OK, I've decided to get an Ipod for my teenage dd. I've never seen/held/heard one before... how the heck does it work? A co-worker tells me you hook it up to your computer and download tunes. OK, but don't you have to pay to do that? And does it take a genius to figure out how? My dd is in the same boat I am, so I can't just hand one to her and say go for it. Do I have to buy extra stuff in order for it to work? (I'm looking at the "shuffle" style...small and inexpensive). Anyone? Anyone? TIA

By Debbie on Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 09:57 am:

Janet, I have the shuffle. I got it at Target for around 100.00. It holds 120 songs. It comes with everything you need, but I would recommend also buying a case for it(I want to say it was around $20). It is plastic and will protect it. You can either download songs from the internet or download them from cd's. It does cost money to download music from the internet. It is .99 a song at itunes. It is pretty easy to use. I am not a big computer person and I found it easy to use.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 09:58 am:

Yes you have to pay for some of the songs. DD has taken CD's and made a mix on hers. Wal mart for example will sell you a single song for under a dollar. So if you think about how much a full CD cost and that you generally only like one or two songs on the CD it is cheaper than having to run out and buy that song they are dying to have.

There are some sites you can join for a fee with unlimited downloads.

Do a search for Napster, they charge $9.95 a month with unlimited downloads. But there are many other sites out there.

Here is a link, Apple Ipod and I tunes

It tells about the Ipod you are looking at and has music you can down load for a per song amount.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 10:00 am:

Walmart has downloads for 88 cents a song.

By Janet on Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 10:59 am:

How do you get the music from a CD to the ipod?
And what do you mean by "Wal-Mart has downloads?" You mean on their web site?
Debbie--THANK YOU!! I'm feeling better about this.

By Conni on Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 11:20 am:

Yes, Wal-Mart.com has downloads... If you already have alot of CD's- it'd be cheaper to rip them and you wont have to pay for downloads on the internet.

I have had a RIO for a couple of yrs and I find it holds plenty of music for me. It sounds similar to Debbie's.

As for RIpping from CD to IPOD I am not sure... my dh does all that for me. lol!! We also had ALOT of music downloaded before they started charging to do the downloads. So we just go pick music out of those files that we already had.

My ex got my 12 yo an RCA MP3 player for his bday last week. He has already figured out how to get music downloaded to it. My 13 yo has an MP3 player on his Christmas list this yr. lol I offered him mine so I could get a new one... but he didnt go for that. LOL

Enjoy!

By Debbie on Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 12:10 pm:

Janet, the shuffle will come with software to load on your computer. After you load the software, you just put your cd(that you want to download music from) into the disc drive of your computer and connect your shuffle to the computer. You will have an instuction book that will walk you through it step by step. It really is pretty easy.

By Janet on Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 02:39 pm:

Debbie, you need to work for them...you've done wonders to sell me! LOL Thanks to everyone for the info...thank you, thank you!

By Debbie on Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 05:38 pm:

LOL, Janet. I just love my shuffle. I use it each day when I walk. Since dh is working out of town, I had to figure out how to get new music on it!! Glad I could help.

By Karefl on Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 06:26 pm:

My son's (13 in January) Christmas IPod arrived today! I'm so excited! It's the ONLY thing that he's really asked for & I've convinced him that it's just not something that I think he needs & thus won't be getting! LOL I got one online Thanksgiving day from Circut City. It's shuffle that I got for $99 w/a free case.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 07:27 pm:

iTunes makes it very easy to download them from the cd, and then consequently burn a cd, or make a playlist. You just use a cable that connects the ipod to the computer to update the ipod with new songs. By default, when you connect the ipod to the computer, it will sync your ipod with what you have in itunes.