If you’ve been trying to figure out how to upload music to your new iPod nano, don’t worry. We’ll have you playing great songs on your iPod nano in no time. Of course, you might not be so interested in music. But maybe you bought your nanos to play videos or games. Well, good news! 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

Where are your music files? For a lot of new nano owners the answer is “on my CDs.” If so, you’ll want to make the files available to your computer. Most people start by copying the files from CDs onto the computer’s hard disk. Note: If you use iTunes and have selected “Copy files to iTunes music folder,” it’s enough to just have the CD in your computer’s CD drive.

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

An “iPod manager” handles moving files to and from the iPod. For most of us, Apple’s free iTunes software fills the bill. But, there are other choices if you decide you don’t like iTunes. If you’re new to iPods I suggest you start with iTunes.

It’s important to know that you can download music from any vendor (Amazon, eMusic, etc) and still use iTunes to move files around. You don’t have to buy from the iTunes store unless you want to.

Decide if you’d like to have all your files in one location on the computer. If so, it’s easiest if you tell iTunes to copy all the files there for you. In iTunes choose Edit, Preferences, Advanced from the menu and click the “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library.”

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

Connect your iPod to the computer with the USB cable that came with your iPod. (Yes, I know most of you knew this…just playing it safe.) The iPod should appear on the left-hand menu.

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

If you decided to let iTunes manage the uploads you’re ready to start. Just click your iPod’s icon and select “Sync” in the lower right corner. You’re done! Play with that a few times. Try making playlists to group your music, go to iStore to download a couple free podcasts, and go enjoy!

If you want to manage uploading manually, click your iPod’s icon, select the “Manually manage music and videos” checkbox on the iTunes screen. (Don’t worry, this is a one-time setup step — you won’t have to do it again.) Now all you have to do is select the music (or play lists) you want from your iTunes library and drag it onto the iPod icon.

5) Be sure to eject your iPod

Never disconnect your iPod nano without ejecting it first. Not taking that extra minute risks corrupting the files. Eject from iTunes by clicking the button at bottom right of the screen.

6) Find more cool stuff!

Okay, you know how to upload music to your nano. Go forth and find more cool games, videos, books, or music for your iPod. See my web site for suggestions of where to find great downloads for reasonable prices.