STEP-BY-STEP

Listen to music online

Your PC isn't all-singing, all- dancing until you've tapped the net's music resources. We show you how with QuickTime Player

There are lots of programs that you can use to listen to music over the internet. Apple's QuickTime Player can play many of the music formats you'll find online, either by downloading the files to your bard disk, or by streaming - playing them as they arrive.

Apple has signed up lots of TV and radio stations to form the QTV network, so there's always something to watch and listen to, and you'll find film trailers and other information on the net too that work with QuickTime. And yes, you can play all those MP3 files using it!

QuickTime Player is a free download. You need to visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download, fill in your email address, select Macintosh or Windows depending on your computer, then click the Download button to fetch the installer.

STEP1
When the installer's downloaded, look for QuickTime Installer on your hard disk, and double-click on it. You'll see a Welcome screen with a Next button on it. Just follow the instructions, and Click Next. You should make sure your internet connection is running. The next screen shows you the licence agreement, and lets you choose a language. Select English and click I Agree.

STEP2
Now, you'll be asked where on your computer's hard disk you want to save. Just accept the suggestion, click Next and this screen appears. Make sure the type of installation is set to Minimum and click Next. Now you'll be asked where on the Programs menu you want to add QuickTime. Follow the suggestion, and click Next.

STEP3
So that it can work with web pages properly, QuickTime looks for your web browser. You'll see a screen like this,depending on which browser you have
installed. Unless you have more than one copy of each browser, the details here should be correct, so click on Next. On the next screen, select the type of connection you have - for most people that's 56K modem/ISDN. Click Next again.

STEP4
For a small fee, you can upgrade QuickTime to add extra features. This screen asks for the 'key' that enables them. For now, leave the information - and your name - blank. Click Next and a screen will appear, telling you how much has to be downloaded to install QuickTime. Make sure the box 'Use http proxy' is not checked and click the Continue button. Now you can make a cup of tea while the installer downloads all the bits of QuickTime and installs them on your PC.

STEP5
When the installer has finished, you'll be asked if you want to see the Read Me file, or look at the sample movie. Select the options, and then click Close. On some computers, you might be asked to restart Windows, but it's not normally necessary.

STEP6
You should have an icon on your desktop for QuickTime Player. If you didn't tell the installer to show you the sample movie, double-click the icon, and this is what you'll see. The menu bar floats off to one side, and you can use it to open files from your hard disk and play them. You can also change options, like the size of any film clips that are playing.

STEP7
You can access the QuickTime favourites from the menu bar, or by clicking and dragging with the mouse on the little horizontal lines below the Play button. As you pull on the lines, a drawer slides out with icons for favourite channels. Here we've clicked on VH1 and the player has grown to show us the choice of things to watch - or if you just want sounds, why not click on the VH1 at Work radio station? That's all there is to it - you've joined the millions listening to music online.