How to rip, play, and update music on your Xbox 360 Hard Drive

This article provides an overview about how to rip (copy), play, and update music on your Xbox 360 Hard Drive.

You can copy music from your CD collection to your Xbox 360 Hard Drive for playback in a game or in the Xbox Dashboard. For more information about the options for music playback on your Xbox 360, select from the following topics:

• Rip a CD to your Xbox 360 Hard Drive
• Play music from your Xbox 360 Hard Drive
• Adjust music volume
• Shuffle music tracks during playback
• Display visualizations during music playback
• Delete music from your Xbox 360 Hard Drive
• Create and edit playlists
• Update music metadata on your Xbox 360 Hard Drive

Rip a CD to your Xbox 360 Hard Drive

The process of copying digital content from a CD to a hard disk drive is also known as "ripping." You must have an Xbox 360 Hard Drive attached to your Xbox console to rip music from a CD to the console.

To rip music from a CD to an Xbox 360 Hard Drive, follow these steps:

1. Start the Xbox 360 console without a disc in the disc tray.
2. Put a music CD in the disc tray, and then close the disc tray.
   
   Note The Music Player starts automatically.
3. Select Rip CD. By default, all the tracks on the CD are selected. If you do not want to copy all the tracks, manually select the tracks that you want to rip.
4. Select Rip CD to complete the process.

Note You can change the album information if the information is not automatically updated. You can also change the song information as you rip the music files. For more information about how to update music metadata, see the "Update music metadata on your Xbox 360 Hard Drive" section.

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Play music from your Xbox 360 Hard Drive

You can play music from your Xbox 360 Hard Drive by using by using your Xbox 360 Hard Drive. To do this, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Play music from the Xbox 360 Dashboard

To play music from the Xbox 360 Dashboard on your Xbox 360 console, follow these steps:

1. Start the Xbox 360 console without a disc in the disc tray.
2. Use your Xbox 360 Controller or remote control to move to the My Xbox section of the Xbox 360 Dashboard.
3. Select Music Library.
4. Select the Hard Drive option.
5. You can play music by categories by selecting from the following options:
   • Albums
   • Artists
   • Saved Playlists
   • Songs
   • Genres

Method 2: Play music from the Xbox Guide

To play music from the Xbox Guide on your Xbox 360 console, follow these steps:

1. During gameplay, or from the Xbox 360 Dashboard, you can press the Xbox 360 Guide button on your Xbox 360 Controller or remote control.
2. In the Xbox Guide, select the Music Library option, and then select Hard Drive as the Select Source option.
3. In the Hard Drive area, you can play music by categories by selecting from the following options:
   • Albums
   • Artists
   • Saved Playlists
   • Songs
   • Genres
   Note To play all music from your Xbox 360 Hard Drive, press the Y button in the Hard Drive area of the Xbox Guide. You can also select the Play All option in the Hard Drive area to play all music from your Xbox 360 Hard Drive.

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Adjust music volume

You can use your Xbox 360 console volume controls to separately adjust the volume for music playback. You can change the volume for the music in relation to the volume for other sounds that are generated by the console.

To adjust the music playback volume, follow these steps:

1. On your controller or on the remote control, press the Xbox Guide button.
2. In the Media section, locate the volume button in the Xbox Guide, and then use your controller or the remote control to increase or decrease the music playback volume.

Note You can adjust the volume for music playback only in the Xbox Guide. You cannot adjust the volume in the Xbox Dashboard.

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Shuffle music tracks during playback

When you play music from the Xbox Guide or from the Xbox Dashboard, you can shuffle the music tracks by selecting the Shuffle button. This will make the tracks play in a random order. The Shuffle button appears highlighted when you select it.

The Shuffle button is to the right side of the Forward button on the Music Player. The Shuffle button has two right arrows. When shuffle is turned off, the two arrows are parallel to one another. When shuffle is turned on, the two arrows cross.

To turn shuffle off, click the Shuffle button on the Music Player so that the button is not highlighted. When shuffle is turned off, songs play sequentially according to the current playlist or album.

Note The selected shuffle mode is retained by the console even if the console is power-cycled.

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Display visualizations during music playback

Visualizations are displayed as splashes of color and geometric shapes that change with the beat of the music that is playing. During music playback from the Music Player on the Xbox 360 Dashboard, you can display and adjust visualizations in the following ways:

• To view a visualization in full-screen mode, press the X button on your controller.
• Press the left bumper button or the right bumper button on the controller to view different visualizations in the Music Player.

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Delete music from your Xbox 360 Hard Drive

To delete individual albums, artists, songs, or playlists from your Xbox 360 hard drive, follow these steps:

1. In the My Xbox section of the Xbox Dashboard, select Music Library.
2. Select Hard Drive.
3. Select the category of the item that you want to delete, and then delete the item. For example, if you want to delete an album, select the album from the list, and then select Delete Album.

To delete all music from your Xbox 360 hard drive, follow these steps:

1. In the System Settings section of the Xbox Guide, select Memory.
2. Select Hard Drive.
3. Select Music.
4. Select Yes, delete all music.

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Create and edit playlists

you must have an Xbox 360 Hard Drive attached to the Xbox 360 console to change or save playlists to the console. You can save only playlists that contain songs that are on the Xbox 360 Hard Drive.

To change or save a playlist, follow these steps:

1. In the Media section in the Xbox Guide, select Music Library.
2. Select from the following music sources:
   • Hard Drive
   • Computer
   • Current Disc
   • Portable Device
   Note After you select the music source that you want, you can select the albums, the artists, the songs, or the genres that you want to save as a playlist. You can also create a mixture these selections as a playlist. You can also add songs to a playlist from other sources.
3. After you create a playlist, the current playlist will appear in the Music Player. From the Music Player, you can select Edit or Save Playlist.
   • On the Edit Current Playlist screen, you can select arrows to change the order of the songs, or you can select the X button to delete songs from the playlist.
   • If you select Save Playlist, and if the current playlist consists of songs from the Xbox 360 Hard Drive, you can save the playlist or name the playlist.

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Update music metadata on your Xbox 360 Hard Drive

In some circumstances, when you rip a CD to your Xbox 360 Hard Drive, the information that is associated with that CD is listed as Unknown. The following information provides instructions to manually update CD information on the Xbox 360 console.

Note Your Xbox 360 console has a database that includes album, artist, and track information for thousands of CDs. If the database does not contain the information for an album, and if the console is connected to Xbox LIVE, your Xbox 360 console will search the Internet for the information.

To manually update music information, follow these steps:

1. In the My Xbox section of the Xbox Dashboard, select Music Library.
2. In the Select Source area, select Hard Drive.
3. Select one of the following items to edit song information:
   • An album
     
     Note This is the only way to edit an album.
   • An artist
   • A song
4. Update the information that you want.

Note You can also change the genre for a particular album, artist, or song.

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Additional support

For information about how to contact Xbox Customer Support, please visit the following Web site: