Do you love music? Your computer with the right speakers or head phones, can provide an excellant means to listen to your favorite CD! Simply pop it in the CD tray and the computer should automatically start to play. If not, use MS Media Player, or any number of music player programs to listen.

You might find the CD also contains video and interactive buttons to click much like a DVD. I've discovered a number of music CD's I bought had these features.

But that's not all!

You can 'rip' the music to your hard drive, then assemble your own playlist with music you want to hear. Media player has this function as do most music playing programs. Simply open the program and find the rip features in the command line of the program. This copies to the hard drive, and adding itself to the library the program will use to create and edit playlists.

With a high speed Internet connection, you can also watch music videos (see links), or listen to radio. There are millions of web sites that offer this for free at no cost. You can even listen to samples of music before purchase through www.amazon.com, often many CD's offer a free sample tune to download.

These links all include both music and radio. You will need to join in order to make playlists and create settings of preference. You'll be able to listen to radio stations specific to your tastes such as Blues or Country, or even World music or go further and find radio stations in other countries.

http://music.yahoo.com/

http://music.msn.com/

http://music.aol.com/

Your computer also has a 'recorder' program in the operating system. You will need a microphone in order to use this. Go to START>Programs>Accessories>Entertainment>Sound Recorder or go to START>All Programs>Accessories>Entertainment>Sound Recorder. Its fun to make the voice to slow or fast.

I often create playlists or listen to online radio while working on my PC. Enjoy!