My main work machine is a MacBook Pro with a 160GB hard drive, but it’s owned by the company, so I can’t--nor do I want to--fill the whole thing up with my own iTunes music. I’ve got a few gigs on there, but listening day in and day out (my headphones are like loyal, cherished friends), it’s easy to get tired of the relatively small selection.

Luckily, Simplify Media makes it easy to share my home library with my laptop--and even my iPhone--over the Internet. I’ll show you how to set it up, so you never have to be without access to all your Weird Al albums ever again.

Difficulty Level:
Easy

WHAT YOU NEED:
> Simplify Media (free, 
www.simplifymedia.com)
> An iTunes library you want to share, housed on a computer with a persistent Internet connection
> Optional: Simplify Media app for the iPhone or iPod touch ($3.99 in the App Store)

You know what to do.

1. Get It
Start at the Mac with the big iTunes library that you want to share. Download the Simplify Media app from www.simplifymedia
.com. It requires Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) if you’re running iTunes 7 or later, which you probably are--the current version at this writing is iTunes 8.1. Install it in the normal fashion.

Remember this login info.

2. Fire It Up
Launch Simplify Media, and follow the prompts to set up an account. Write down your username and password, because you’ll use this info when you set up Simplify Media on the devices you’ll be streaming the music to.
On the next screen, you can ignore the Display Name and Email Address fields for now (the Email field may come in handy if you want to invite friends later—see step 7). In the Computer Name field, enter a nickname like HomeMac or WorkMac.



Yes, I know, my collection is huge.

3. Share It

The next screen asks you how much you want to share—only certain playlists, your whole iTunes library, or even your whole Music folder. If your selection is large, it’ll give you a warning that the setup could take a little while.

The Media List window is just what it sounds like.


4. Check It
Once everything is set up, Simplify Media gives you a few screens of instructions to read and click through, and then all you’ll see when the app is running is the Media List window, which should show your account name and the library you’re sharing, with a green bar next to it to show that it’s available.

Now I’ve got Simplify Media running on my iMac at home (HomeMac) plus my work laptop (MacBookPro).

5. Set Up Another
Now it’s time to download and install Simplify Media on the machines that you want to stream this shared music to. Switch to the Login tab since you already have an account, and log in with the username and password you set up in step 2. You can share this machine’s library too, if you want, but it’s not required. You can use your Simplify Media to log in on up to 5 devices, and the app is available for computers running Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.

Click the little arrow to the left of the shared library name to see its playlists.

6. Stream It


That’s about it. Now just open iTunes and look under the Shared list in the sidebar to the left, and you’ll see your shared libraries. Click one to connect to it, press Command-B to show the browser panes to help you navigate it, and then play the songs to your heart’s content. Note that Simplify Media won’t stream videos--just music--and you can’t actually download the files or add them to an iPod this way.

Find your friends by searching for their screen name, or sending them an email invite.

7. Spread the Love


You may have noticed the Invite button on the Media List window. If you have friends who also use Simplify Media, you can add each other’s shared libraries to your Media List, and they’ll also show up in iTunes, ready for you to stream. The app lets you invite up to 30 friends.

Now my laptop’s “4- and 5-star songs not on iPhone” playlist is on my iPhone after all! Sort of.

8. iPhone Home


If you’ve got an iPhone or iPod touch, the Simplify Media app ($3.99) lets you stream your shared libraries to your device, either over Wi-Fi or the cellular network (using the cell network requires an iPhone, of course). Since the iPhone tops out at 16GB of storage, this is handy, but you’ve got to keep the Simplify Media app open the whole time you’re listening, and obviously it doesn’t work in Airplane Mode.

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Want to download the songs too?

Get your Mojo workin’.


The utility ourTunes lets you download songs from shared iTunes libraries on the local network, but it hasn’t worked since iTunes 7. What if you sync your iPod with your laptop, but the music you want is on an iMac?

Mojo (free, www.deusty
.com) lets you connect to the iTunes libraries of other computers on the network running Mojo, and you can browse their selections, listen to music or watch videos right in the Mojo window, or even download the tracks to your own machine. (Grayed-out tracks already exist on the client machine, black ones don’t, and red tracks are protected files you can’t download.)

Mojo is supposed to work across networks too, but we had some trouble getting it to work from behind our office firewall. (Check the developer’s forums for help, but even the developers themselves admit it won’t always work on all setups.) On the local network, it’s seamless, thanks to Apple’s Bonjour, so it can replace ourTunes that way.

Please don’t use Mojo to pirate music--respect copyright holders’ rights, and don’t exceed your own fair-use privileges.