Synchronise a PC with a portable music player

To add a song, album or playlist to the player, go back to the Sync tab. You will see the pane on the right change to become the Sync List. Anything you drag here will be added to the player.

Drag playlists from the pane on the left, or click the Library entries and find songs or albums to drag across.

When you are done, click the Start Sync button at the bottom to copy them across. You can remove tracks from the player by opening the list of tracks in the Sync tab, selecting the song to remove and right-clicking it.

WMP will add album cover artwork to your music, as long as your player supports this. It will do this automatically ­ if it doesn’t, make sure it has art for your tracks: right-click a track in the Library and click Find Album Info, then follow the prompts.

Proof of purchase
Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a way for the music industry to control the way we listen to music.

Because MP3 music files can be freely copied, the industry developed DRM so that while the files themselves could be copied, they could not be played on every computer. In order to play a protected download you need to prove you bought the song ­ this is normally done by signing into the service from which you purchased the track in the first place.

If you’re using Winamp, Windows Media Player or a similar player the program will prompt you for your username and password, or if it’s the computer on which you originally bought the track it may have been authorised automatically.

You may not be able to transfer these tracks to your player ­ Windows Media Player should warn you of this when you try.

Nowadays many services, such as Amazon Downloads and Apple's iTunes Plus, supply songs in a format that can be freely copied (although tracks are usually invisibly marked with the user’s details to limit piracy).

For more information on synchronising your portable media player visit the Windows Help and How-to site.

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