Burning a Compact Disc with Apple's iTunes

Apple's iTunes is useful for making audio compact discs. It is also a handy application for organizing a collection of audio files for computer playback, Internet radio, and music shopping. Best of all, it is free.

At the heart of iTunes is the application's Library, visible in the screen shot to the left. When Library is selected, a list of user selected audio files is displayed. The audio files can be categorized by song name, time, artist, album, and genre. The entire Library is resorted based on the highlighted category. This feature is handy when looking for a particular sound file.

Some important settings are available in the Preferences pane. Open Preferences by clicking on the main iTunes menu.

After selecting the Preferences pane, click on the Advanced icon at the top of the window. It is important to find the location of the iTunes Music folder. This is the location where any imported files will be stored. If the check box for "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" is selected, any file imported into the program will be duplicated and stored there. Press the Change button if another location is desired.

Another set of useful properties reside in the Importing section of the Preferences pane. In the pop-up menu categorized as "Import Using:," the type of audio file is determined. iTunes allows the user to convert any audio file into a variety of formats.

To make an audio compact disc, a new iTunes Playlist must be created. Go to the File menu and select New Playlist (cmd-n.) A new Playlist will appear at the bottom of the list in the Source section of the main iTunes window. Click and hold the name of the new Playlist to assign a new name. This serves as the name for the final audio compact disc. Any file from the Library can be dragged into a Playlist. Change the order of the audio files in the Playlist by dragging them.

At the right-hand side and top of the iTunes window (earlier versions) or at the bottom of the window (current version), Burn Disc is available. Click the button and follow the instructions in the display area. The compact disc tray will open and wait for the insertion of a disc. After the disc is inserted, you will be prompted to press the Burn Disc button again to begin the burn. When the process is finished, the newly created compact disc will appear on the desktop, and in the Source area of the iTunes main window. To eject the disc, press the eject icon at the bottom right of the main window.

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All screen shots © Apple Computer, Inc.