Some people made it aware that it’s not entirely known how to download music and import it into a person’s music player of choice, so I’m going to outline it below for Windows Media Player and iTunes. These instructions are assuming you’re running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, and all with defualt settings, though other versions of Windows should be relatively similar in procedure. If you’re using another operating system aside from Windows or Mac OS X, you’re nerdy enough to know this already and needn’t these instructions.
Downloading the songs:
Internet Explorer instructions
Firefox instructions
Download and extract .zip archives
Importing the music to your player:
Windows Media Player instructions
iTunes instructions
If you use another browser like Google Chrome (my personal recommendation),Opera, or Lunascape, then you’re nerdy enough to not need instructions; if you still use Netscape, shame on you. Get out of the 20th century. If you use a media player other than iTunes or WMP, sorry. Those are the only two I care enough about (as you should, too– anyone using RealPlayer should be flogged).
Internet Explorer
(Downloading individual songs)
To download (or listen), click on the link of the appropriate song. A player will appear along with a download link. Right-click that download link.
On the menu that appears, select “Save Target As…” A window will appear asking you where you’d prefer to save. Though you may save anywhere you choose, I suggest the desktop as that is one of the easiest areas to access.
Click the “Save” button, and then you’re at the mercy of your Internet connection. I pray that you’re not using dial-up (if you are, it’s time to get into the 21st century). Once the download is complete, you have now finished the ridiculously simple task of downloading a song. Now it’s off to importing it into your music library (the instructions for that are after Firefox’s instructions).
Firefox
To download (or listen), click on the link of the appropriate song. A player will appear along with a download link. Click that download link.
When a dialog box appears in the similitude of the one shown below, select “Save,” and then “OK.” Under normal settings, Firefox will save it to your desktop. If the download location is set to somewhere else, you’ll have to know that so as to move the music to your library later on.
Congratulations. You’ve just completed the wonderfully simple procedure to download a piece of music. Now, on to importing it into your library.
Windows Media Player
There are several ways to import the music to WMP, but this, I believe, is the best way. Under normal WMP settings, the music folder is located in My Documents > My Music (or {Username} > Music, for Windows Vista and 7 users). Click on My Documents (usually on the desktop, also able to be found in the Start Menu under normal circumstances); then open the My Music folder.
Once in the My Music folder, I suggest creating a new folder (right click in a blank space of the folder, and a menu will appear; select “New Folder”). Name the folder something defining the album (”WJHS Choir, 2009,” for example). Open that folder. Now, select the song(s) from the desktop (or wherever you’ve saved them) and drag them into the folder you just created.
Now, open up Windows Media Player. Under normal settings, WMP will slowly crawl through your music library and add new files, but if you want to make it do it quickly, use the following procedure:
First and foremost, download Windows Media Player 11 and install it. I command you to do it. If you’re using any version older than that, you ought to be flayed.
Now that that’s done, open your new version of Windows Media Player. Right-click on the top and select “Tools” and then “Options…” on the menu that comes down. A window will appear. Click on the “Library” tab of that window. Click the “Monitor Folders…” button. Another window will appear. Simply click “OK” on that window, and wait for the music to import.
Now, go into Windows Media Player where you can browse through your music, and viola! Behold; a miracle of modern technology.
Your congratulatory cookie is shipping via UPS.
iTunes
First of all, if you’re using iTunes, you should stop this instant and download Windows Media Player 11 or another player of your choice (aside from RealPlayer– garbage, that is). iTunes is a sickening media player that I hate with a passion– and no, not becuase it’s made by Apple (that’s a stupid, immature reason– funny, though). iTunes is the most inflexible and useless piece of junk I’ve ever used. Ah, well. Those of you with iPods have no choice– unless you hack them, of course, which is always a viable option.
Anyway.
The iTunes music folder, under defualt settings, is located in My Documents > My Music > iTunes > iTunes Music. To get there, click on My Documents (usually on the desktop; also accessible via the start menu), click on My Music, then the iTunes folder, and then iTunes Music. Easy.
Right click, and a menu will pop up. Select “New” and then “Folder,” and name the folder something appropriate (such as WJHS Choir, 2009). Now select all of the music that you downloaded onto your desktop (or wherever it may be that you decided to download it) and drag it into this folder.
Once the files are done moving, open iTunes. Select “File,” and from that menu select “Add Folder to Library….” A window will appear showing a view of folders. Go to “My Documents,” “My Music,” “iTunes,” “iTunes Music,” and then “WJHS Choirs, 2009,” (or whatever you decided to name the folder). Select that folder, and click “OK.”
Congratulations. You’ve now imported the music into your library. Whoopee.
How to Download .Zip Files and Extract the Contents
To save bandwidth and server space, our .zip (compressed) files are uploaded to a separate, free server. If the .zip files aren’t downloaded for a while, they’ll be deleted, so be sure to not wait too long. The individual MP3 files will stay online forever, though, so you’ll have those for eternity, essentially. If you absolutely need the .zip archives, an email address will be provided for you to email in case you need those files and they’re no longer online.
To download a .zip folder, simply right-click on the appropriate link, select “Save as…” or “Save target as…”, and save it wherever you choose.
Extract the MP3 files by opening the .zip archive, selecting all of the files within (press Ctrl+A), and dragging them out into the music folder that you wish to save them in (see the instructions for Windows Media Player or the instructions for iTunes and follow them from there to import the music).
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