Posted Sunday, May 04, 2003

Use a Shopping Cart for Binge Buying

When you go into a store, chances are you don't just buy one thing. Most of the time, you grab a shopping cart so you can haul all of your purchases to the cashier at once.

It's true that one of the beauties of the iTunes Music Store is that you can buy a song and begin downloading it with just a click or two. But iTunes 4 also provides a shopping cart, and it's a better way to shop when you're picking up several songs.

In its shopping cart mode, iTunes doesn't download each purchased song immediately. Instead, it slings them into a shopping cart. When you're ready to check out, a couple of clicks buys the songs and begins their download.

Shopping for multiple tunes is more convenient in shopping cart mode. Browsing the music store is faster, too, since iTunes isn't download a song in the background while you shop.

To use iTunes' shopping cart mode, choose Preferences from the iTunes menu, click Store, and then click the option labeled Buy Using a Shopping Cart. You'll notice the Buy Song button that appears next to each song now reads Add Song: click it to add a song to your cart.

To buy the songs in your cart, click the Shopping Cart item in the iTunes source list, then click the Buy Now button near the lower-right corner of the iTunes window.

I'm spending entirely too much money.