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Copying music from CDs

Copying music from CDs to your hard disk is easy, and you can even listen to your CD while you are copying the music. Variables such as the CD you are trying to copy and the speed of your CD-ROM will affect the quality of the copy. Even though you are copying digital information from a CD, you may not get an exact copy. Some minor flaws that you may notice while copying CD tracks are faint scratches or pops in the audio. This is normal and is caused by the way your CD-ROM reads information off the CD. Windows Media Player attempts to correct this, but you still may notice very minor flaws.

Note   The tracks that you copy from CDs have associated licenses by default. The license enables you to play the tracks on the computer you used to copy the tracks and on a supported portable device. You should back up your licenses to a floppy disk periodically. If you reinstall or upgrade the operating system, your licenses could be lost. For more information about licenses, see Related topics.

If you want to listen to your CD while you are recording the tracks, make sure that you have Digital Copying selected; otherwise your computer will use analog recording. Depending on how your CD player is configured, there is a chance that you will not be able to listen to your CD while you are recording the tracks, especially if you have digital speakers. To check whether Digital Copying is selected, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the CD Audio tab.

Note   Your hardware (CD-ROM drive and speakers) determines whether you are able to copy and listen to music using digital or analog audio. You should select the settings that work best with your hardware.

To copy an audio CD

  1. Insert your CD into the CD-ROM drive.

  2. Click CD Audio. All tracks are selected if you have not previously copied tracks from the CD. If there are any tracks that you do not want to copy, clear the check box next to that track.

  3. Click Copy Music.

    All selected tracks are copied to the Archive folder and are listed in the Media Library.

    Note   To see or change the location of the Archive folder, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the CD Audio tab.

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