iTunes Match Expands to Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden [Updated]

[MacRumors]

Apple has recently expanded iTunes Match availability to several Nordic countries, according to both reports on Twitter and tip from a MacRumors reader.

iTunes users in Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden now have access to the service, which has a yearly price of 249 kr in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway and EUR24.99 in Finland. In comparison, iTunes Match is $24.99 in the United States and £21.99 in the U.K.

First introduced in late 2011, iTunes Match allows iTunes users to match their existing iTunes libraries with high quality versions of songs from Apple's iCloud. After matching, content is available in iCloud and can be accessed from any device.

Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have also gained access to purchased music in iTunes in the Cloud, allowing previously acquired music to be downloaded on all devices.

With the introduction of iTunes Match and iTunes in the Cloud for music to additional countries today, only a few countries where Apple sells music are lacking iTunes Match or iTunes in the Cloud functionality. In Romania, Apple sells music but does not offer iTunes in the Cloud or iTunes Match, while customers in Japan can purchase music and download it via iTunes in the Cloud but cannot access iTunes Match.

All other countries where Apple sells music via iTunes now have access to both iTunes in the Cloud for music and iTunes Match. Subscribers in countries where iTunes Match is available can sign up for the service within iTunes. [Direct Link]

Update: Apple has also expanded iTunes in the Cloud support in Bulgaria and Portugal to include movies.

Article Link: iTunes Match Expands to Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden [Updated]

 

[wlossw]

How about iTunes radio in Canada... that's what I want to see.

 

[iMacDragon]

Just to be picky, technically nordic not scandinavian.

 

[freddiecable]

at long last! just give us radio also!

 

[iPusch]

first I was shocked 'bout the price

 

[Sound214]

Finally!

 

[espenrandom]

Finland is not in Scandinavia.

 

[toomuchrock]

Wish there was a way to control what goes into the cloud

I just wish there was a way to say when goes into the cloud for iTunes match and what doesn't.

Currently I have over the max number of tracks allowed so I have to have a large number of my tracks listed as AudioBooks (so they don't sync but they are still available to playlists, shared libraries, etc.). You can take an AudioBook to Music thus making it eligible for the cloud, but you can't take something once classified as Music and turn it to AudioBook to take it out of the cloud -- you have to save it locally, delete it from the library, let it delete from the cloud, reload it, and then quickly change it to an AudioBook.

Why not just a flag that says 'Include in the Cloud?' or even have the checkboxes we already have control that? Sad.

Or heck charge me another $24.99 a year and let me have double the number of tracks in the Cloud. It's a great service, but still just short of how good it could be.

 

[omenatarhuri]

Finland is not in Scandinavia.

Technically they don't state that. Merely that a number of Scandinavian countries got iTunes Match.

 

[hollose]

Finally..!

That´s great news. Subscribing as we speak...

 

[toby00001]

Just to be picky, technically nordic not scandinavian.

Finland is not in Scandinavia.

The definition of Scandinavia is ambiguous. Northern Finland is very much part of the geographical region (the Scandinavian Peninsula), but is also often considered part of the cultural-linguistic region of Scandinavia. Finland's common inclusion is due to the fact that until the 19th Century it was entirely under Swedish rule, and therefore was unambiguously part of Scandinavia.

The Nordic region is however, a very controlled definition and comprises of the countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their territories of the Åland Islands, Faroe Islands and Greenland.

 

[xmaseve]

Hopefully it works better for users in those countries than it does here in The USA! iTunes match never seems to work properly...there's always some issue along with the need to sign out / sign in again to get it temporarily working.

 

[The Banana]

Awesome! I'm from Denmark and I will definitely be using this now!

 

[Nunyabinez]

I have no where else to vent so, pardon my rant.

While on the whole I love match, the inconsistency of what matches and what doesn't makes me crazy. I have a number of albums that matched everything but one song. And they are not obscure albums, but major releases. And these are not torrented, they are ripped from physical media.

In fact, they have pushed me a few times to go to torrents to try find a version that matches. It pisses me off. Seriously. /rant

 

[Jacquesass]

I just wish there was a way to say when goes into the cloud for iTunes match and what doesn't.

...

Why not just a flag that says 'Include in the Cloud?' or even have the checkboxes we already have control that? Sad.

Or heck charge me another $24.99 a year and let me have double the number of tracks in the Cloud. It's a great service, but still just short of how good it could be.

I agree completely. The sync-all, 25k hard limit has kept me from using the service (I have just over 30k songs). Options that could work (in order of preference):

1) Let us sync >25k songs. Amazon doesn't have the same limit, so I'm guessing that it's part of the record labels' contracts with Apple.

2) Let us choose what to sync without swapping libraries, the audiobook trick, etc.

3) Just let me pay for each 25k songs. I would be happy to pay twice.

 

[dlondon]

I was hoping that Apple would expand the 25,000 song limit by now. I got fed up with waiting for for something that might never happen so I recently signed up with Amazon instead. Also, I use Sonos which is compatible with Amazon so that's a bonus.

 

[caligomez]

Hopefully it works better for users in those countries than it does here in The USA! iTunes match never seems to work properly...there's always some issue along with the need to sign out / sign in again to get it temporarily working.

Ugh.. Yes.. And when I modify song or album data, or cover art, it NEVER updates in iCloud. It's sooo frustrating for my OCD.. Even though everything is perfect on my itunes library, on my idevices I have songs out of albums, wrong cover art, old songs that were deleted, etc..

 

[osx11]

Apple charges you $25 to listen to your own music. I'm sure this service makes sense for some, but not for me.

- When I'm at home, I see no need for this. I have my music on MBP, and I can access all that via AppleTV
- I only put the most important songs on my iPhone. No need to carry around thousands of songs when you only listen to a fraction.
- I use Google's free music service. I uploaded my entire iTunes library ~14,000 songs and can access each and every song via a $1.99 app on my iPhone.

 

[mertyz]

It's about $19.65 here in Turkey.

I would definitely subscribe if I wasn't using Spotify.

 

[Mike MA]

Ok, now focus on iTunes Radio for outside the U.S.

 

[Nunyabinez]

Apple charges you $25 to listen to your own music. I'm sure this service makes sense for some, but not for me.

- When I'm at home, I see no need for this. I have my music on MBP, and I can access all that via AppleTV
- I only put the most important songs on my iPhone. No need to carry around thousands of songs when you only listen to a fraction.
- I use Google's free music service. I uploaded my entire iTunes library ~14,000 songs and can access each and every song via a $1.99 app on my iPhone.

This is the very reason that I use Match. I keep the physical bits on one machine at home. I rip them all in lossless format because I have a sound system capable of reproducing that quality.

I have three other computers signed on to Match. None of them have any media on them, but can stream all of my iTunes library. One is a work iMac the other two are MacBooks.

My iPhone and iPad can also stream the entire library (as long as I have wifi or cellular access) without having to store them.

So, maybe not for you, but very convenient for me. ;-)

 

[lighthouse_man]

I use Google's free music service. I uploaded my entire iTunes library ~14,000 songs and can access each and every song via a $1.99 app on my iPhone.

Google released its own music player on iOS not long ago.

----------

So, maybe not for you, but very convenient for me. ;-)

He has a similar service from Google for free (his third point).

 

[bkar89]

They might be abit late to the game. Spotify has a firm grip on the music market here. I pretty much stopped using itunes when spotify launched.

I only fire up iTunes if i need songs on my iPod, which is completley offline and cant stream through Spotify, or iCloud for that matter...

I dont really get why I need this service. Would be a godsend before Spotify, but after, meh...

 

[Alpina]

Am I the only Swede who can't find iTunes Match in iTunes? It's just gone, but I was able to subscribe using the external link in the article...

 

[Woyzeck]

Unlike iCloud iTunes Match is a service that provides some useful function, but in Apple's typical eat-it-or-leave-it style it's full of bugs and has limitations that are just plain stupid.

The 25.000 song limit for example (reason ?) or its inability to perform basic operations like full synchronization of songs and artwork. In my opinion they should rework everything that's named iTunes (well, maybe except for the store).