How to Back Up Songs Purchased from the iTunes Store

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By eHow Contributing Writer

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Now, iTunes 7 offers a new way to back up your iTunes library, playlists, and iTunes Store purchases for safekeeping. The "Back Up to Disc" feature saves your media to a blank disc (CD or DVD) and once backed up, iTunes can use your backup disc(s) to automatically restore your iTunes library.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Step 1

From the "File" menu, choose "Back Up to Disc."
Step 2

Select the option you want from the resulting dialog and click "Back Up." In this case, "Back up only iTunes Store purchases."
Step 3

Insert a blank disc (CD or DVD) into your computer's optical drive. iTunes will scan the disc and begin burning.

Tips & Warnings

To reduce the number of discs needed for a backup, iTunes can perform incremental backups (only items added or changed since the last backup).
To burn a CD (CD-R or CD-RW) your computer must have a compatible CD burner. Check in "iTunes Preferences" to see if a drive is compatible.
If the disc you insert does not have enough space to hold all of the media you will be backing up, a dialog will appear asking whether you wish to backup to multiple discs. You can click "Data Discs" to continue.
Know that iTunes burns the number of items that fit on one disc and then asks you to insert subsequent discs to continue burning the remaining files.
Don't eject a disc while a backup is in progress.
Spoken programs purchased from the Audible.com Web site are not backed up.
Discs you create using the iTunes backup feature can be used only to restore. They can't be played in a CD or DVD player.