You can use Rhythmbox (Applications → Sound & Video → Rhythmbox Music Player) and Movie Player (Applications → Sound & Video → Movie Player) to listen to music on your computer.

Audio files will be opened in Movie Player when double-clicked, but Rhythmbox is better at handling large music collections.

Rhythmbox is also able to play audio CDs, and should open automatically when you insert a CD.

See the Rhythmbox manual for more information.

You can copy music from a CD to your computer so that you do not have to have the CD in the drive to play songs from it. You can then copy the songs to a digital audio player, such as an iPod.

Applications which perform this task for you are called CD rippers or extractors. The music is often compressed when you copy it, so that it takes up less space on your hard disk. MP3 and WMA files are examples of compressed audio files.

Rhythmbox can copy CDs to your computer in a range of different formats. See the Rhythmbox manual for instructions. Other applications, such as Sound Juicer, can also be used to extract songs from CDs.

	The Music folder is a good place to store your music files when you copy them from a CD; most audio applications look there by default when searching for your music.

You can create your own audio CDs by copying music from your computer onto a blank disc. CDs that you create in this way should play in any device that can play standard (manufactured) audio CDs. All that is required is a CD burner (also called a CD writer). Most computers have one of these.

To begin creating an audio CD, start Brasero (Applications → Sound & Video → Brasero Disc Burning) and select Audio project from the main screen. Then, select the songs that you want to add to the CD and add them to the project. Finally, click Burn to copy the songs to a CD.

You will also need to select the maximum duration of the CD which you inserted (e.g. 80 minutes), which can be done by clicking on the small CD icon near the bottom of the window. Brasero will warn you if you have selected more files than can fit on the disc.

See the Brasero manual for full instructions.

Ubuntu will work with most portable audio players, including iPods. Normally, all you have to do is plug the player into your computer and then use Rhythmbox to copy songs to and from the player. The audio player should appear in the Devices section of the list which is underneath the Play button. See the Rhythmbox manual for more information.

If you have a portable music player which can also display photos and videos, you may prefer to use Banshee, which is a music player with good support for such devices. iPod owners may also like to try specialized applications such as GPixPod and gtkpod for handling multimedia.

My portable audio player does not recognize songs copied from Ubuntu

When you copy music from a CD onto a computer, it must be stored in a specific audio format. The default format used by Rhythmbox is Ogg Vorbis (.ogg or .oga).

Not all portable audio players are able to play files in the Ogg Vorbis format; for example, iPods cannot play this format. In order for your player to recognize your songs, you must convert them to a format which it supports. Nearly every player on the market supports the MP3 format, so this is usually a safe bet.

You can convert existing audio files to other formats using Sound Converter. The output format can be selected in the Sound Converter preferences.

You can change the default file format used by Rhythmbox when copying CDs. Click Edit → Preferences → Music and change the Preferred Format to the format of your choice. In future, all CDs copied to your computer will be copied in this format.

	If an MP3 option is not shown in the Preferred Format list, install the gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse package and restart Rhythmbox. The option CD Quality, MP3 (.mp3 type) should appear in the Preferred Format list.

Podcasts are pre-recorded shows which you can download and listen to on your computer or portable audio player. Thousands of podcasts are available and most can be downloaded for free.

You can use Rhythmbox to download and play podcasts; select Podcasts from the Library section of the Rhythmbox window to get started. The Rhythmbox manual has further instructions. Alternatively, you may prefer to use a dedicated podcast manager such as gPodder or PenguinTV.

Internet radio stations are live audio streams, similar to standard radio but transmitted over the Internet. You can use Rhythmbox to listen to Internet radio too; select Radio from the Library section of the Rhythmbox window to get started and see the Rhythmbox manual for more details.

RealAudio streams, as used by some Internet radio stations, are not supported by Rhythmbox. To listen to this type of stream, install RealPlayer.

Many websites which allow you to buy music online and download it onto your computer are designed to work with Microsoft Windows only. As a result, some services will not work with Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is able to play most audio formats, including MP3, WMA and AAC. However, it does not support the various DRM (Digital Rights Management) schemes which stores sometimes use to restrict access to their music. If you download audio files which are DRM-restricted, they are unlikely to work in Ubuntu. In particular, nearly all music from the iTunes music store is DRM-restricted and so cannot be played.

Two services which offer unrestricted (DRM-free) music are Jamendo and Magnatune. You can buy songs from both of these stores online, or directly from within Rhythmbox if the appropriate plugins are enabled (see the Rhythmbox manual for more information).

	Downloading music from the Internet without the permission of its copyright holder is considered illegal in many countries. You should check that you are within your rights to download a music file before saving it onto your computer.

You can record sounds onto your computer if you have a microphone or other recording equipment connected to it.

To start a basic sound recording application, press Alt+F2, type gnome-sound-recorder into the text box and then click Run. See the Sound Recorder manual for instructions on how to use it.

For more advanced recording needs, you may like to try a multi-track audio editor such as Jokosher or Audacity.

Many other professional-level recording tools are available for Ubuntu. See the Ubuntu Studio website for more information.