iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition

Chapter 5. MusicMatch Jukebox for Windows

If you’re using your iPod with Windows, you’ll probably have the most fun using Apple’s own iTunes program to rip, record, and organize your digital music files. This free program has more features than Napster’s software, no deliberately crippled features (like CD ripping in MusicMatch), and exclusive access to Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

Even so, there are some very good reasons why you might not want to use iTunes. For starters, it requires Windows 2000 or XP, which leaves several hundred million PCs out in the cold. Or maybe you’re perfectly content to keep your music collection in MusicMatch Jukebox Plus. (This might be the case if you were using MusicMatch before you got your iPod or if you started using MusicMatch when it was the only program that could talk to your iPod.)

This chapter explores MusicMatch Jukebox, which still works beautifully as a loading dock for the iPod. (Specifically, this chapter describes version 7.5, the last officially Apple-approved version for use with the iPod, and the edition that http://MusicMatch.com recommends for iPods. More recent versions of MusicMatch Jukebox work with the iPod, too, as long as you install the iPod plug-in software described on Section 5.1.)

Note

Like Apple’s iTunes Music Store, MusicMatch has its own online song store for legal music downloads. However, since http://MusicMatch.com’s downloads are copy-protected using Windows Media Audio format, you can’t play them on the iPod.

Introduction ...