How to Share iTunes Content on a Network

You can share your iTunes content (songs, videos, podcasts, etc.) with others over a network (wired or wireless). You can share content with PCs that run Windows or Macs that run OS X — as long as they run iTunes.

If your computers can communicate with each other over the network, iTunes can share a content library with up to five PCs in a single 24-hour period. The restriction to five in a 24-hour period is an imposed rule of record labels and video producers.

When you share content on a network, the content is streamed over the network from the computer that contains the library (the library computer) to the computer that plays it. A stream arrives in the receiving computer bit by bit; the computer starts playing the stream as soon as the first set of bits arrive, and more sections are transferred while you listen. The result is that the recipient hears music and sees video as a continual stream. Broadcasters use this technology to continually transmit new content (just like a radio station). The content isn’t copied to the receiving computer’s library, and you can’t burn the shared library songs onto a CD or copy the songs to an iPod without third-party software.

Sharing an iTunes library can be incredibly useful for playing content on laptops, such as a PowerBook, that support the wireless AirPort network. You can manage a very large content library on a desktop computer with a large hard drive, and then play content on the laptop or notebook computer with a smaller hard drive without having to copy files to the smaller hard drive.