Which songs can and can't be uploaded to iTunes match?

propynyl said:

I can't find the answer to this ANYWHERE. Obviously songs that are matched will be uploaded. And you can upload up to 25,000 songs. But what about bootleg concerts? I'm a musician, what about my original songs? What if I recorded a 2 hour concert to MP3, and it is 100MB, will that upload?

My point is, does anyone know the specs of what will and won't be uploaded?

This is driving me nuts, I can't find the answer anywhere.

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As of right now the beta's match system is kinda crappy hit or miss so it's actually uploaded most of my library with no exception. The only songs it didn't upload were older drm itunes files I had from a different account.

propynyl said:

I can't find the answer to this ANYWHERE. Obviously songs that are matched will be uploaded. And you can upload up to 25,000 songs. But what about bootleg concerts? I'm a musician, what about my original songs? What if I recorded a 2 hour concert to MP3, and it is 100MB, will that upload?

My point is, does anyone know the specs of what will and won't be uploaded?

This is driving me nuts, I can't find the answer anywhere.

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You've actually got it slightly wrong. Matched songs aren't uploaded, because they're matched. Anything that doesn't get matched gets uploaded, as long as its a format iTunes can understand.

Read the Terms and Conditions on the iTunes 10.5 Beta 7. It has most of the answers you are looking for.

propynyl said:

My bad, that was a total typo. Matched songs are matched, not uploaded.

So, it seems that as of now, this is good news. It will bulk upload everything.

I have 10s of GBs of stuff, including old full length Howard Stern Shows from the early 90s. If I could literally upload everything, without discretion, this will be very worthwhile to me. If it limits songs by length or size, I will be a lot less enthusiastic.

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I don't have any heinously long tracks so I'm not sure on a length limit, but it was more than happy to upload several albums of Apple Lossless, many easily hitting 80 megs for each track. My understanding is that nothing as far as size or length matters, just filetype (something that iTunes natively reads), quantity, and metadata to identify it was music. I have some mp3 audiobooks that are marked as audiobooks, and they didn't get matched or uploaded at all.

Sorry to thread hijack, but has anyone figured out if you can keep the "matched music" permanently? I just discovered two more albums yesterday (probably have a half dozen total) where the CDs were so scratched that the rips are full of pops and scratches. I almost bought one of them off iTunes but then I thought, if I wait a couple more months I'll be able to get a clean copy. Do we know any more than we did about how true this scenario is?

Not sure if it was just specific to my library or not but any *.aif or *.aiff song won't be uploaded or matched.

imahawki said:

Sorry to thread hijack, but has anyone figured out if you can keep the "matched music" permanently? I just discovered two more albums yesterday (probably have a half dozen total) where the CDs were so scratched that the rips are full of pops and scratches. I almost bought one of them off iTunes but then I thought, if I wait a couple more months I'll be able to get a clean copy. Do we know any more than we did about how true this scenario is?

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Here's what currently happens, and I assume will be the same after official release. If a song is matched, wherever it gets downloaded, its a plain 256k AAC file with no DRM. If you delete the original in your library and redownload a matched song, it shows up like the attached file. If its a track that isn't matched which, currently in the beta, is actually the majority, its simply downloaded as the original file. I've played the matched files with no problems, they're literally just plain AAC files with metadata saying they're matched.

In theory, could iTunes match 25,000 songs on my desktop and then I'd be able to download them all to my new laptop in 256kbps with proper metadata?

ntrigue said:

In theory, could iTunes match 25,000 songs on my desktop and then I'd be able to download them all to my new laptop in 256kbps with proper metadata?

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In an ideal world, yes. For that to happen though, two things would have to be true: All those tracks would have to successfully match, which right now is nearly impossible due to matching bugs and a lack of any feedback from the process about match status. The second thing is a little easier; to get matched tracks, the originals must be of lower quality than an iTunes Plus 256k aac, otherwise it just uploads your higher quality tracks with their original metadata.

Thanks!

Question: I purchased iTunes Match. It is uploading about 6000 songs, which I am assuming are not in the iTunes database, but where do I locate the songs that are in the iTunes database on my iPhone?

A minor note that might not affect too many folks other than me: It seems there's a minimum length of about 4-5 seconds. Otherwise it just doesn't go up to the server. Kind of annoying if you have some quick clip tracks in your collection, and are expecting it to back them up....

wingnut8 said:

Question: I purchased iTunes Match. It is uploading about 6000 songs, which I am assuming are not in the iTunes database, but where do I locate the songs that are in the iTunes database on my iPhone?

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It doesn't matter as to what's matched and what's not - they'll all be sent to iCloud and there will be no difference when viewing on your iOS device.