Playing music from CDs

You can use Windows Media Player to listen to and watch your favorite music. You can even automatically skip tracks that you do not like. While playing music and other digital media files, you can use crossfading to blend the end of one track into the next track that begins to play. 

When you insert an audio or data CD into the CD-ROM drive, playback of the CD begins automatically if each of the following items is true:

• The Player is not already in use.
• The Player is the default player for CDs.
• The Player is the default player for music CDs (applicable only on versions of Windows that have an AutoPlay feature).

The Now Playing feature is displayed when the Player starts. Now Playing displays the name of the artist and the title of the track, if they are available, the playlist, and a visualization or the Info Center View pane.

Notes

• To set the Player as the default player for CDs, in the Options dialog box, on the File Types tab, select Music CD Playback.
• You can use the Player to play your High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) CDs which have a fuller, richer, more enhanced audio quality. For more information about HDCD, see the HDCD Web site.
• Enhanced audio playback is only available on select versions of Windows. For more information, see Special features.

This section covers:

• To play a CD
• To skip certain tracks on a CD
• To play tracks in a different order
• To use digital playback
• To eject a CD

Related topics

• Using CDs
• Setting options for copying CDs
• To configure the Player to play HDCD CDs using 24-bit audio
• Info Center View pane
• Copying music from CDs
• Using audio crossfade
• To change the file types the Player plays automatically
• Setting file type options