Mac Daniel's Advice

Listen to the Music

Evan Kleiman - 2001.04.10

Q. All of my friends have been listening to music on their computers for a while now, and I'd like to start. What do I need to really enjoy computer music?

A. The biggest craze nowadays in the computing world, both PC and Mac, is music. With MP3s anyone can download their favorite music files (whether they're legal or not is another story). But, what do you truly need to get the best out of your freeloading music experience?

Step One: Get With The Program

The first step is to get a player for MP3s. It should have a play list and support ID3 Tags (those are the little things that tell your computer who sung the song, the album it's from, etc.), as well as many more features. The best program for this is also the cheapest one: iTunes. While Apple states that iTunes can only work with OS 9.0.4 and up, you can also make it work with your 8.6 system as well with a very nifty application called iTunes Mac OS 8 patch.

iTunes provides you with all of the basic features you'll need - and then some. It has a really great play list feature (you can make as many different play lists as you want), a cool way to sort your files by artist and album, built-in burner support, a cool screen saver, many more nice features, and, of course, the price is always right for iTunes!

Step Two: Get the Hardware

Unless you have one of the newest iMacs, you don't have the best sound quality out of your Mac's speakers, but this can be corrected pretty easily. All you need to do is go to your local CompUSA or Best Buy (or pretty much any computer store) and pick up a good pair of computer speakers. Don't make yourself crazy trying to find a pair of speakers that will work with the Mac; speakers for all computers are pretty much the same, unless you're looking at the new USB variety. The same speakers that will work with your computer will also work in your Portable CD player, MP3 Player, Eight Track Player, etc. The best type of speakers for you to get for your Mac are any type that are self-powered (i.e., they plug into the wall) and have a subwoofer. (I got a great pair a few years back at CompUSA for 50 bucks, and they work just great.)

Step Three: Get The Good Stuff

Now that you're done setting up your computer for your free-music experience, you now need to get your music. Napster is the premier file sharing service (while it lasts!) and is probably the best for getting your free music. You can download a copy from Napster.com. Once you've gotten it, set it up and download the latest Yanni song (or whichever Music you prefer).

After this, you're all ready to go. Sit back, relax, and watch the beautiful colors of iTunes swirl around the screen as you listen to your latest music downloads.

Links

For more on using iTunes, see iTunes, Part 1 by iBasic's columnist Micheal Munger.

Evan Kleiman has been writing for Low End Mac since January 1999. He also runs his own site, Evansite. Evan uses an iMac, along with some vintage hardware. You can read more about his computing experience in The Many Macs of Evan Kleiman.

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