had previously downloaded into the player. It is really good that you can have all your music in one place.

I-tunes has its own store as well that you can download from. This is easilly accessed by just clicking on the i-tunes store logo on the left hand side. Once inside the store there are many ways to find what you want to download. On the home page there is an option to browse so if you know what you are looking for you can go straight to it. There is also a list of the top songs and the top albums so if you want to see what is popular you can choose one of these. I tend to choose most of my songs from the top songs page, as I like to keep up to date downloading new songs. I like that these are on the first page so you don't have to go searching for them. If you want to see what a song is like you can listen to a 30 second sample of it. I think this is really good as you can check if it is the song you were looking for. If you haven't heard the song before you can also listen to it to see if you like the song.

The songs and albums are all available at a cost. You have to register your card to be able to purchase these. You can also purhcase vouchers to use, although I have not used these before. To buy one song it costs 79p, which although isn't extremely cheap, especially when you buy a lot of songs. It is though a lot cheaper than buying a single on CD in a shop. Albums are also generally cheaper than CD's in the shop, although not much cheaper than places like Asda etc. These can be purchased for around 7.99. I like the fact that you can also choose individual songs from the album as this isn't an opportunity you would usually have.

I think that the i-tunes shop is really easy to use once you get used to it. It does look a little complicated to start with as there are so many options but once you get used to it, it is easy to use. The prices are reasonable and I find that I use the store a lot to download songs that I want.

As well as music there are also a number of other items that you can download. These include films, TV programmes, music videos, audio books and podcasts. All of these are available at different prices.

I-tunes allows you to sort your music out. You can actually ask it to do it itself and sort your music into different categories. I found it got a little confused with some of the music I had downloaded before and these were in different categories to those I would put them in. Personally I sort my music by creating playlists for different moods and different types of music. These playlists are great as well for if you are having a party and want to choose all the music in advance so you don't have to worry about it during the party. There are also options like top played songs and top rated. I once went through all my music and rated it all, took a long time and I was quite bored at the time. It does mean that when you go onto shuffle it can pick up the songs you rate higher more, so you get to listen to mainly songs you like more. I really like the shuffle option as it means you don't have to listen to the same music over and over again, instead you get surprises of songs that you haven't heard for ages.

A new thing that has recently come to i-tunes is Genius. You can select a song on Genius and it will select a playlist of similar songs. I really like this feature and again it shakes up my music listening a bit.

I had i-tunes a long time before I actually had an i-pod but it has become of even more use since I have had it. I can now put all the music I have downloaded etc straight onto my i-pod. It is really easy to do, it just needs to be plugged in and then the music can get dragged straight over. I am not brilliant at technology but I have found this incredibly easy to do.

Overall it is a great application to listen to your music on. It is easy to use and organise your music. It does many things that other players don't do, which makes it much more exciting. It also has the i-tunes store which enables you to download pretty much any song you want.

Summary: A great music player

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