Posted Saturday, May 03, 2003

Cool Tool for iTunes 4 Sharing

Another one of the magnificent new features in iTunes 4 is the ability to share your music library with other computers on a network or with other people on the Internet. No, this isn't Napster-style sharing: Shared songs are delivered via streaming -- you can't download them to your hard drive.

One of the very best things about iTunes music sharing is that you can "publish" your music library -- or just selected songs or playlists -- so that other users can listen in. It's a fun way to share your musical tastes with people in your neighborhood or elsewhere on the planet.

iTunes is great at finding shared music libraries elsewhere on your network. But how can you find libraries over the Internet? That's where the cool tool comes in: a little freeware program named ServerStore allows you to view a list of publicly shared iTunes libraries. In my tests, some of the libraries weren't accessible, but many were. Seeing other users' music libraries and playlists appear in my own iTunes window was a real kick.

ServerStore is from the folks at The Little App Factory. Give it a try, and let me know how it works for you. (Note: To share your music library over the Internet, you definitely need a fast connection -- a DSL line or better.)