n00b iTunes question

[mangoSharingan]

Hi, I got my iBook today and I'm having so much fun. Anyways, I would like to know whether it's possible to pop in an audio CD to listen to, or even just listen to an audio file already stored on the hard drive without iTunes creating some folder with the song filed moved/copied to there? I'm thinking it might be something to do with iTunes always importing songs and putting them in different places. I simply just want to open up a song or stick in an audio CD and listen to it using iTunes and then the next time, nothing has changed.

I know that iTunes is highly recommended here on the forum but if this annoying little thing cannot be resolved, then I was wondering what else I could use? I wished that Winamp had a Mac OS X version....

 

[trpnmonkey41]

Ummm iTunes does not import the songs to the computer unless you press the import button.

When you put the cd in the computer click the CD in the source bar on the left side of iTunes and just click play.

As for the songs creating the folder go to the iTunes preferences -> advanced and uncheck the box that says copy songs to the iTunes library when adding to library

 

[mangoSharingan]

Cheers, I think that last part there solved it. I think the problem was that everytime I used iTunes to play something, it was added to the library and then a copy of the file was made in the iTunes folder.

Finally, is it possible to clear the playlist and start a new one everytime you select a song or a few songs to play on iTunes? I never really liked that playlist thing in Windows Media Player and found the one on Winamp to more of my liking. For example, in Winamp, I could easily just drag or open a few files in Winamp and it DOESN'T add to the previous session's playlist. I hope you understand what I mean, lol.

 

[technologist]

Open iTunes Preferences
Under "General," look for the popup menu labeled "On CD Insert:"
Select either "Show Songs" or "Begin Playing" from that menu.
iTunes will now either display, or begin playing songs without importing them (unless you click Import, as trpnmonkey said.)

For audio files on the hard disk (AIFF, WAV, MP3, AAC) you can play them in the Finder's Column view (View > as Columns) or by opening with QuickTime. (Control-click, then Open With > QuickTime Player)

If you often listen to audio files on the HD, and don't want to have to do this often, you can Get Info on files of a given type and set QuickTime Player to be the default application to open that file type. (iTunes will still be the default player for files in its Library)