Firstly I need to say that when you play music you can noramlly hear it coming from the speaker on the front of your computer. There is normally a grid with vertical lines, behind which is your speaker. You are probably using a public computer where this has been disabled, you with therefore need to plug headphones or speakers into the headphones socket at the front of your computer. There is usually a little symbol which looks like a pair of headphones.
Only a few years ago I would have said that you can listen to a CD by putting it in the CD draw and hitting play.
This was simply a CD player, like the one in your living room or the one you carry around - it is not music played by your computer. You can see some of this in the Volume Control Notes.
There is a piece of hardware in you computer called the Sound Card - this is what enables the digital information coming out of your computer to be translated into sounds by your headphones or speakers.
We need to check that your computer will actually make your headphone produce sound, so we need to check the Volume Control.
In order to listen to music that is stored on your computer, or stored digitally on disks, or even from a CD, you will need to use a piece of software. In the past software was developed to play music. Now things have developed so that playing music is simply one part of the software, which can also show pictures and films as well. These are generically called Media Players.
There are three classic Media Players, and it is best to have all three installed on your computer. Click to go to download page.