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Apple Activates iTunes Match Setting in iOS 5, Suggesting Imminent Launch

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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While Apple launched iOS 5 and iCloud last week, the company pushed back the debut of its paid iTunes Match service in the United States until the "end of October". While iTunes Match had been in beta testing with iTunes 10.5 developer releases, the feature was removed from the public release and instead folded into an iTunes 10.5.1 beta that will presumably debut alongside the service.

Apple appears to be moving closer to a launch of iTunes Match in the United States, as the Music section of the Settings app in iOS 5 has now gained a toggle for turning iTunes Match on and off. That toggle had been present for developers testing the service, but had disappeared in recent days for many developers. The toggle now appears to have returned for developers and is visible to the general public as well.

itunes_match_ios_5_toggle.jpg



iOS 5 Music settings before (left) and after (right) addition of iTunes Match toggle​
Non-developers turning on iTunes Match on their devices will not yet be able to sign up for the $24.99/year service, as iOS 5 pops up an alert instructing users to sign up through iTunes.

itunes_match_ios_5_alert.jpg



With iTunes 10.5.1 not yet available to the general public, signups for iTunes Match are similarly not yet functional. Apple is, however, advertising the service as "coming soon" on the front page of the iTunes Store. Interestingly, iTunes Match is reportedly only launching in the United States by the end of the month with other countries set to come later, but Apple is optimistic enough about the service's international timeline that the "coming soon" flag is showing for users in a number of other countries. So far today we have received reports of the "coming soon" flag from users in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

itunes_match_coming_soon.jpg



iTunes Match will allow users to have their music libraries matched to Apple's database of over 20 million tracks in the iTunes Store, making those songs available for use on any iCloud-enabled device associated with the user's accounts. Songs not available in the iTunes Store can be uploaded to Apple's servers and also made available across devices.

Article Link: Apple Activates iTunes Match Setting in iOS 5, Suggesting Imminent Launch
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/19/apple-activates-itunes-match-setting-in-ios-5-suggesting-imminent-launch/
garylapointe

garylapointe

macrumors 68000
Feb 19, 2006
1,886
1,245
Dearborn (Detroit), MI, USA
Physical Media for iTunes Match

Where I'm confused is will iTunes Macth let me insert a CD to match?

Or do I have to convert it to files and then match from the files?

It seems like a really inconvenient process for new discs.

And while I've ripped all my CDs at one time or another I'm not sure if (I can find them all) if they'll even match?

Gary
 
Patriot24

Patriot24

macrumors 68030
Dec 29, 2010
2,813
805
California
$25 per year to keep my entire music library safe and upgrade all (or most) of the tracks to higher quality is a no-brainer.

Remember when you had to pay an additional $0.30 per song (at least, I think that's what it was) to upgrade the quality, and that only covered songs you purchased through iTunes? If you have thousands of songs to be upgraded, the cost comparison is pretty silly.
 
ECUpirate44

ECUpirate44

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Mar 22, 2010
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Still hoping for a way to "test my library" first before signing up. Why pay if only 1/3 of my music can be matched?
 
Richdmoore

Richdmoore

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Jul 24, 2007
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I saw this toggle late last night, I didn't even recognize that it wasn't there before.

I would love to "upgrade" my music vs rerip the hundreds of CD's into 256K format, I think if 1/2 of them are upgraded, it will be worth the $25.
 
DJAKO

DJAKO

macrumors 6502a
Sep 8, 2006
601
21
Michigan
ECUpirate44 said:
Still hoping for a way to "test my library" first before signing up. Why pay if only 1/3 of my music can be matched?
Click to expand...

Taken from Apple's website.

Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to your iCloud library for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 19 million songs in the iTunes Store, chances are, your music is already in iCloud. And for the few songs that aren’t, iTunes has to upload only what it can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch.
Click to expand...
 
Eduardo1971

Eduardo1971

macrumors 65816
Jun 16, 2006
1,383
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Lost Angeles, Ca. usa
As someone who is always manually correcting the meta-information on the tracks as I'm importing them from CD's; I wonder how this will work (or not) once the matching services goes live?
 
DJAKO

DJAKO

macrumors 6502a
Sep 8, 2006
601
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ECUpirate44 said:
But this is only after you sign up right?
Click to expand...

Correct. Regardless your music will be in the "cloud". If your songs don't match, it will just take longer because they will need to be uploaded. With 19 million songs in iTunes, I feel like majority of them should be matched.
 
blastair

blastair

macrumors regular
Mar 11, 2009
130
23
I apologize if this has already been answered, but I have yet to see a definitive answer:

What if I only pay once? Will all of the matched songs still be available once the year is over? Once a song is matched is it always matched? To download to a new computer, for example?
 
ECUpirate44

ECUpirate44

macrumors 603
Mar 22, 2010
5,750
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NC
DJAKO said:
Correct. Regardless your music will be in the "cloud". If your songs don't match, it will just take longer because they will need to be uploaded. With 19 million songs in iTunes, I feel like majority of them should be matched.
Click to expand...

Great. Thanks for the clarification.
 
utwarreng

utwarreng

macrumors 6502
Aug 8, 2009
393
129
blastair said:
I apologize if this has already been answered, but I have yet to see a definitive answer:

What if I only pay once? Will all of the matched songs still be available once the year is over? Once a song is matched is it always matched? To download to a new computer, for example?
Click to expand...

I don't believe Apple has offered an answer to this question yet.
 
W

Worksafe

macrumors newbie
May 31, 2010
21
0
Re:Imminent Launch

"Imminent Launch":Those two words are getting really boring since I keep hearing of Imminent Launch's from Apple bloggers all the time and nothing materializes until about a month later. I makes for poor reading.
 
DJAKO

DJAKO

macrumors 6502a
Sep 8, 2006
601
21
Michigan
blastair said:
I apologize if this has already been answered, but I have yet to see a definitive answer:

What if I only pay once? Will all of the matched songs still be available once the year is over? Once a song is matched is it always matched? To download to a new computer, for example?
Click to expand...
I believe, and someone correct me if I am wrong...but if you stop paying after the year you will not have access to your matched music. It's a yearly service. That doesn't mean though that you can't match your music and redownload the higher bit rate and never use it again after that.

You just won't be able to redownload it after your years up.
 
S

sting2kx

macrumors newbie
Oct 19, 2011
19
0
i had about 50,000 songs in my Library so I had to cut out about 25,000 songs. I tediously went through Spotify and Rdio to add them to my collection. so the most common songs are on Rdio/Spotify while artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Beatles, who arent on those services, are covered through iTunes Match.
 
DJAKO

DJAKO

macrumors 6502a
Sep 8, 2006
601
21
Michigan
Worksafe said:
"Imminent Launch":Those two words are getting really boring since I keep hearing of Imminent Launch's from Apple bloggers all the time and nothing materializes until about a month later. I makes for poor reading.
Click to expand...

The fact that it's showing up in the music settings in iOS 5 now does make it more imminent than previously reported. :p
 
K

kiddnets

macrumors newbie
Feb 17, 2009
28
0
I have seen conflicting reports onhow this will work.....I am hoping that once I upload my library to the cloud that I can access this material via stream service and therefore not have to have the music take up space on my device.....I thought this was the entire point...but now I am seeing some reports that the music still has to be on your device taking up space...can anyone clear this up? ????
 
S

sting2kx

macrumors newbie
Oct 19, 2011
19
0
blastair said:
I apologize if this has already been answered, but I have yet to see a definitive answer:

What if I only pay once? Will all of the matched songs still be available once the year is over? Once a song is matched is it always matched? To download to a new computer, for example?
Click to expand...

im thinking songs from the iTunes will probably have some sort of DRM for downloaded songs, maybe?

I tried iTunes Match on my iMac and MBP and libraries both sync up.
 
M

Moomba

macrumors regular
Jun 7, 2008
129
4
Charlotte, NC
I signed up for iTunes Match about a month ago and through two beta iTunes have yet to have it actually work and match my tracks. It always gets stuck on Step 2 where it matches songs with the iTunes Store. Says it's processed ~8800 tracks, but sits at 0% complete with 0 remaining for days and days (till I manually stop it or quit iTunes.) Hopefully the non-beta will work bc it certainly hasn't for me. :(
 
S

sting2kx

macrumors newbie
Oct 19, 2011
19
0
kiddnets said:
I have seen conflicting reports onhow this will work.....I am hoping that once I upload my library to the cloud that I can access this material via stream service and therefore not have to have the music take up space on my device.....I thought this was the entire point...but now I am seeing some reports that the music still has to be on your device taking up space...can anyone clear this up? ????
Click to expand...

You can "stream" music but its more like caching recent songs. It'll take time to load the "stream".
 
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