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Apple Launches iTunes Match with Release of iTunes 10.5.1 [Updated]

Adam91281 said:
Also, the match is complete but about 50 songs still say waiting. I've restarted iTunes several times but they status doesn't change? Any ideas?

Thanks
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Over 8 hours, my waiting songs mostly have become available.

Match has worked well for me. The cloud matched about 2/3 of my library, the rest uploaded.

==

The only issue is with duplicates. I have some old iTunes purchases that I later upgraded to DRM free iTunes plus. Matching has been hit or miss.

I also have lossesless rips and ALAC purchases from band's web sites that don't match well.

Took me about an hour to go through and delete the low quality versions and low quality duplicates.
 
ArcAngel66 said:
I've had a great experience thus far... here's what I've noticed, maybe it'll clear up some confusion:


• It matched 850/1000 songs in my library.


• When enabling iTunes Match on my iPhone, it didn't wipe my entire library on my iPhone... instead, it put little download-clouds next to songs that were in my iTunes Match Cloud but not on my iPhone.

Tapping to play the songs, or tapping the little cloud, both download the song onto your device. When you tap to play the song, it'll start playing it while it's downloading, almost like it's streaming, but it is still just downloading the whole song - and it stays there on your iPhone/iPod Touch/etc. There's no pure "streaming" that I can see.


• Deleting "matched" songs goes like this:

- It gives you the "are you sure you want to delete it" like it always does. But now there is a check-box that asks if you want to delete the song from the cloud as well. This is how you can fully remove a song from everything/everywhere.

- I always choose to "keep file" when I delete music. What I noticed is that when I re download the newer 256k version, it does so, and it also still keeps my old song in the same exact location/folder as before.

Example: I deleted Bitter Sweet Symphony, which was 128k. I chose to "keep file." After downloading the newer version, I went to the folder's location in my iTunes Music folder, and there were two files: the older, 128k mp3 version, and the newer 256k AAC version. My iTunes library simply just ignores the 128k mp3 version.



• The the same exact process applies to your iDevices. Deleting a matched song will leave it there as a greyed out option with a cloud, and you can re download the 256k version. (in the case of the iDevices, I believe it actually deletes the older version, unlike your computer).

- What I noticed is that there is no automatic syncing when it comes to this process of "upgrading" your music. Upgrading a file on my computer to 256k didn't change my iPhone's file. But, deleting the iPhone's file and redownloading it on my iPhone will give me the newer version (obviously, as I stated before).



• As stated many times before, metadata isn't changed at all. All my play counts, titles, artists, messed-up names and what not, all stayed the exact same - upgrading to the new 256k versions or not.



This is obviously a pain if you want the upgraded songs on your iDevice... So what I'm wondering is:

If I turn off iTunes Match on my iPhone, upgrade my entire library on my computer to the way I want it to be (upgrading the lower bit rate songs to the newer 256k versions), and then sync my iPhone to my computer... and finally just reenable iTunes Match after I've synced it, I should have all of the newer 256k versions on my iPhone, correct?

That seems like the best way to do it... because it's tough to tell what's been matched and what the bit rate of songs are on the iDevices - and even then, doing it 1 by 1 would be a pain.
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Great post and good question. I was thinking the same thing and that would seem like the easiest way to upgrade the songs on your idevice. Seems like you might have to delete all your lower bit rate songs off the idevice first, but just don't know. Anyone have an answer?
 
ArcAngel66 said:
If I turn off iTunes Match on my iPhone, upgrade my entire library on my computer to the way I want it to be (upgrading the lower bit rate songs to the newer 256k versions), and then sync my iPhone to my computer... and finally just reenable iTunes Match after I've synced it, I should have all of the newer 256k versions on my iPhone, correct?

That seems like the best way to do it... because it's tough to tell what's been matched and what the bit rate of songs are on the iDevices - and even then, doing it 1 by 1 would be a pain.
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Yes, that's the best way to do it. Alternatively, you could disable music syncing with your iDevice from iTunes (thereby erasing all tracks on the device itself) prior to enabling iTunes Match on the device. This would assure that the iDevice downloads the matched 256k copy from the cloud instead of retaining the lower-quality version it already had in storage. But I would not recommend this method; I used this approach with my iPad and it took just about 24 hours to get a 453 track-playlist downloaded. I kept having to check on the iPad and assure it was still downloading, which it often times had given up on.
 
The 25,000 Limit

I have read over 2/3 of the posts on this thread which was a daunting task. Early on I saw that the conclusion was that if you had over 25,000 tracks not purchased from Itunes that you do not qualify for Match.

I was incredibly disappointed. I have just over 50,000. I simply can't trim that much music from my collection.

I had used Emusic a great deal early on b/c of the pricing system. I also write reviews for an independent hip hop blog (I know...bloggers, blah). Much of the music on the independent hip hop scene is given out for free in the forms of mixtapes, EPs, and Street LPs. I now get a lot of material off of Bandcamp not only out of necessity (they are not offered on Itunes) but also because the pricing structure allows the artist to retain a bulkhead of the profit.

As a writer and music lover, I crave the ability to keep my music in the cloud where I could download any album at any time and not be constrained by Hard Drives. I guess I just have to wait until restrictions are lifted, but I am also a little hesitant with seeing the success rate of matches in general, especially knowing the composition of my library. But I am willing to give it a try...if I could :(
 
jczelust said:
I was incredibly disappointed. I have just over 50,000. I simply can't trim that much music from my collection.
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I guess the 25K limit is part of the royalty agreement Apple reached with the major labels. It is a shame there isn't an option to purchase a larger library.

On the other hand, with a library as diverse as yours getting decent user experience might be difficult. I have about 2K tracks and spent a few hours dealing with duplicates. 12 hours after starting match I have over 50 tracks still waiting for a match. Mostly these are older albums that aren't on iTunes although some of them like Zappa's Uncle Meat should be.
 
iTunes desktop client streams

I was surprised to learn today that the iTunes Mac app uses iTunes Match as a true streaming service, unlike iPhone and iPad which simply download the tracks as they are called upon.

On my work computer today, where I had zero items in my library, I turned on iTunes Match and instantly all of my music was available to me. After playing a few albums, I was confused as to why the "Show in Finder" option was greyed out; and that's when I checked the Finder and discovered nothing gets downloaded. That's great news!
 
Agreed

Andrew*Debbie said:
I guess the 25K limit is part of the royalty agreement Apple reached with the major labels. It is a shame there isn't an option to purchase a larger library.

On the other hand, with a library as diverse as yours getting decent user experience might be difficult. I have about 2K tracks and spent a few hours dealing with duplicates. 12 hours after starting match I have over 50 tracks still waiting for a match. Mostly these are older albums that aren't on iTunes although some of them like Zappa's Uncle Meat should be.
Click to expand...

Yes. I think it's the royalty agreement or perhaps in part to the initial amount of upload requests grinding against Apples Servers.

I also agree with your assessment regarding the user experience. It was/is in all likelihood going to be frustrating and disappointing. I certainly feel that way moreso now after hearing about your ordeal. (I could have been waiting a month!)

Part of me was hoping for another Apple miracle. They have done such wonderful things to make my life more convenient. Alas, no said luck re: making my music collection more accessible, at least not yet..
 
Yup :)

starkmj said:
Got it.

But what if I have music on my mac that my wife bought with her own apple ID? Will I be able to listen to these tracks on my iphone?
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If the computer you use for iTunes is authorized to play those files, yes they will be added to your cloud account. Sweet.
 
SirHaakon said:
It downloads the file to a cache, and when that cache is filled, it deletes previous tracks so that you may continue to listen to new music. And we've been over this a billion times, but you can listen to the songs as they cache to your device; it is absolutely a streaming service.
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I think you're off base on this one... when a song is downloaded from your cloud to your iOS device, it's not placed in a 'cache', it's placed in your iOS device storage, just like photos, apps, etc. And as far as it deleting previous tracks, where do you see that? I don't see any settings to determine how much space this supposed 'cache' uses. It may cache the file during the download so that you can play it while it finishes, but I'm pretty sure the files are stored long term in the device, until you decide to delete, at which point the icon changes back to the cloud.
 
I mainly just wanted match to get higher quality versions of the songs I've been compiling since 1997. So I ran match on my 2600 songs, it matched about 1800. I backed up my originals, then deleted them from iTunes and and redowloaded the 256k versions.

On my devices, I turned off music sync, so the old versions would get erased, then turned sync back on.

Now I have the fresh 256 version of about 75% of my music on my iPhone and iPad.
 
Cory Bauer said:
Yes, that's the best way to do it. Alternatively, you could disable music syncing with your iDevice from iTunes (thereby erasing all tracks on the device itself) prior to enabling iTunes Match on the device. This would assure that the iDevice downloads the matched 256k copy from the cloud instead of retaining the lower-quality version it already had in storage. But I would not recommend this method; I used this approach with my iPad and it took just about 24 hours to get a 453 track-playlist downloaded. I kept having to check on the iPad and assure it was still downloading, which it often times had given up on.
Click to expand...

Actually, contrary to popular belief, turning on iTunes Match on your iDevice does NOT delete all the existing tracks on that device (even though the prompt would lead you to believe it does). So let's say you have 8 gb of music on your iPhone, and turn on iTunes Match, you'll still have that same 8 gb of music on the device. You'll just be able to add more from the iCloud.

Here's what I did to upgrade all the music on my iPhone to be as good as it can be (in other words, the iCloud's 256 AAC for those tracks matching/purchased):

0) my device setup was originally to only sync checked tracks in iTunes, and I'm assuming you've already converted your iTunes library to iCloud.

1) for all the tracks in iTunes that were less than 256 bit rate and either "matched" or "purchased", I deleted them and re-downloaded them from iCloud. This created the 256 bit rate AAC versions in iTunes. Note you can create a smart playlist to find all these upgradeable tracks to make life easier.

2) turn on "iTunes Match" on the iPhone and sync. Note after this you'll still have the "old" versions of any tracks that were already on your iphone.

3) now turn off "iTunes Match" on the iPhone and sync. You'll see at the end of the sync, all the tracks on the device being re-downloaded to the device. This is because now the iTunes music syncing preference for your device is being applied.

4) now turn back on "iTunes Match" on your iPhone and sync. You are now back to using the iCloud, but all of your local iPhone tracks will have been updated to the latest versions in iTunes.
 
dnimtz said:
Actually, contrary to popular belief, turning on iTunes Match on your iDevice does NOT delete all the existing tracks on that device (even though the prompt would lead you to believe it does).
Click to expand...
I think we both understood that, hence the need to somehow remove or replace the old tracks on the iDevice ;)
 
jczelust said:
I also agree with your assessment regarding the user experience. It was/is in all likelihood going to be frustrating and disappointing. I certainly feel that way moreso now after hearing about your ordeal. (I could have been waiting a month!)
Click to expand...

Getting closer! On restarting this morning, iTunes matched some of the many of tracks that were stuck in waiting yesterday. Others are still waiting for a match.

attachment.php


Some of the 60+ tracks stuck in waiting sort of make sense. 'Neath your Covers' is rare and could have rights issues. But why are ELO's Zoom and Zappa's Uncle Meat still waiting? Why is a single 0:48 track from Cowboy Junkies Renmin Park still waiting when the rest of the album matched on the first scan?


Looks like Match still has some bugs. For anyone who hasn't signed up yet, I recommend waiting until Apple fixes the problems.



I have a ton of new duplicates. Mostly these are old tracks I upgraded to DRM free. My work computer mostly has the DRM free version but my home computer had both or just the older DRM tracks. Adding my work computer to iTunes match generated another block of duplicates.

The worst part is there is no logic as to which version is considered a duplicate. I want to keep the DRM free version but often as not, that isn't what is matched :( :(

attachment.php







Part of me was hoping for another Apple miracle. They have done such wonderful things to make my life more convenient. Alas, no said luck re: making my music collection more accessible, at least not yet..
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Biggest upside so far has been how well match works with our :apple:TV.
 

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Tinmania said:
Then you didn't get it after those billion times because that is not how it works on the iPhone. Indeed it works exactly like he said it does: it downloads each song you play (simultaneous play and download). It does not delete tracks; your temporary cache comment is simply incorrect.
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Yeah, that would be great if iTunes Match was limited to the iPhone. Of course it's not, and it does exactly what I said it does on many devices, including all desktop computers and the Apple TV.

Tinmania said:
That post was wrong: no cache is used on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch devices. It always simultaneously downloads and plays.
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Guess what "playing while downloading" is called... streaming.

Tinmania said:
People would scream if their downloaded tracks randomly disappeared for no apparent reason, as they try to play a song at 35,000' with no Net access.
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I think you underestimate the public's ability to tell the difference between "online listening" and "offline, downloaded listening." You know, exactly the same way it works on Spotify... and I haven't heard of any riots happening over that service. I think iTunes Match will be just fine.
 
Cory Bauer said:
I was surprised to learn today that the iTunes Mac app uses iTunes Match as a true streaming service, unlike iPhone and iPad which simply download the tracks as they are called upon.

On my work computer today, where I had zero items in my library, I turned on iTunes Match and instantly all of my music was available to me. After playing a few albums, I was confused as to why the "Show in Finder" option was greyed out; and that's when I checked the Finder and discovered nothing gets downloaded. That's great news!
Click to expand...

So, then can you delete your iTunes library on your computer to save space and just stream to your mac?
 
Guess what "playing while downloading" is called... streaming.

This is just semantics at this point, but I think the reason you got flamed is for the use of the word 'cache'. Yes on a non-iOS device it uses a true cache, but on an iOS device it neither streams nor caches a song when you click on it. It starts to download, and you are able to play the song from that file that is being downloaded. The correct term would be a buffer. :)
 
SirHaakon said:
Yeah, that would be great if iTunes Match was limited to the iPhone. Of course it's not, and it does exactly what I said it does on many devices, including all desktop computers and the Apple TV.
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Nice attempt to squirm out of it. Regardless the above is irrelevant as you responded to someone who specifically mentioned iPhone. Apparently you are incapable of admitting that you were wrong. Uh, ok. lol

I had already gone over the fact that it streams in iTunes but you conveniently snipped that part out. Bravo.

I put it back for you. Thank me later!

Tinmania said:
Then you didn't get it after those billion times because that is not how it works on the iPhone. Indeed it works exactly like he said it does: it downloads each song you play (simultaneous play and download). It does not delete tracks; your temporary cache comment is simply incorrect.

The only time it streams from a temporary cache and does not download is in iTunes and on an Apple TV, the former of which you can download but you must choose to do that separately (vs. just playing a track).

Please get it straight yourself before making these kinds of misleading and incorrect statements (let alone chastising someone who DID make a correct comment).



Michael
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Guess what "playing while downloading" is called... streaming
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Guess what? That is not what you said in your reply. You specifically went on about it "streaming" then deleting the elusive cache--none of it accurate. Do keep up. By the way, Apple has referred to this as simultaneous listen and download.





Michael
 
panikfan said:
And as far as it deleting previous tracks, where do you see that?
Click to expand...

I've seen articles reporting that elsewhere although it looks like Apple hasn't documented it, and it's not known how little space has to be left to start deleting songs. No user settings for it either.


SirHaakon said:
Guess what "playing while downloading" is called... streaming.
Click to expand...

The difference is that streaming doesn't leave a downloaded copy, so the way it's handled on iOS is not streaming.
 
milo said:
I've seen articles reporting that elsewhere although it looks like Apple hasn't documented it, and it's not known how little space has to be left to start deleting songs. No user settings for it either.
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That is because it never deletes downloaded tracks. And I have tried to force it.

I have filled my iPad to the limit and have 2GB of downloaded iTunes Match music. It won't delete anything no matter how I try to force it. I cannot even install a purchased app--one that I did not already own. It simply does not touch my iTunes Match music.

If you think about it it makes sense. Since the songs are actually downloaded deleting them willy nilly would be no different than deleting songs out of your iTunes library on a mac or PC.

Plus, the iTunes library is very different on iOS than on Mac or Windows. Tracks are renamed, the names of which are stored in another database. Downloaded tracks are handled the same way as those preloaded via syncing with iTunes, and are all integrated in the iTunes Library.



Michael
 
SirHaakon said:
Oh come on now, this is starting to get silly. 128kbps was "good enough" for you three years ago and now suddenly your ears can hear the glorious fidelity of high bitrate audio?

Either quality mattered and you made sure you encoded your material at a proper bitrate (and thus the iTunes Match service won't gain you anything), or it's just not that big a deal to you (and thus the iTunes Match service won't gain you anything). Either approach is OK, but the end result is the same.
Click to expand...

Cost benefit analysis was different 3 or 5 years ago. Storage cost per marginal improvement in audio quality was more expensive than it is now.
 
Tinmania said:
I had already gone over the fact that it streams in iTunes but you conveniently snipped that part out.
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It does what now? Oh, it streams.

That was really the point of all of this... that iTunes Match is a streaming service.

You're right, panikfan, it is semantics. We had a long discussion about this in another thread during the pre-release phase of iTunes Match. Call it "listen-while-you-download" or whatever. The point is, it's immediate access to your content from the cloud, just like Spotify or any of the other competing services. The fact that on iOS you have repeated access to the content you downloaded is merely a software choice. Even live radio caches to your disk and is accessed shortly thereafter; the difference is it doesn't poop out a nicely wrapped file for you when you finish listening. They're still both streaming your content to you.

Anyway, it appears that Michael enjoys playing word games but the service is what it is and pointless banter isn't going to change that. My original reply to jjs1138 was this:

SirHaakon said:
iTunes Match is a streaming music service, not a music-bandwidth-auto-upgrader service. By "matching" their copy with yours, it saves you the hassle of having to upload everything from your library to their servers. Their local copy just happens to be 256kbps.
Click to expand...

I still maintain that is the case. Yes, you are able to obtain higher-bitrate versions of songs if you want to redownload your entire music library once it has been matched; no one is contesting that. Do I believe that is the reason Apple created this service? Absolutely not. I don't believe they're even promoting it as a "feature." There is one sentence about it on the iTunes Match official page, and it talks about listening to your matched music in high quality, not downloading it. That doesn't mean you can't use the service in that way... I just think it's silly to bitch when it doesn't have all 25,000 of your Limewire files ready for instant "upgrading."

Clearly this sentiment got utterly derailed along the way, but the original post had nothing to do with the iPhone. Sorry to burst your bubble, Mike.
 
SirHaakon said:
It does what now? Oh, it streams.
Click to expand...

It streams on computers (and the appleTV) - nothing saved to local storage, if you want to have a downloaded file you have to specifically do that. On iOS devices, it downloads songs to local storage and plays during the download. Looks like it deletes files at some point later if space is needed, could be hours, could even be days, but that's not streaming.
 
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