where’s the music?

My music collection is mostly all digital.  iTunes says I have over 2500 songs right now.  That’s everything, including holiday music and a bunch of WOW albums that may not have been listened to yet.  It’s awesome to be able to listen wherever I am in the house. 

Home Sharing!  The newest version of iTunes/iOS have a new feature that makes home sharing easier.  The great thing about this is that you don’t have to have the music synced ONTO my iPhone to listen.  Note: To use home sharing the same way as me, you should have iTunes 10.2.1 and iOS 4.3 on your iPhone.  I have a Mac, but it should work the same way with Windows. 

Setup:

• in your iTunes menu, under Advanced, click “Turn on Home Sharing”; sign in to your iTunes account, and “Create Home Share”
• on your iPhone, go to Settings.  Scroll down and tap iPod; under “Home Sharing” put your iTunes account username/password.

To use on your iPhone:

• go to the iPod app, and click More, then Shared (it’s a little house with a music note).  Select your computer name, and it will connect to that library.  Now you can pick any item that’s on your computer and play them over the iPhone speakers.

Similarly, you can control the music being played on iTunes (through speakers attached to that computer) with your iPhone using the Remote app. 

• in your iTunes preferences, click on the Sharing tab.  Check the “Share my library on my local network” and you can pick all or some of your music.
• on your iPhone, download the “Remote” app from the App Store.  (It’s created by Apple Inc. when you search)
• To use: in iTunes, start some music or podcast playing.  Open the Remote app on your iPhone.  Notice it connects to your music library and you can pause, go through tracks, change the volume, etc.  Also, if you don’t have music playing yet, you can start a song or playlist directly!

my iPhone is never far from me!

In our house, here’s what we have set up.  All the music is on either my computer or Eric’s and shared for streaming.

In the office: Use iTunes directly to play out of the speakers hooked to my computer.  If I’m on the couch, I may use Remote to switch things.

In the craft room: Use an AV cable to plug my iPhone into the stereo under my copier.  I can use home sharing to listen to anything from my library

In the bedroom: Use home sharing to listen to anything from my library over the speakers of my iPhone.  (not ideal, I need speakers there!)

When I’m downstairs: Use the Mac mini hooked to the TV to listen to anything from mine or E’s libraries and the Remote to more easily switch things up while I’m anywhere in the general area.  But I do get lazy when I’m going between upstairs and downstairs and just play out of the speakers of my iPhone.

In the car: Plug my phone into the car stereo so the music goes through the car speakers.  I sync my very favorite songs or albums to my phone to be ready.