The Miracle Of iTunes Home Sharing

If you're like me, you love your music library.  I organize every single song down to its genre, date of release, track listing, etc.  Example: "That song isn't rock, it's alternative.  This one isn't punk, it's ska."  I freak out if a song doesn't have its correct album artwork.  Some people say I have "Music OCD", maybe I do.  Either way, when I got my new MacBook, one of my biggest worries was transferring my iTunes library.

First I tried connecting an ethernet cable between the two computers.  That didn't work.  The computers said it worked, but it didn't.  What the heck.  Next, I tried external hard drive.  Here's a little hint, if you have over 1GB of music, don't transfer it with a 1GB hard drive.  That would have taken several more hours than I had already spent on this seemingly impossible task.  I was fuming by this point because I followed several step-by-step tutorials on this task, they failed.  I started getting mad at people and it all went downhill.

Finally, I discovered my savior, iTunes Home Sharing.  I was able to use Home Sharing to copy every single song from one computer to another over a wireless network.  This practically saved my life.  If you ever get a new computer, you need this.  If I had known about this before, well let's just say I wish I had.  Anyways, follow these words of wisdom if you ever need to transfer a lot of music.

A Single... Or Two?

Whenever a single that peaks my interest is released, I buy it from iTunes. I have no record stores located anywhere within my area. Even with the recent raise in price (29 cents), I'll buy it if I'm interested in the upcoming album. I have no problem with the fact that I'll buy that same exact song on disc later. That's just the way it goes. But when the artist releases a single several months before the albums release date and then releases another, I have a problem. The artist may even release half of the album in the form of digital singles. Why would I buy these songs if I have the intent of buying the full album? This new money making scheme occurs mostly in very mainstream pop artists that I don't listen to, but every once in a while, it will hit one of my favorite bands. The most recent would be Flyleaf. One event that confused me the most was when Jason Mraz released several digital EP's containing songs from his newest album, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things. Almost the entire record was available digitally before the physical album was released. I only bought I'm Yours. I guess this is just another business move to make more money. The one thing that record companies don't realize is that they are risking a lower amount of sales when the album is released. Oh well, I'll just continue buying the first single and waiting a little longer for the rest.