I purchased and downloaded a full album on itunes today, when i got home i updated my phone and lost it all, how can i get this music back without paying for it again

Question

Today while driving home from vacation i purchased and downloaded the new Nichleback CD, when i got home, i plugged my phone into my computer to update everything and it pulled up a message saying something like "this computer has recognized an iPhone that is in memory update, you will need to restore the phone" or something similar to that, it had a picture of the power cord plugging into iTunes on the screen and i couldn't get rid of it, so i had to plug it in and restore everything, when it was done i noticed that not only did i loose the new CD that i had just purchased today but i lost all of the music that i've purchased since the last update. How can i restore this music without purchasing it all again?

Answer 1

Media should be included with the backup of the computer that all users should be creating on a regular basis as part of basic computer/data maintenance.
In the event that you do not have a backup (stop being lazy.... keep backups of YOUR data and other important files)
If you are in the US and running iTunes 10.3 or later, it is possible to redownload music via iCloud from purchased history.
If you are not in the US or for some reason cannot run iTunes 10.3 or later, contact iTunes customer support and ask very nicely for the opportunity to redownload the content.  They are not required to provide this opportunity.
It is also possible to transfer content from an iDevice that was purchased via iTunes.  On the new computer, sign into the iTunes account, authorize the computer, connect the device then select File > Transfer Purchases.
The simplest method of all is to transfer or copy the media (and other important files) from the old computer or the backup of the old computer.  Typing "move itunes library" into the search bar here or into google will reveal step by step instructions on how to do this.