itunes question please and thanks

[SuePBlovesaDiamondJubilee]

Do not laugh at me, oh Geeky ones, but I am very dim at this.

I have just started using itunes with a second hand ipod. All good. When I put my cd collection on to itunes, does it then live there, or on the laptop I used to upload them? So could I access my songs from another computer with my itunes log in?

If so then presumably I could give away the actual cds as the music is held up in space somewhere and so safe?

Thank you for all patient advice.

It lives in the computer you stored them on, but you can access iTunes account on home sharing. We keep our music stored on hdd So as not to use up memory but it's more or less permanently connected so knows that's where at.
You could indeed give them away but might be worth storing a copy of them on all on a hdd incase your computer dies etc.

I'll be honest that I don't use itunes or have an iPod (but do use other mp3 players)....but if you have COPIED the files onto the iPod, then the music files exist on both your laptop and iPod.

If you copied the music files straight from the CD (So you loaded the CD into your laptop without copying the files onto your laptop) then the music files exist on your original CD and iPod.

If you CUT the files from your laptop, then the music files have been moved on to your iPod and no longer exist on your laptop.

Once your music is on the iPod then it will remain until you decide to delete it. You could then give away the physical CDs.

I hope I haven't confused you further! Oh, and no laughing at you, I understand your confusion! :)

Um. I don't know. I imported to Itunes and then synched the ipod so they are on both.

So I think I need back up either way, don't I?