Today we’ll learn about downloading music and podcasts. If you pay attention to headlines, you’ve undoubtedly seen or heard something about downloading digital music. While digital music is unquestionably the future of the medium, downloading copyrighted music without permission is illegal. With that said, there are plenty of sites that offer legal downloading of music and video. And the costs are usually lower than what you’d find in a store. Besides affordability, most people who download music are dazzled by the sheer convenience of the process. It’s so simple. And all you need is an internet connection. Just imagine. No more driving to the store, searching through the isles, waiting in line. I’m sure you get the idea. Downloading is also a great way to save space, as a single hard drive is noticeably smaller than a shelf full of CDs. Need a few sites to get you started? There’s plenty out there. Several popular ones are: Napster, Rhapsody, and Music Match. Perhaps the most versatile is iTunes, which not only offers music, but movies, TV shows and audio books as well. It also provides a convenient way to store, organize and play everything you’ve assembled. Rather than a website, iTunes is a free application, so if you don’t have it, go ahead and download it now. And… here we are. The iTunes store is open around the clock. Any your selection is downloaded to your computer immediately. Right in the middle here, you’ll find the single of the week. That’s a free download. And a great way to build your library. On the right hand side, you’ll find a section called top songs. Not sure how they decide on those, but you can sample each one before you buy it. Which is a nice feature. Now let’s go ahead and download something. On the top left there’s a music button, right here, that lets me choose a genre. I’m going to choose jazz, because, well, I like jazz. I’m going to click on one of the titles in top songs. As you can see, we’ve got a wealth of information here. I can click on the title, and listen to a sound clip. I’m going to go ahead and buy it for a whopping 99 cents. If this is the first time you’ve ever been here, you’ll need to create an account. Once you have one, the process goes even smoother. Pretty simple so far, right? So we talked about downloading music. But what’s a podcast? Glad you asked. Podcasts are essentially radio and TVshows, available for download from the internet. They’re slightly different from internet radio stations, which actually stream live content over the Web. While some web sites charge a fee for podcasts, the majority are totally free. And many pods allow you to subscribe. Meaning each episode is ready for download as soon its made available. Another plus with podcasts is that they download right on to your computer. This makes them easy to put on to an iPod, or any other MP3 player. You can listen wherever you are without being connected to the internet. If you’re still in the iTunes store, click on podcasts right here. And then, click a specific podcast to see a list of what’s available. Want a single episode? Click “get episode”, and you’ll have it in no time. Or if you’re certain you want to hear more, click subscribe. You can always go back and unsubscribe later, if that’s what you want to do. So that was a brief overview. In a future episode, we’ll talk more about podcasts, and even show you how to create your own. ‘Till then, happy downloads!