And if you are the subscribers of Apple Music, have you ever played or synced Apple Music songs on your iPod? It is very easy to play or sync Apple Music songs to iPod touch, because you can download Apple Music app on touch directly, but not for iPod nano, iPod shuffle or iPod classic, because Apple Music songs are inserted with DRM protection.
ITunes allows you to download music to an iPod automatically or manually. Use an automatic download to transfer an entire music library or to choose selected playlists, artists, albums or genres from your collection. To download selected tracks, albums or artists, use a manual download.
Tips
To download music that isn't in iTunes, transfer it from your computer first. In iTunes, open the File tab. Select Add File to Library or Add Folder to Library, navigate to the music you want to add and select Open to add the music to your library.
Download Music Automatically
If you have enough space on the iPod, you can set iTunes to download your entire music library automatically. Alternatively, automatically download selected music by playlist, artist, album or genre.
Transfer Your Music Library
Connect the iPod to iTunes and select its icon to open its menu. Select Music in the Settings area.
Check the Sync Music button and select Entire Music Library. If available, check the box next to music videos to include videos in the download. If you've made changes to the iPod's settings, select Apply and then Sync to download the library; if you haven't made changes, select Sync.
Warnings
If your music library is larger than the free space on the iPod, you see an overcapacity message at the bottom of the screen. If you don't have enough space, switch to adding selected music or make a manual transfer.
Transfer Selected Music
Select the iPod's icon and open Music in the Settings area. Select the Sync Music button and then check the Selected Playlists, Artists, Albums and Genres button. If you're given the option to include music videos and you want to add them to the download, check the Include Music Videos box.
Select the music you want to add from the Playlists, Artists, Genres or Albums areas by checking its boxes. When you've chosen your selection, select Sync. If you've made changes to the iPod's settings, select Apply and then Sync.
Tips
- The capacity bar at the bottom of the screen shows how the music selection affects available space. If you go over capacity, remove music from the list to make the download fit.
- If you have free space on the iPod after your selection and want to fill it, check the Automatically Fill Free Space With Songs button. ITunes downloads your selection and then fills remaining space with random music from your library.
- As well as creating your own playlists, you can also set rules in iTunes to make Smart Playlists that update automatically when you add new music.
Download Music Manually
To download just a few tracks or albums to the iPod, make a manual transfer.
Go to the music you want to download in iTunes. You can add a track, album or artist. Drag the music up to the iPod's icon to open the iPod's menu at the side of the screen.
Drag the music down to the iPod's name in the Devices area of the side menu. When the iPod highlights blue, release your mouse to drop the music and transfer it to the device.
Tips
- If you can't manually download music to the iPod, select its icon in iTunes and open its Summary menu. Check the Manually Manage Music or Manually Manage Music and Videos box in the Options area, depending on the model of iPod. You can also check this option to override automatic download settings in iTunes and control all downloads manually.
- To add music without dragging and dropping, select the track, album or artist and right-click it. Select Add to Playlist, select the iPod in the list that opens and wait for iTunes to download the music.
- Unlike other iPods, the iPod Touch has an online connection, allowing you to download music purchases from iTunes from the device. Open the Music app and tap Store. Tap More and then Purchased. Select Music, tap Not On This iPod and go to the music you want to download. Tap the cloud icon to add it to the iPod.
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Just got a new iPod Nano, but now I’m trying to figure out how to get music onto it without having to buy every single song from iTunes. I can’t afford that! I have tons of CDs, how do I import a music CD into iTunes so I can copy it onto my iPod?
What a great question, and a great chance to get more familiar with your new iPod Nano (what color?) and how it works.
The most important thing to know about your new Apple iPod, whether it’s an iPod Touch, iPod Classic, iPod Shuffle or iPod Nano, is that it requires that you run a software application from Apple called iTunes to manage the content. There are some third-party apps, but in my experience, iTunes is way more reliable and easier to work with too. If you don’t yet have iTunes, go here: download the latest iTunes.
With that installed on your computer, the next thing to realize is that every single song, every single photo, every single video that you want to have on your iPod will also exist as a sort of “master copy” on your computer too. If you want to fill up a 16GB iPod with music, you’ll need space on your computer for 16GB of music too. No way around it: if you have only the tiniest bit of space available on your disk, it’s time to get a new, bigger one, or at least an external drive that’ll give you the space required.
Those are the basics. This also means that when you want to copy a CD onto your iPod, you need to take the intermediate step of actually copying it onto your computer. The good news is that iTunes does all the work, including figuring out the names of the individual tracks, so it’s pretty darn easy.
On my Mac, I launched iTunes then slipped a music CD into the slot. After a few seconds here’s what I saw:
No song names? No album name? What the deuce??
Before I show you how to fix that, let’s click on “Import Settings…” to ensure it’s configured as desired:
I am a fan of the AAC format, but if you think you might want to copy the song files onto non-Apple MP3 players (like your cell phone) you might instead pick “MP3” as the audio file to use when importing. When you’re done, click on “OK”.
Let’s fix those missing song names now. If you look on the “Advanced” menu, you’ll see that there’s an entry “Get Track Names”:
Select it and hope you don’t see this terrifically helpful error message:
Turns out that I had disconnected from the Internet, so the error is “can’t reach gracenote database”. They just, um, forgot the actual message. 🙂
I hook back up online and reselect “Get Track Names” and just a second or two later find that all those unknown track titles are replaced with the proper song and artist info:
How To Download Music To Your Ipod Mini
Terrific! Now I click “Import CD” on the lower right and find another possible problem:
Yes, I’ve imported this CD before. I can overwrite the old content with new, or skip the reimport. I’ll go ahead and import the Al Jarreau CD again so you can see how it works. After a few minutes, it shows everything succeeded by the small green icons:
Now we’re done with importing (or “ripping”) the music CD into iTunes. Next step is to get it copied onto the iPod Nano itself, which requires plugging in the iPod. It should show up in iTunes within a minute or two:
How To Download Songs To Your Ipod Without Itunes
There’s a lot to notice in that above screen capture. First off, on the left you’ll see the Nano has appeared – I named it “nero” – and I’ve clicked on it. Then along the top part, I have clicked on “Music” rather than staring at the “Summary” screen. Finally, I’ve scrolled down a bit to find the Jarreau album, and selected it under “Albums”.
All that’s left is to click on “Apply” and…
Once it’s completed – which is going to be super fast for just a single CD! – I can simply unplug the iPod Nano and enjoy the newly copied music.
Done!
I expect it’s obvious that over time you’ll doubtless end up with a ton of music on your computer, particularly as you swap CDs with your friends and scan your old library. Remember that you can select what to copy onto the iPod based on the type of music (Apple calls it “genre”), artist, individual albums, or you can even create playlists that are your favorite combination of artists and CDs. Have fun, it’s pretty compelling.
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