iTunes Match: $24.99/year, Matches Ripped Tunes, Offers Them In The Cloud

[Rodimus Prime]

Originally Posted by teme

iTunes Match doesn't remove DRM from your local files. You can stream them from iTunes Match cloud with better iTunes Plus quality, but your local files stay untouched.

suggest you go read about it again

Songs that are matched are upgraded to 256KBps, AAC, DRM-free, with all the benefits above, including push syncing and all the rest.

[Don't panic]

Originally Posted by Bear

You're paying for disk storage and data transfer. You know stuff Apple has to pay for.

yes, i understand that for the first year, but once the match job is done, there is no more disk storage and data transfer than with the purchased songs.
besides, the storage is really only for the unmatched uploaded songs, any song that is matched, they already have it stored so there is no additional space used.

if both me and you have legally purchased/matched 'let it be', apple doesn't store it for us twice, it just gives us both access to the stored one.

which is also why they upgrade it to whatever their database quality is.

[iEvolution]

Well thats nice..I can't get the latest iTunes because I run 64-bit windows.

[EricNau]

Originally Posted by OllyW

He said there was no DRM on the upgraded songs.

I wonder how/if they prevent duplicate songs (both original and upgraded versions) from appearing on your computer.

[rWally]

Originally Posted by Rodimus Prime

suggest you go read about it again

What if I don't want my files 'upgraded' to 256 AAC because I ripped all my music in LAME V0?

[uva25]

Originally Posted by teme

It's not exactly back-up, because obviously you can only stream tracks from iTunes Match cloud, not download them to your computer. You still have to keep all the local files safe. After cancelling the service, you still have all the tracks in your local iTunes library, you just can't stream them from iTunes Match cloud.

The way I read it, not all your music is uploaded to the cloud (only unmatched music) but all music on the cloud is available to download to any of your devices so if all your devices are destroyed, you can buy a new device and instantly download all of the music from the cloud to that device.

[rWally]

Originally Posted by uva25

The way I read it, not all your music is uploaded to the cloud (only unmatched music) but all music on the cloud is available to download to any of your devices so if all your devices are destroyed, you can buy a new device and instantly download all of the music from the cloud to that device.

What if you music library is larger than what your device can fit? I assume there's a way to decide what you want to download to your device?

[saxon48]

Any working links yet for iTunes 10.3?

[oclor]

I honestly can't believe this. All the fuss about the data center, the negotiations with the labels, and all they come up with is a backup service? I'm very dissapointed. I expected this for free but with an option to pay something like $99/yr or something for the ability to get extra storage and STREAM

I expected a revolutionary service that would almost eliminate the need for local storage and allows us to have ALL our content available on all of our devices

[tylerhbrown]

This does nothing for me and my full 32 gig iphone. Looks like I won't be canceling my rdio subscription anytime soon.
THB

[smiddlehurst]

Originally Posted by Rodimus Prime

Cap.

I honestly call this DOA because we have to pay a $25 a year label tax. Compared to Google Music same 20k worth of songs is 100% free. Apple we have to pay $25 a year to have access to the same songs we already paid for.

Uh, you have remembered that Google Music is only free WHILE IN BETA right? Oh, and I've got no problem with the charge for iTunes Match as:

a) a lot of content uploaded WILL be pirated and they're effectively licencing it all when you do upload.

b) iTunes content ripped at lower bitrates effectively gets a free upgrade without having to spend the time re-ripping

c) most importantly, I don't have to spend WEEKS (and I'm lucky, unlimited uploads, most would have to batch this over months) uploading my data and clogging my internet connection in the process. That's easily worth $25.

[Rodimus Prime]

Originally Posted by rWally

What if I don't want my files 'upgraded' to 256 AAC because I ripped all my music in LAME V0?

that is a good question. I am not an audio phob so that not the big deal. My bigger issue would be my library size growing a lot over night.

[Don't panic]

Originally Posted by rWally

What if I don't want my files 'upgraded' to 256 AAC because I ripped all my music in LAME V0?

i would assume you are out of luck then.
there is no physical backup of the matched music. basically you get access to the selected titles in THEIR library.
it might be different with the upload part, but i doubt it, i think the upload, on their sides will be standardized to 256 AAC.

[Zimmy68]

Originally Posted by sishaw

The record companies will not allow that to happen, they will insist on being paid. Google may fight it longer than most, but not forever.

As long as Google doesn't store a "proxy" version of your songs, there is nothing the record companies can do about it.

[haravikk]

I'm assuming here that the catch is that iTunes Match will be the only way to activate iTunes over iCloud. Without iTunes Match iCloud won't let you sync your music via the cloud, so you have to do it manually; not a big deal sure, but it's the hook they're hoping to keep you paying with.

So the point is that you pay the yearly fee (even just for a year), and instead of uploading all your songs to iCloud, they try to match as many of them to existing copies that they have. When you sync another device it'll just pull the iTunes copies of the music detected on your other machines. Presumably you'll also be able to sync your source machine as well so any poor copies of the music can be replaced with the iTunes copies, though I'm curious to know what it'll do with tracks you have that are already "better" (since it can be subjective, and higher bit-rate might not mean a better copy), maybe it'll give you the option to replace it as you like?

Only songs that aren't found on iTunes will be uploaded to iCloud as a result.


This can be seen in several ways; they're giving a way to minimise the amount of stuff you have to upload to iCloud, making for faster syncing and less space used-up on your iCloud account and you're getting (probably) better copies of music that you've ripped from CD's or… elsewhere.


All in all it seems like win-win to me. I don't actually have any devices to sync with, but I'll happily buy a year's worth just to update poor copies of music that I have that I imported ages ago, or bought back in the iTunes music store's infancy.


I hope though that it will allow streaming for songs that either aren't synced yet, or that you simply can't fit, as my computer has way more music than even a high-end iPad could hold, so what would happen then? I'd hope I could set aside 10gb for music on my iPad, and iTunes would only locally store the ones I listen to most, and stream any others that don't fit, or something like that anyway.

[reactions]

i dont get it - u cant stream?

what's the point

[Gasu E.]

Originally Posted by doctorjo5

SJobs said 20,000 because that is the number that google will allow you to upload into Google Music. He was digging directly at google.

Is there really a limit of 25,000? I would be surprised.

I imagine this is just for the short-term. They will probably provide an upgraded service once they see how well this one works out.

[Rodimus Prime]

Originally Posted by smiddlehurst

Uh, you have remembered that Google Music is only free WHILE IN BETA right? They've already said they're going to charge later on, we just don't know what that'll be. Oh, and I've got no problem with the charge as:

a) a lot of content uploaded WILL be pirated and they're effectively licencing it all when you do upload.

b) iTunes content ripped at lower bitrates effectively gets a free upgrade without having to spend the time re-ripping

c) most importantly, I don't have to spend WEEKS (and I'm lucky, unlimited uploads, most would have to batch this over months) uploading my data and clogging my internet connection in the process. That's easily worth $25.

A) true
b) but you have to spend the time redownloading everything and then loss a huge amount of space on your Hard drive to it. For me 128-160kbps is fine and I can not really tell the difference going higher. Just more space is sucked up. Remember in music file quality you get deminsiong returns very quickly for size increases.

c) weeks? I had 35gigs uploaded in 3-4 days with Google servers being slammed so I was not even getting close to my max upload speeds and I was also keeping it low during the day so not to mess hurt anyone else at home on the network. I estimate I was running at 0.25-0.5 Mbps when my upload speed maxes out at around 2Mbps and that was during the night when I released the reins. During the day it was limited to 128kbps.

[jeremiah256]

So how does this affect our Mobile Me subscriptions? Do we still get to keep our 20 GBs and/or is the balance of our subscription used for iTunes Match?

[uva25]

Originally Posted by Don't panic

yes, i understand that for the first year, but once the match job is done, there is no more disk storage and data transfer than with the purchased songs.
besides, the storage is really only for the unmatched uploaded songs, any song that is matched, they already have it stored so there is no additional space used.

if both me and you have legally purchased/matched 'let it be', apple doesn't store it for us twice, it just gives us both access to the stored one.

which is also why they upgrade it to whatever their database quality is.

True but the basic fact is that you can look at it that they are storing your music and keeping it available for you to download at any time. Yes, they are gaining mass efficiencies of scall but from my standpoint, it sure beats keeping a backup hard drive updated...and off site.

Originally Posted by rWally

What if you music library is larger than what your device can fit? I assume there's a way to decide what you want to download to your device?

Yes, I would assume it would work like it does know where you check off what you want to sync to your device.

[redfirebird08]

Originally Posted by iEvolution

You know what concerns me? His comment about trying to get rid of file systems locally.

I think we are approaching the end of capacity upgrades for the entire iOS eco-system & iPods.

I was hoping for a sneak upgrade of the iPod Classic to 220GB, but alas nope.

I have a 80 GB Classic that I am happy with, but I am waiting on a 100+ gig iPod Touch. Hopefully they will still end up making one with that capacity when flash prices become more affordable.

[MarsDude]

My wife and I now share an apple-id on our iPhones (and on our family-iPad). Good thing about it is: 1-time purchase of apps.

Now if we want to use the iCloud, we have to buy our apps 3 times probably, as every device needs his own apple-id account. This because my wife and I don't want to sync everything with eachother, and the iPad is for family use.

How about the Match service? This seems to be connected to your apple-id... Do we need to pay 3 x 24,99 if I, my wife and maybe later on my son, want to access the music on another location?

We could ofcourse get 1 'home' account for the music and match, but that way it would be a bit clunky as I'd have to log in to a different account on my MacBook to get the music in our Shared library. And no other device could take advantage of the service.

Lots of questions...

[lilo777]

Originally Posted by oclor

This is absolutely WORTHLESS!

I was so excited for this because I ran out of space on both my iPad and iPhone but now they are telling me all this does is store it in the cloud so i can DOWNLOAD it on different devices??? So it's just a backup???

I though I was going to be able to STREAM my music and photos so that they don't take so much space on my iPad/iPhone

Oh and I paid $99 to extend my mobileme subscription last month, thinking that when this came out I would just be compensated with extra storage, but they don't even seem to offer extra storage (not that storage is useful for anything anyways with this model)

I'm a die hard apple fan and this is the first time I have been very disappointed with them. This just doesn't make any sense, I don't see the point in it at all!

But remember, Apple is in this business to sell you hardware. They overcharge people big time when they sell them flash memory manufactured by Samsung. Now that it's easier to sync your music between different devices you will have an incentive to maximize storage on all Apple devices that you buy. BTW, is iCloud really just a simple sync app?

[baleensavage]

Originally Posted by jeremiah256

So how does this affect our Mobile Me subscriptions? Do we still get to keep our 20 GBs and/or is the balance of our subscription used for iTunes Match?

iTunes match has nothing to do with your MobileMe subscription. This is a new feature/product that they are offering. Your MobileMe subscription is being replaced by iCloud and Apple did not address how that will be transitioned or what will happen to iDisk and the e-mail addresses.

[slu]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

So Lala for 25 bucks a year? I am ok with that.