Congratulations on your new iPod nano! In a few minutes we’ll have you uploading music to your iPod nano and ready to roll. More interested in playing videos, games or audiobooks? No worries. Once you’re uploading music to your nano you’ll know how to upload all the other goodies too.

1) Load the music files onto your computer

Most of us start out with our iPods by loading up the CDs we’ve collected over the years, so let’s start there. Copy the files from your CDs onto your computer’s hard disk so it’ll be available to your iPod manager. Note: If you use iTunes and have “Copy files to iTunes music folder” selected, you can skip copying the files to the PC — just having the CD in your computer’s CD drive will be enough.

2) Import the music into the iPod manager of your choice

What’s an iPod manager? For most of us it’s the iTunes software Apple provides you for free. If you don’t have it on your computer already to go the Apple website and download iTunes. It’s a good starting point for new users, and it’s free!

Don’t worry, using iTunes to manage your iPod doesn’t keep you from buying music at other stores. I buy music downloads from Amazon and eMusic, in addition to iTunes.

Quick tip: If you want iTunes to put a copy of the file in the main iTunes library directory, choose Edit, Preferences, Advanced from the menu and click the “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library.” I like to do this to make it easy to find my music files. I know that music files anywhere else on my hard drive aren’t part of the iTunes library and can safely be deleted.

Now it’s time to import to iTunes. One of the easiest ways is to click File, Add Folder to Library, and select the directory (or CD) holding your music. Click the “OK” button and iTunes will import the music to the library. You can also use the Control + O keys and select single files to add.

3) Connect up the iPod

You probably already did this, but just in case: connect your iPod nano to your computer with the the USB cable that came with your nano. You’ll know the connection’s successful when the left-hand menu in iTunes shows your iPod.

How you upload the music depends on whether you’re letting iTunes manage your iPod or have elected to “manually manage” your iPod. I prefer the “manually manage” approach because it lets me to pick and choose which files to move to my nano. It also allows me to pull files from multiple computers to the one iPod.

4) Now to upload music to that iPod nano

Are you going to let iTunes manage the uploads? If so, you’re ready to start. Click your iPod’s icon, select “Sync” in the lower right corner, and iTunes handles the rest.

If you decided to manage uploading manually you have a one-time setup to complete. Click your iPod’s icon and select the “Manually manage music and videos” checkbox on the iTunes screen. Now, select the music you want and drag it onto the iPod icon.

5) Eject your iPod safely

Always, always, always click the eject button on the lower-right corner of the iTunes screen. Don’t risk corrupting your iPod files.

6) Find more cool stuff!

If you’ve followed these steps you know how to upload music to your nano. Time to download more games, videos, books, and music for your nano. See my web site for suggestions of where to find great downloads for reasonable prices.