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Purchasing Music

Purchasing music from the iTunes Music Store is not only simple, streamlined, and legal, it’s also affordable. No matter what song you want to buy, there’s never a question about how much it will cost. There are no monthly subscription fees, so you can buy as little or as much music as you want.
 
You can choose to download your music and charge it to your credit card immediately, or if you have a slow Internet connection, place it in a “shopping cart” for later checkout and download. If you have selected the shopping cart method, you’ll see an Add Song button rather than the default Buy Song button in the Price column.
 
 
 
Tips Step-by-Step
 
 

Give the gift of music

With the iTunes Music Store, you can purchase electronic gift certificates. Click the Gift Certificate link on the main iTunes Music Store page to get started.

Set up a music allowance

You can set up an iTunes allowance so that friends and family members can buy music without having to have a credit card. Monthly allowances can be purchased in amounts from $10 to $200. Click the Allowance link on the main iTunes Music Store page to get started.

Display album cover art in iTunes

Avid music collectors know how historically important album cover art can be. When you purchase music from the iTunes Music Store, album cover art is included. To reveal the Artwork pane, select one of the songs you’ve purchased and then click the Show/Hide Album Artwork button in the lower-left corner of the iTunes window. In the frame that appears, you’ll see cover artwork. You can easily switch between the selected song and currently playing song by clicking the header above the album art.

How do you know which songs you’ve already purchased?

When you purchase music, it’s automatically downloaded to your computer and placed in both your main iTunes music library and the Purchased Music playlist. The Purchased Music playlist is a great way to see which songs you’ve already bought.

Download reliably every time

Because the music you’re purchasing is stored on Apple’s servers, you’ll be sure to get speedy and reliable downloads. And you’ll also be sure that the audio quality is pristine because each song has been encoded with AAC compression. If a problem does occur during a download (you lose power, for example), the music download will automatically restart the next time you open iTunes.

If you connect to the Internet using a modem

If you have a slow Internet connection, you can store songs in a shopping cart for later checkout and download. In iTunes Preferences, click Store, and then select “Buy using a Shopping Cart.” Click the Shopping Cart icon that appears below the Music Store icon in your iTunes Source list to see the number of tracks you’ve selected and their total cost. When you’re ready, click the Buy Now button to purchase and download the songs in your shopping cart to your iTunes library.

Purchase a song from the iTunes Music Store by following these steps:
  1. Make sure you have set up your Apple account and have signed in to the iTunes Music Store.
  2. Search for a song you want to buy, select it, and then click the Play button to hear a preview.
  3. Click the Buy Song button in the Price column.
  4. Watch the iTunes display to monitor your music as it is downloaded to your music library.
  5. When your music download is complete, click the Purchased Music playlist that will appear in the Source list.
  6. Select the song you just downloaded, and then click the Play button to hear your new song.
  


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