How can I transfer CD albums, on iTunes, from a Mac to Macbook Air?

Question

I have recently purchased a MacBook Air, and I am trying to figure out a way of transferring my iTunes library from my old Mac to the new MacBook Air.
While I have managed to download my purchased music from my iTunes account, I have yet been able to find a way of transferring CD Albums, which I have added to my old Mac, onto the new MacBook Air. This is a problem due to the MacBook Air not having a disk drive.
Is there some kind of process that I can do easily from one to the other, or is it a case of backing up my iTunes library onto an external drive and transferring it over that way? If the latter, how would I go about doing this? If possible, a step-by-step would be appreciated.
Many Thanks,
Walcnevar

Answer 1

Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings:  Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive.  Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.
If you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music  then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there.  (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)