There are three ways to transfer music from your computer to an iPod. So, if you are looking for a straightforward answer to the question “how to transfer music to an iPod”, here is a quick guide.
1. Using the Default mode. If you do not want to fiddle with your iPod’s options, you can simply use the Default mode, which lets you update the music library and playlists on your iPod to look just like the ones you have on your computer. Of course, you will need to work with iTunes for this to work, but this is the simplest way of transferring music from your computer to your iPod. There is still some glitch you may encounter and that is the volume of music on your computer being larger than your iPod’s capacity. In that case, iTunes will let you know and allow you to choose the songs you want to sync with your iPod.
2. Go to the Music tab in settings. Choose the playlists you want updated and then sync the selected items with the playlists on your computer. Be aware that this way only the playlists will be updated, and that the process will happen automatically, once you connect your iPod with your computer.
3. The hands on procedure on how to transfer music to an iPod. This implies that you do not want the iTunes system to handle your music, but you want to do it yourself. Go to the Summary tab in settings, and choose this modality of transferring music to an iPod. You will be allowed to simply drag and drop songs you want from iTunes to your iPod. Managing the playlists on your own may prove more fun than you think.
Make sure the songs you want do not go over the storage capacity of your iPod. If they do, you may end up with a random selection. If you are interested in more complex ways to understand how to transfer music to an iPod, you will have to use specialized software that can make your iPod be displayed as a storage hard drive directly on your computer. After you do that, you can copy music files to your iPod, but you need to keep in mind that they will not be playable until you import them to iTunes, as well. Still, this can be a good way to stock music files on an iPod.