How can I make my music publicly available on my home network?

Jeremy Chapstec: How can I make my music publicly available on my home network?
I am using Windows 7. I have a folder with music in it that is in the music folder of my profile. I want to put it into the public folder so others can access it, and so my Macintosh can access it (the Mac can currently access all the music in the public folder).

How can I do this without copying my entire music folder to the public folder?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Martin S
You can share music on your home network through ITunes.

https://ipod.about.com/od/itunesbasics/ss/itunes_sharing.htm

Introduction to iTunes Sharing

Did you know that you can listen to other people’s iTunes libraries from your own computer and let those people listen to yours? Well, you can with iTunes sharing.

Turning iTunes sharing on is a simple preference change that can make your digital entertainment life a little more fun.

Before we start, you should be aware of two restrictions to iTunes sharing:

You can only listen to shared iTunes libraries on your network (on your wireless network, in your house, in your office, etc.). This is great for larger offices or dorms.
You cannot listen to iTunes Store-purchased songs from another computer unless your computer has been authorized to play that content. If it hasn’t been, you’ll have to content yourself with listening to music ripped from CDs or downloaded in other ways.

Here’s how to enable iTunes sharing. (click on the above link if you want to read the rest).
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The thing about ITunes sharing is that the person sharing has to have their computer on and ITunes loaded.

If you want songs in a folder that everyone who has access to it can see, and if you have a fair amount of hard drive space, then at least for me it would be no big deal to duplicate my songs into another folder.

All you have to do is go into Windows Explorer and find your folder and click once on the top song and then hold down the “shift” key before you click on the bottom song. All of the songs in between get highlighted and then you just right click on a highlighted song and choose “copy” .

Then you just go to the folder that you want to share and right click on a blank spot and choose “paste”.

It only takes about a minute or two not counting how long it takes your computer to copy the music files to another directory.