I still buy CD's - help drag me into the right century!

[blabalalalablabla]

My name is Bla and I still buy CD's.

I used to be really up to date with technology - but then motherhood intervened!

So what do I actually need and how does it all work?

I have a laptop and an htc desire - Do I need to buy an ipod?

I have vague memories of itunes stuffing up my old laptop - do I need itunes to download songs or can I use something else? What happens if my laptop dies - do I lose all of my songs?

Please someone take pity on me and explain it all in very simple language.

I still buy CDs... If you want a full CD it's not that much different in terms of price and I like having the physical product.

However for individual songs buying online is great and cheap.

You can do it via iTunes, but you don't have to. Amazon.co.uk and Play.com both sell legal songs and they're all about the same price.

Amazon, Play and iTunes all sell music in a format that many MP3 players can handle, the music isn't locked and you're not prevented from using it on whatever player you like as long as that player can play the format that it comes in .

Amazon and Play work through their usual web sites and they sell MP3 files. Pretty much any portable player in the world can handle them. You can even load them into iTunes and copy them onto an iPod if you want.

iTunes is probably the easiest tool to use to buy music. It makes finding and buying things a doddle. iTunes works best with an iPod but the music does come in a standard format (MP4 or AAC) that many different players can play not just iPods. Using an iPod makes getting the music onto it very very easy, but getting it on to something else is still pretty easy.

How's that for a starter?

Hmm - not bad - although you've lost me already on the formats :o

For example - I've copied some albums onto my laptop and then transfered them onto my phone and used the mp3 format (as it was the only one I recognised) - so would I be able to download songs from itunes onto my htc as well as laptop/ipod/whatever?

I'm probably still more likely to buy cd's rather than individual songs though.

What has prompted my question is that dh and thought about treating ourselves to a new stereo as ours are all old and knackered and still have tape decks -seeing as most of them come with ipod docking stations I was wondering if it was worth making the leap...

So, if I download an album from amazon I could still copy it onto a disk and play it in my car for example?

(see I really don't know how stuff works )

"so would I be able to download songs from itunes onto my htc as well as laptop/ipod/whatever?"

iTunes will sell you music in MP4 (AAC) format. Your HTC might be able to handle that (if you give the exact model or look in the instructions it will probably clarify). If not iTunes can convert the music you have bought into MP3 format, it's a bit fiddly, but not too bad.

Amazon and Play will sell you music in MP3 format and that'll go straight on.

"I'm probably still more likely to buy cd's rather than individual songs though."

If you're going to buy a whole CD then do consider getting a proper CD, I think they're much nicer :)

"seeing as most of them come with ipod docking stations I was wondering if it was worth making the leap."

Most stereos will also come with a way to plug in any MP3 player. The Dock makes it all much easier and neater and with other players the stereos remote wouldn't control the music (just the volume) but it's not impossible with other devices.

"So, if I download an album from amazon I could still copy it onto a disk and play it in my car for example?"

Yes.

Using something like iTunes (even if you buy from Amazon you can copy it into iTunes) you can burn your music onto a CD that will play just about anywhere.

However some cars and players can now play CDs that have MP3s on them, and some can even handle MP4s.

Why do this?

Well one CD could hold a lot more music in Mp3 format than it could as "normal" music.

Thank you - that's sounds like the basics covered :o

Off to digest - I'm sure I will be back with more questions.

One more quick question - Can I use something like windows media player to convert mp3 onto a format suitable for burning onto a cd and playing on a regular cd player?

"Off to digest - I'm sure I will be back with more questions."

No problems.

"Can I use something like windows media player to convert mp3 onto a format suitable for burning onto a cd and playing on a regular cd player?"

Yes I believe that you can, it's quite a common thing to do.