iTunes match and the failure to...match

tezmo · Nov 13, 2012

If possible I prefer that importing a CD to iTunes produces a long list of "Matched" iCloud statuses, instead of mostly matched and a few "Uploaded".

The latest CD I tried to import is this masterpiece, by Steel Panther: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balls_Out

13 of 14 tracks matched successfully, but there was 1 outstanding.

I tried everything to get it to match; slower ripping, ripping with EAC instead, even 'downloading' the song from somewhere, all with the same no-match result.

I then took the ultimate step and bought the non-matching song from iTunes, backed the file up then deleted it from iCloud and from my library, then added it for matching again - it did not match!

If iTunes Match can't even match with its own content, there isn't a hope of an audio fingerprint match when ripping from a CD - I am 100% on board with the service, in too deep to say I'm going to cultivate my collection in a different ecosystem, but I do feel put about that there is apparently no way to match content which really ought to match fine. Poor show!

Does anyone have any great ideas how I can maintain my 100% match 0% upload statistic, and still retain the Balls Out greatness of Steel Panther? Thank you

HazyCloud · Nov 19, 2012

You can forget the 100% match rate with 0% uploaded. I've ripped a CD and all but one track have been matched. While I've had some success with changing the length to match iTunes and ripping as AAC, it doesn't always work.

iTunes Match is definitely not for the OCD (not saying you are), just for the simple fact that it doesn't match things perfectly. I have close to 16K songs and I have albums all over the place where only one song was uploaded. It used to drive me nuts, but I've since just started enjoying all of my music on all of my Apple devices. Maybe iTunes 11 will bring better matching, but I'm not holding my breath.

tezmo · Nov 21, 2012

Thanks HazyCloud - I definitely am OCD, but I can see in this case it doesn't pay to be. Still I would rather have it the way it is than no iTunes Match at all!

Still it boggles the mind that iTM does not recognise songs which came from iTunes in the first place - but at least it seems this is to be expected rather than me doing something daft. Thank you!

HazyCloud · Nov 21, 2012

tezmo said:
Thanks HazyCloud - I definitely am OCD, but I can see in this case it doesn't pay to be. Still I would rather have it the way it is than no iTunes Match at all!

Still it boggles the mind that iTM does not recognise songs which came from iTunes in the first place - but at least it seems this is to be expected rather than me doing something daft. Thank you!

Agreed. I'd much rather it upload tracks here and there than not use iTM at all. It's a great service for getting your music on all of your devices.

Uplift · Nov 21, 2012

i've been annoyed by this as well. like yourself i've tried everything but it wont match some songs in an album that i know it can match.

Nermal · Nov 21, 2012

I've had problems with it too. Sometimes I get 1 track that won't match, other times I've had 2-3 tracks that do match while the rest don't. I've had matched tracks come down at 128 kb/s and I've had some albums refuse to match at all despite being available for purchase.

I also wish that there was a way to tell it not to upload everything, other than sitting at the "matching" screen so that I can hit cancel when it starts. I'm trying to do an "iTunes match", not an "iTunes upload"

(I subscribed to Match so that I could upgrade old 128 kb/s and MP3 purchases to 256 kb/s AACs; I don't need all the iCloud stuff because I have a USB cable).

Having said that, it's improved since launch with many of my old unmatched songs now being matched.

JohnDoe98 · Nov 22, 2012

Nermal said:
Having said that, it's improved since launch with many of my old unmatched songs now being matched.

Yes there is improvement, but it's only marginal. Last year upon launch, I had 17k non-classical songs matched, and 2.7k non-classical songs uploaded. I decided just the other day to see if I could improve things so I deleted all the uploaded songs from iCloud and resubmitted them. About 600 songs of the 2.7k matched. At this pace it might take another 3-4 years before Apple gets it right.

What's ironic is that there are still many tracks that I purchased through the iTunes store that still aren't matching. You'd think they could get their own content to at least match 100% of the time...

chenks · Nov 25, 2012

i'm seeing no improvement at all, not even a marginal one.

for example, i have 3 recently imported albums that exist in the iTunes store, yes what i end up with is, at best, 50% of the tracks matched in each album.

and when it comes to compilations, i find that it matches the tracks from the artists individual albums rather then from the compilation so you end up with varying volume levels thru-out the album.

here's one example of a partially matched album that exists in the iTunes store.
any suggestions and what i need to do to actually get the service to match fully?

Screen%20Shot%202012-11-24%20at%2016.26.56.png

HazyCloud · Nov 25, 2012

chenks said:
here's one example of a partially matched album that exists in the iTunes store.
any suggestions and what i need to do to actually get the service to match fully?

Image

There's only a few things you can try. You can remove the 'Uploaded' ones and re-rip them as AAC. I've had some luck with that. You can also try to make sure the length is the same as the iTunes Store and if possible, re-rip them at least 320 kpbs.

It used to bother me when songs didn't get matched, but I have close to 16,000 songs so I had to forget about it. Now I just use it and enjoy it.

chenks · Nov 25, 2012

HazyCloud said:
There's only a few things you can try. You can remove the 'Uploaded' ones and re-rip them as AAC. I've had some luck with that. You can also try to make sure the length is the same as the iTunes Store and if possible, re-rip them at least 320 kpbs.

It used to bother me when songs didn't get matched, but I have close to 16,000 songs so I had to forget about it. Now I just use it and enjoy it.

matching the track length is tricky when the itunes version claims to be longer though.

i've also found deleting the uploaded version doesn't seem to actually do it on occasions, as when i then re-attempt to add it, it changes to uploaded almost instantly and doesn't re-upload it, which suggests that when you say to remove it from the cloud it doesn't actually do it.

HazyCloud · Nov 25, 2012

chenks said:
matching the track length is tricky when the itunes version claims to be longer though.

i've also found deleting the uploaded version doesn't seem to actually do it on occasions, as when i then re-attempt to add it, it changes to uploaded almost instantly and doesn't re-upload it, which suggests that when you say to remove it from the cloud it doesn't actually do it.

Agreed. If I remove something from iCloud due to it being uploaded, I usually try to give it 24 hours before I try to match it again. I guess it's possible iTunes 11 will bring better matching.

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iTunes match and the failure to...match

tezmo

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