Share iTunes music over a network

To share your music library using iTunes’ built-sharing, open iTunes on the computer that has the music you want to share. Then open the Edit menu and pick Preferences. In the dialogue box that appears, click the Sharing tab. Enable the option labelled ‘Share my library on my local network’ and leave the ‘Share entire library’ option enabled. Anyone connected to your home network will now be able to listen to this PC’s iTunes music collection, so if you want to limit access use the ‘Require password’ option.

Leave iTunes running on the first computer, then move to the second computer. Open iTunes and look for the first computer’s shared library under the ‘Shared’ label in the left-hand pane. If you can’t see it, check that this instance of iTunes is looking for shared libraries. Go to Edit, then Preferences and click the Sharing tab. The ‘Look for shared libraries’ option must be enabled. A shared library lets you play tracks from another computer as long as it is also running iTunes, otherwise the shared library will disappear.

A more flexible way to share an iTunes music collection is to share iTunes’ music library data, rather than just the music collection. This works best if you store your music on a shared external hard disk that plugs into your router. If you don’t have a shared network disk but still want to share the music (using your computer’s internal hard disk instead), skip to Step 8. Otherwise, start by creating two new folders on your shared network disk: one called iTunes and one inside it, called iTunes Music Library.

To copy your iTunes music collection from your computer’s internal hard disk to the new folder on the shared network disk, open iTunes and select Edit followed by Preferences. When the dialogue box appears, click the Advanced tab. Then click the Change button to choose a new location for your music collection. Navigate to and select the iTunes Music Library folder (the one inside the iTunes folder) created in Step 3, then click OK to close all dialogue boxes. Make sure the shared network disk has enough free space for the music collection you are about to copy.

Still in iTunes, go to File, then Library followed by Consolidate Library and when the dialogue box appears click the Consolidate button. iTunes will then copy the music stored on your computer’s hard disk to the folder on the shared network disk you chose in Step 4. Depending on how much music you have, this could take some time. When complete, iTunes will now be using the music stored on your shared network disk, but you will still have a copy of your music on your internal hard disk as a backup.

Exit iTunes and open My Computer. Go to My Documents, then My Music and finally iTunes and find the file called ‘iTunes Library.itl’ (the .itl file extension is important, since there is also an ‘iTunes Library.xml’ file that we don’t want). This file contains the information about the iTunes Music Library: the star ratings, when tracks were last played, playlists, and so on. Copy this file to the iTunes folder (not the iTunes Music Library folder) you created on your shared network disk in Step 3.

Next, hold down the Shift key and start iTunes. A dialogue box will appear asking you to choose an iTunes library. Click Choose Library and navigate to the ‘iTunes Library.itl’ file copied to the shared network disk in Step 6. iTunes will now store the music library information on the shared network disk rather than on your computer’s internal hard disk (though as with your original music collection, you still have a backup of your original library file). Now skip to Step 9.

If you don’t have a shared network disk, you need to share the folder that contains your iTunes music on your internal hard disk. Exit iTunes and open My Computer, then go to My Documents followed by My Music. Right-click the iTunes folder and select Sharing and Security. On the Sharing tab of the dialogue box that appears, click to enable ‘Share this folder on the network’ and ‘Allow network users to change my files’ then click OK to close the dialogue box.

Make sure you exit iTunes on the first computer, then move to the second computer. Hold down the Shift key and start iTunes. A dialogue box will appear asking you to choose an iTunes library. Click Choose Library and navigate either to the ‘iTunes Library.itl’ file in the iTunes folder on your shared network disk (see Step 6), or the ‘iTunes Library.itl’ file inside the shared iTunes folder on the original computer (see Step 8), depending on which method you’re using.

The second computer can now access the same iTunes Library data and music collection as your first computer, either on your shared network disk or the first computer’s hard disk. In either case, it is important to have only one instance of iTunes running at any one time, so be sure to exit the program on one computer before you use it on the other. If you don’t, you risk losing any playlist or rating changes you make in one instance of iTunes, as they won’t be saved to the ‘iTunes Library.itl’ file when the other iTunes instance opens it.