iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer

If you want to share music with other users on your computer , then follow the steps below.

To share your music with other accounts on the computer

On Mac OS X

1. Quit iTunes.
2. Locate your iTunes Music Folder. It is stored by default in ~/Music/iTunes or ~/Documents/iTunes/.

   These folders cannot be accessed by other accounts on the computer. In order for other users to be able to access your music, you must move it to a publicly accessible location.

   The Public folder in your home directory (~/Public), or to another folder outside your home directory that other users have access to, such as /Users/Shared.

   Tip: The tilde "~" refers to your home folder. For more information see Mac OS X: Using Your Home Directory.

3. Drag the iTunes Music Folder to a publicly accessible location.

   Important: Do not move the iTunes folder, the iTunes 4 Music Library file or the iTunes Library.xml file.

4. Open iTunes.
5. From the iTunes menu, choose Preferences.
6. Click Advanced.
7. Click the Change button.
8. Navigate in the Change Music Folder Location dialog to the location of your iTunes Music folder.
9. Click Choose.

Repeat these steps for each account that is sharing music with other users.

Note: If multiple users of a computer are storing music in one folder, duplicate song files are generated when a user imports music from CD that has already been imported by another user.

See the "To listen to another account's music files" section below.

On Windows

1. Quit iTunes.
2. Locate your iTunes Music Folder. It is stored by default:

   Windows XP and Windows 2000: \Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
   Windows Vista: \Users\username\Music\iTunes

   Note: By default the Windows version of iTunes does not copy all of the music you add to your library to your iTunes Music folder. You can get iTunes to copy all of the Music in your library to your iTunes Music Folder (if you have enough hard drive space) by choosing Consolidate Library from the Advanced menu.

   The publicly accessible music folder is:

   Windows XP and Windows 2000: \Documents and Settings\AllUsers.WINDOWS\Documents\Shared Music
   Windows Vista: \Users\Public\Public Music

   These folders cannot be accessed by other accounts on the computer. In order for other users to be able to access your music, you must move it to a publicly accessible location.

   The Shared Music folder in \Documents and Settings\AllUsers.WINDOWS\Documents

3. Drag the iTunes Music Folder to a publicly accessible location.

   Important: Do not move the iTunes folder, the iTunes 4 Music Library file or the iTunes Library.xml file.

4. Open iTunes.
5. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.
6. Click Advanced.
7. Click the Change button.
8. Navigate in the Change Music Folder Location dialog to the location of your iTunes Music folder.
9. Click OK.

Repeat these steps for each account that is sharing music with other users.

Note: If multiple users of a computer are storing music in one folder, duplicate song files are generated when a user imports music from CD that has already been imported by another user.

See the "To listen to another account's music files" section below.

To listen to another account's music files

1. Open iTunes.
2. From the iTunes menu, choose Preferences.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Deselect the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library file" option.
5. Click OK.
6. From the File menu, choose Add File to Library.

   Note: Windows users can also choose Add Folder to Library to add a folder of songs.

7. Navigate in the Add File To Library window to the location where the other user's music is saved (the iTunes Music folder in the case above).
8. Click Open.

Repeat these steps for each account that is listening to shared music.

When another user of the computer has imported new music from CD, repeat steps 6 through 8 to add the music to your library.

A note about copyright
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