How to collect music effectivly

[vinski203]

Sorry if this has been asked a million times, but I just can't seem to get my head around it.

I have a desktop computer with iTunes and have just a couple hundred songs both purchased from iTunes store and from CDs I own. I also have a laptop with songs I've purchased from iTunes store (same account-different songs) and CD's I own. Only recently bought an iPod and now want to gather all my music together AND I need to be able to add music to either computer from either iTunes or from CD and share that with the other computer. How do I do that easily? Is there any hope that someone with a hint of common sense can write an iTunes version that will allow me to load one song onto my iPod without syncing a whole libary? Is this really asking too much?

Thanks for any help.

one more thing, If I had an iPod with about 500 songs on it and say a young adult in the house hooked it up to a new computer that doesn't have those 500 songs and proceeded to sync to add 4 songs to it, are my 500 songs lost forever assuming that I don't have access to the computer with the orginal iTunes and those 500 song?

[Cold Irons]

In answer to your first question - iTunes cannot automatically sync its library between multiple computers. I do it manually - my Desktop is the master & I normally only rip CDs at the desktop. If I purchase on the Laptop, I manually move to the desktop. Only sync the iPod to the Desktop. Could always reverse this & have the laptop as the Master Library.

In answer to your 2nd question - the 500 songs are gone if you don't have a backup. As for all computer data, one copy isn't enough.