iTunes Match Syncing

Well, I finally bit the bullet and paid for iTunes match. I had been using google music through the GMusic app on the appstore (very good by the way). Unfortunately, this doesn't play well with the Nike + GPS app. Said app grabs onto the music app and won't let go. I finally got sick of fumbling with this on runs, so I figured iTunes match uses the stock music app, so all should be well. Well, it is, in terms of Nike + GPS. It is not, in terms of syncing my music.

I don't buy any music on iTunes, namely because it is often cheaper elsewhere. My problem is that about half my tracks were not matched, but rather uploaded (I have around 3000 tracks). Of the tracks that were uploaded, there are maybe 100 that are not on iTunes. Most everything i own SHOULD be getting matched and not uploaded. So what do I have to do in order for iTunes to recognize them? Everything is 192kbps+ MP3 format.

I did do a bit of searching, but didn't find a real conclusive answer. The best I could find is someone recommending conversion if you had some really old low bitrate tracks, variable bitrate tracks, etc. Basically, none of the scenarios applied to me.

HazyCloud said:

There's not *much* you can do to get iTunes to match them. One thing I've found to be helpful is by creating an AAC of the MP3, deleting the MP3 from iTunes and iCloud, re-adding the AAC and running Match again. PITA? You damn right it is.

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Wow, that really... sucks LOL. What would be the success rate with this, in your experience? Is it pretty certain to work if I do the AAC conversions or is it still largely a crap shoot? I guess I simply don;t understand how iTunes actually matches songs. I always assumed it was just the track info matched with a track length or something, but I don't know. I suppose the most accurate way might be for iTunes to actually take a sample of each track (kind of like sound hound or shazam), but that might be too server intensive.

HazyCloud said:

It's been hit or miss. What's strange is sometimes I'll add an album purchased from Amazon only to have all but 2 tracks match.

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I did notice this happening with a few tracks here and there as well. So do you just use iTunes to convert or is there something you like better?

HazyCloud said:

I just use iTunes. All you need to do is make sure your import settings are set to AAC and custom 256. Like I said, it doesn't always work but it is worth a shot.

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Gave it a shot last night. Basically not worth my time. It worked for about 10 out of the 50 tracks I did. Bummer... Hopefully this improves. I wouldn;t care so much, but isn;t there a 5k song limit?

mactmaster said:

iTunes Match identifies tracks based on a section of the audio data. I've noticed that sometimes when a song has quite a bit of compression (MP3 below 320), iTunes Match has trouble matching, this is likely caused by the compression artifacts; not much you can do unless you can get a hold of higher quality sound files. Audio from CDs ripped at high bitrate will give you the highest success rate with matching.

My library of 10000+ songs is about 98% matched and my source material was mostly 256kbps AAC or Apple Lossless rips.

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Thanks for the tip. I guess I will make sure to get higher quality rips from now on.

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HazyCloud said:

Oh no, it's 25,000.

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Ah, that's a much better number. I will never hit that, I don't think.

HazyCloud said:

Also iTunes purchases don't count against your total.

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Eight, but I don't buy any music from iTunes.