Ipod Question

[TheRealDarkMavis]

I have no clue about this and hoping someone can help!

I have thousands of songs on my laptop and i'd like to put them on an ipod.

My DH reckon's i'd need to re-download all my music from Apple in order to get it to play on an ipod.

Can someone tell me if he's right, or whether i can transfer music directly from laptop to ipod?

TIA

Are the songs on your laptop on iTunes? Or on something else?

Your DH is wrong - for example, we copy/upload CDs onto iTunes and from there can put them in an iPod. But they do have to be on iTunes before they can go on the iPod, IYSWIM.

As Hassled said, your DH is wrong as wrong can be. Depends where on the laptop your songs are but essentially, you just need to drag them over to iTunes so they're all visible in the library, plug in your iPod and sync. Voila!

You can just drag the music from you computer into iTunes and from there they will go onto the iPod. The music is probably in MP3 format in which case they'll just work, or it might be in WMA format in which case it will probably convert them first (so it might take a while).

As Hassled says you need the music in iTunes but the music doesn't have to get into iTunes by being bought from the iTunes store.

You can download iTunes easily and for free - go to the Apple site.

Ooooohh right! Thanks so much for your replies - very pleased!

Right, so if i download iTunes I can put my music in that and, i guess, does it convert it into the right format or something??

Brilliant - so pleased. Just added a rather expensive idea to my Xmas list!

So, next question...!

I want to get an ipod and a docking station so that i can play music loudly (party loud). Any recommendations? I've no idea what to get. I've seen an ipod touch - is that better than the regular ipods? Sorry for being so non-clued up on this!

Thanks thanks thanks!

iirc when you first download itunes and start it up it will ask you if you want it to import all the music/ video files, if you click yes it will import all the music files it can find on your computer including the naff default sample tunes that are on the computer from new!

"Right, so if i download iTunes I can put my music in that and, i guess, does it convert it into the right format or something??"

It probably is already in the "right" format. Most music is in MP3 format and iPods can play that just find. Do you know what format your music is in? What's the full name of a file? MySong.mp3?

"I've seen an ipod touch - is that better than the regular ipods?"

Different, not better....

An iPod Touch is pretty much an iPhone without the Phone. You can download apps and games for it and browse the internet. But they're expensive, and if you've got literally loads of music it may not be big enough.

Thank you for your replies.

The file names are MySong.wma. Does that make a difference?

I don't really want to download apps or go online so i guess i'll go for a regular ipod!

"The file names are MySong.wma. Does that make a difference?"

It might...

Where did those songs come from? If you bought them from somewhere then they might be copy protected, and iTunes won't be able to import them. On the other hand if you ripped them yourself from your own CDs then they won't be protected and iTunes will convert them as it imports them.

I've had a closer look and it seems that songs i've ripped from CDs are .wma and songs that i've downloaded are .mp3 more or less.

Would i be able to download the iTunes thingy and see which/how many of my songs convert before buying the ipod/docker? I'd hate to spend loads on it and discover i can't play half my collection on it!

Thanks again.

If you ripped that music yourself then they really shouldn't be protected WMA files, so iTunes should be perfectly fine with them. As you drag them into iTunes it will convert them into a more friendly MP3 format (WMA is a very odd and slightly dead format). The MP3 tracks will be fine.

But yes you can download it and give it a go, I'm pretty sure they'll all go in without a problem.

You have to download ITunes. This will pick up your existing music and transfer them to your IPod.

"This will pick up your existing music and transfer them to your IPod."

It's worth pointing out that some music won't be able to play through iTunes without a bit of work first. Mavis' WMA files sound like they're going to be fine, but some WMA files aren't. And then there are some more obscure formats out there that it won't work with.

So if you do have a large music collection that isn't MP3 or AAC/MP4 files asking about compatibility is a very good thing.