Windows Phone 8 Basics - I used Zune to sync music to my phone before, so what do I use with Windows Phone 8?

The Zune software used with Windows Phone 7 was designed to manage all of your media in one place. Windows Phone 8 is more flexible. You can get your music from the cloud using Xbox Music Pass, connect to your computer and move music files onto your phone in several different ways, or insert an SD card containing song files into your phone (if your phone supports an SD card).

There are three different Windows Phone apps for your computer that you can use to move music files to your phone: the Windows Phone app for Windows 8, the Windows Phone app for desktop (which works on both Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs), and the Windows Phone app for Mac. To learn more about how to use the apps, see Syncing and moving.

Unlike the Zune software, the Windows Phone apps are used only for adding and removing content. You don't buy or download music in the apps, and you can't use them to create playlists. You now do that stuff right on the phone or in the Xbox Music app for Windows 8. You can also use a different app, like iTunes or Windows Media Player, to do those sorts of things, and then use the Windows Phone app to move the content to your phone.

You can also move music files from your PC to your phone using Windows Explorer (called File Explorer in some versions of Windows) and Windows Media Player. When you connect your phone to your computer, your phone will appear in Windows Explorer as a storage device. You can navigate to your phone's Music folder (or the Music folder on your phone's SD card, if it has one), and then drag files to it from your PC. Your phone will also appear in Windows Media Player as a portable media player, and then you can use the sync features in Media Player to move music and playlists to your phone.