songs not playing

"Linked" how? Where did you play it from? Need more info pls!

I can see the songs in my itunes sidebar within rekordbox, but they don't play and they all have a red circle and bar saying "the track cannot be played. File format is not supported by rekordbox"

Are they from Apple Music (or possibly not downloaded / cloud-based)? Or they're in an audio format rekordbox doesn't support.

It was a download from Apple music. Do they have to be purchased?

Yep. Technically even songs downloaded from Apple Music are just cached files, they're not actual songs available to other software. Sorry.

But if we purchased it and downloaded the song on the laptop, they should show, correct?

Correct; any song you purchased from Apple's store and is downloaded to your computer, and is not DRM'd (if it was within the last 5 years or so, you should be fine), then it should be available for rekordbox to play.

Thanks very much for your help. Are there any other places to download songs and put music on rekordbox besides iTunes? Would it work with spotify or amazon music, for exmaple?

Spotify, no. Their service is streaming-only, even "downloaded" music through Spotify is not usable outside the software, it's simply a cache-file.

Amazon, yes - again, provided you've purchased the music and it's not streaming.

Beatport, Google Music, etc.... anywhere you purchase and download a file would be good.

Thanks again. All good information. Would you happen to know where I can download songs for free, to help me learn rekordbox.

You're welcome!

You may be able to download some free songs from artist pages on Soundcloud or through their Facebook pages.

excellent. thanks so much