Old fool, still afraid of Apple Mac Sierra

Hello Jake,

thank you for your reply. I haven't looked at the link yet, I've been on here too long!

In simple terms, if I cannot use their Music service, without payment, I may as well take a closer lookout 5kplayer.com. Simply, I want to use a system that works similar to Windows Media Player.


Frank.

Frank, you may have misunderstood. iTunes will do exactly that, let you play your media with no cost. Period. End of story. Rip it or not. It will just play media for you. That's what it is designed to do.

Now, IF YOU WANT to subscribe to Apple Music subscription, you may, but you do not have to do that. I would strongly avoid third party software when what Apple provides works for your purposes. No need to complicate things and add alien software unnecessarily. That's just going to add complexities when Apple updates the operating system and the developer of 5kplayer.com lags behind.

But, it's up to you.

Hi Frank

iTunes, honestly, requires no particular skills. It does everything for you.

And it costs nothing - that is if you want to add CDs to iTunes, you get best quality reproduction; you choose which tracks to add, which to exclude.

Then, if you go in to the Store, you can search for any kind, genre or style of music you like. You can search on a composer, a specific title of a song, the name of an album, an artist - rally anything you can think of.

This brings up a selection of songs based on your search. You get 90 seconds of any track/song you want free. Like it? Cost = 99p. Don't like it = nothing.

You can therefore buy individual songs within an album, or the whole album. These are quickly downloaded in to your iTunes library.

Now "songs" is something of a misnomer. It could, indeed be a song by the Beatles or it could be a piano sonata, a classical overture (if short), a jazz piece or part of a symphony. You get the drift.

It costs nothing to import your own music and not much to download a "song" or a whole album.

After you've done that, iTunes will organise the music according to the definition of that music. But you can change that. You can create your own playlists - or let Apple Genius create a playlist for you based on your choice of music. No cost.

It doesn't stop there. You can rent or buy TV programmes, films, audiobooks; all media in fact.

As I've said before, 5kplayer is more geared to video than music although it will play both. Why bother with a third party app when iTunes does all that and more - and it comes free with Apple.

Apple Music is completely different. After a 3 month free trial, it costs £9.99 per month to access Apples 40 million albums from which you can play anything you want. Not for you (or me), but millions of others like it. Goodness knows where they find the time to listen to all of this!

Stick with iTunes, Frank. Until or unless you find it unsuitable after a fair trial.

Ian

I just plucked up the courage to click on iTunes icon on the dock. Up popped a selection of radio stations. I found one for Christian music. I clicked on the logo and a box appeared suggesting download all of the music you need, get 3 months free. Now, I don't want 3 months free music - I would like to find music available for free - and forever! How do I go about this if you please?

Click to expand...

No need to buy anything there Frank, and I'd avoid most such promo's like the plague — unless they would actually work for you.

iTunes includes free Internet Radio stations, some free some with ads and you can try them from here and then if you find some you really like, just add them to your iTunes favorites list for easy access.

Apple seems to like hiding some things so you should be able to get to the Internet Radio by using something like this:

EDIT:
Or maybe this I just found:
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19478?locale=en_CA

and THIS:

Did Apple move this feature to a different place in the user-interface, yet again?
Or did Apple remove this feature altogether?

Click to expand...

Nope, not removed…
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/298536/internet-radio-gone-from-itunes-12-7





- Patrick
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Hello Jake, hello Ian and hello Patrick,

first of all, I'd like to apologise, if you feel I'm ignoring you. That's not my intention. Ok, I'll not touch 5kplayer!

I'll definitely print off all this info ( that's what I like to do ). I need to knuckle down and get to grips, with what is for me, a new technology. Bear with me if I keep returning with more questions. So I can put a cd in the drive here and download whatever songs I wish to store on the Mac. So iTunes will automatically save my songs somewhere? Sorry if I'm dim, because I am.

Ok, I'd love to search for internet radio stations, and these can also be stored?


Frank.

Hello Patrick,

I've printed off the links you provided, and I've attempted to follow the instructions on the first link.

After I click on Library, I do not see Internet Radio. Also I do not see Edit. I bought my Mac last September, does my Music app need updating and how would I do this please?


Frank.

Deleted personal info.

Frank, a couple of things for you. First might seem a bit pedantic, but it's important to use terms correctly. Copying a track from a CD to a portable electronic format is called "ripping" not "download." The difference is key, in that you CAN download music from the Internet as well, through either iTunes and Apple's music store, or Amazon or other music seller. But if you buy or own a CD, to transfer that music to the computer for later play is called ripping.

Ok, pedantic mode off now.

iTunes will store the tracks from the CD as individual files with the name of the track from the CD in the iTunes library. Normally you just use iTunes to get to the music as it's the easiest and iTunes is actually a not bad player. But if you really want to mess with the files (strongly discouraged), then you can see where iTunes put the files on the Advanced tab of the iTunes Preferences pane. It will show you where the files are stored. If you move them, iTunes won't be able to play them because iTunes indexes where it puts things and goes back to that location to find them. So the recommendation is to just stick with iTunes. However, the files are actually there if you ever really do need to get to them.

Internet radio is found by opening iTunes and on the left hand sidebar where the word "Library" appears, click on "Library" and a new button called "Edit" will appear. Click on that then tick any box you want to see on the sidebar. Internet Radio is one of the options there. Untick anything you don't want to see.

Internet radio is just that, radio. You don't store it on the system, you just play it. There may be ways to record it, but I've never done that.

ckristoff said:

Hello Patrick,

I've printed off the links you provided, and I've attempted to follow the instructions on the first link.

After I click on Library, I do not see Internet Radio. Also I do not see Edit. I bought my Mac last September, does my Music app need updating and how would I do this please?

Frank.

Click to expand...

If you go to the link I provided above or this one repeated here, you should see an image and description as to how to add it back to the list if it was not selected as a choice.
It's under the subject:
Re-Add Traditional "Internet Radio" to the Sidebar
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/298536/internet-radio-gone-from-itunes-12-7


Apple tries to keep hiding it for some &^%$&f'n reason with each major iTunes update it seems.




- Patrick
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Hello friends,

I'm finally getting somewhere! It pays if I slow down and read properly the information you've kindly provided me with!

Patrick, I followed the link you supplied above, and I now know how to find internet radio. I clicked on BLUES and I'm given a choice of 79 stations - wonderful!

Another dumb question. I know that I can rip my own music into iTunes, I haven't tried it yet; after I've got music onto my Mac, would I be able to burn my own collections onto CDs or SD cards? I believe I'm under the impression that iTunes does not like that.


Frank.

Another dumb question. I know that I can rip my own music into iTunes, I haven't tried it yet; after I've got music onto my Mac, would I be able to burn my own collections onto CDs or SD cards? I believe I'm under the impression that iTunes does not like that.

Click to expand...

It' just "another question, " Frank!!! ;D

I don't do that stuff but I believe you can burn your iTunes music to disk etc. after it's been ripped that I believe iTunes might do when importing the music, and since Steve Jobs basically told the Digital Rights folks to shove it and their immobilizing attempts of the music recording industry.




- Patrick
======

The ripping process changes the CD files from one format to another. If your CD player can play MP3 files, then you can burn your own CDs of ripped music to make your own collections. You don't use iTunes to burn the CD, but some other product like "Burn" or Roxio Toast.

You don't use iTunes to burn the CD, but some other product like "Burn" or Roxio Toast.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the correct info Jake.




- Patrick
======

Yes Frank, there are lots of articles about issues with iTunes but that's mostly because it is so heavily used. The app itself us not flawed in any way. It is and always has been the most effective means of storing, cataloguing and playing music that you already own. My music collection dates back to the 60's and is over 80Gb in size. Of course this was all music that I owned in the form of CD's and records. iTunes provided portability on other devices like my iPhone and a safe way to store all my favourite music over decades.
On the other hand is it the best way to purchase music? I would say no, but that is entirely price related. These days with digital streaming radio stations and the number of online music libraries I find it hard to justify buying music at all.
I do use Spotify which is free if you don't want to keep the music you listen to. If you wish to download what you listen to a subscription will allow you to keep what you like for offline use so for a fixed price you could download a massive amount of music but you must use the app (which is free) to play it. The trend is leaning towards not owning music these days because of the erroneous assumption that everyone is online all the time. For example my son only has play lists on his phone. The free version of Spotify allows you to save playlists, when you want to play something it is streamed to your device but you don't own it and you can't save it.

PS. Have a look at this site and bear in mind there are lots of other alternatives but these are probably the top 5
https://freesiteslike.com/free-sites-like-spotify/

You don't use iTunes to burn the CD, but some other product like "Burn" or Roxio Toast.

Click to expand...

pm-r said:

Thanks for the correct info Jake.
- Patrick
======

Click to expand...

Hmmm…??? I thought something didn't seem correct from what I have read, and sure enough, one can burn ones music to CD right from iTunes itself and your music library, and right from the Apple mothership herself:
iTunes for Mac: Create your own CDs and DVDs

You can create these types of discs in iTunes:

Audio CDs, which you can play on any standard CD player.

MP3 CDs, which you can play on MP3-capable CD players or your computer. To burn an MP3 CD, all the songs on it must be in MP3 format. If your playlist includes songs in other formats, such as songs purchased from the iTunes Store, you need to convert them to MP3 format before you can burn them on a CD.

Click to expand...

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19494?locale=en_CA

and not much difference from an old article:
How to Burn a Music CD in iTunes
http://www.macinstruct.com/node/60

No need for third-party software with either.

EDIT:
And a illustrated method:
https://www.wikihow.com/Burn-an-Audio-CD-on-Mac-OS-X




- Patrick
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This thread has wandered thru many topics. We are going to close it now and if Frank has any more questions, he can start a new thread in the appropriate forum.