Apple Debuts iTunes Match With Audio Fingerprint for Apple Music Users

[Putzytart]

Only thing iTunes Match provides extra is non-DRM matching. so if u care about keeping your 'matched' music 'DRM free', yes keep both.

"Apple Music matching now also offers up DRM-free music files, just like iTunes Match."

So by that, my understanding is that as I subscribe to Apple music, the only reason to pay for iTunes match is to have wireless download access to my rare music that is not on iTunes.....???

 

[Icaras]

"Apple Music matching now also offers up DRM-free music files, just like iTunes Match."

So by that, my understanding is that as I subscribe to Apple music, the only reason to pay for iTunes match is to have wireless download access to my rare music that is not on iTunes.....???

No, there won't be a need for iTunes Match for that either because Apple music also covers that in iCloud Music Library:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204926

With your Apple Music membership, you can access your music library on all of your devices using iCloud Music Library. When you sign in to Apple Music on any of your devices, you can see your library in My Music.
Your music library includes:

• songs, albums, and playlists that you added from the Apple Music catalog;

• music that you bought from iTunes; and

• music from other sources in iTunes on your Mac or PC, including CDs that you ripped and music that you created yourself.

 

[firefoxsilver9]

any idea how long the rollout will take? i really want to be able to test this while i still have my subscription active. i set it to not auto-renew so it will expire in a few weeks

 

[Rogifan]

Ok now Apple please fix this. If I have iTunes music I paid for in My Music library I shouldn't be seeing this pop up message. I don't care if it's not available on Apple Music if I already own it!

 

[Apple4everr]

Still not going to use it, or Apple Music for that matter.

Spotify won the streaming wars!

I keep my music in Finder, screw iTunes Bloatware

I think they will be out of business soon enough, they are currently losing close to 170 million per year, how much longer can they survive?

 

[Peepo]

I just tested it on an album which it previously had completely mangled and matched incorrectly. Now it works correctly. Also verified that downloading the m4a after a match is DRM free!

If they would have done this from the beginning, there would not have been so much confusion regarding Apple Music and iTunes Match. Basically one can think of having your music in the cloud now with streaming ability vs. the backwards way it was promoted before (streaming with ability to "sort-of" add your own music).

My ONLY wish now is for an override match button for some albums which there are a mix of matched/uploaded songs. So people do not abuse and just upload everything while wasting their cloud space, Apple could prevent this by enforcing it so there has to be a mix of matched and uploads in an album before it lets one override to upload entire album (eg. upload/fix mismatched album).

 

[Dvda66au]

Whatever options you noobs choose, if your local music is important to you, backup first before subscribing to ANY extra music services.

Resolved.

 

[freediverx]

Well it took long enough. Here's to them fixing the Safari freeze issues on El Capitan sometime this year as well.

Hmm, I'm not familiar with any Safari freezing issues.

 

[redboxcar]

any idea how long the rollout will take? i really want to be able to test this while i still have my subscription active. i set it to not auto-renew so it will expire in a few weeks

+1... How can I tell when this becomes active for me?

 

[jsmith189]

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but will that then require a new scan of the library? Because there are plenty of songs that were automatically matched and play incorrectly. But according to this, now they'll play correctly? Wouldn't that need a new scan to figure out - or is there a step in the process I'm missing?

This is a great, GREAT step though.

 

[Ratmandu82]

I subscribe to AM and the matching does indeed appear to working much better. My studio Def Leppard tracks are no longer showing up as the live versions. This wasn't the case in the past.

 

[bilibug]

Ok now Apple please fix this. If I have iTunes music I paid for in My Music library I shouldn't be seeing this pop up message. I don't care if it's not available on Apple Music if I already own it!

Did you delete the local file from your device or iTunes library?

 

[djeeyore25]

I dropped iTunes match after Apple killed the commercial free radio. I see why Apple wanted to kill the commercial free radio but it doesn't change the fact that Apple was selling commercial free radio as part of an iTunes match subscription. At a minimum, Apple should have let the consumer continue with commercial free radio until their subscription was up. It may sound trivial to some, but I expect a company to honor their commitments when I purchase a product. I could now care less how Apple does.

I agree completely. They were advertising the free radio up until a couple of months before it was dropped from iTunes Match. I'm surprised there hasn't been a class action lawsuit filed.
[doublepost=1468892443][/doublepost]

To folks that have iTunes Match:
Does it still have issues matching the right versions of songs? E.g., explicit vs clean, compilation vs album, b-sides vs album, live recordings, etc.?

I haven't had many issues, just a wrong matched track here and there. The problem is they don't provide a simple fix. Apple should just provide an option to manually upload incorrectly matched songs. Easy.

 

[Peepo]

I am also wondering if matching - is this limited to AM songs or does it match iTunes store songs?
I have an old album by artist: Fear, album name: More Beer
It is not available in AM for streaming (was first week or so then went away).
I removed and re-added and still shows uploaded like before but the album is available for purchase in iTunes. Could be possibility the match did not work at all but I don't really have many more examples right now to try.

 

[phoenixjhs]

I used to have iTunes Match since it rolled out until now. So I can play music from my phone, Apple TV or iPad at the same time. While when I had my trial of Apple Music, I can only play the music that I didn't owned One at a time in one device, while my matched music can be played on mutiple device simotaneously. When my trailed expired, I didn't subscribe to Apply Music because I can't play music on multiple device at the same time.


Therefore, after the Apple Music update to Match service as this artile mentioned. Can I play matched music (the ones I own and matched) at the same time in diffferent device now (without the need of subscribe to Match service)? How about the music from Apple Music(the ones I don't own), can they be played in multiple device at the same time?

Will any subscriber help clarify it? Thank you !!

 

[tmanto02]

About time! The initial matching screwed about 1k songs of my 20k library so looking forward to a fix!

 

[Nozuka]

finally! itunes match was annoying, because you had to add a creditcard to use it.
apple music on the other hand works without it.

 

[navaira]

I can't wait for others to test this thoroughly before I put my countless Pet Shop Boys remixes (American only, German only, UK only, promo only...) through it. If it's fixed, Apple have my money – if only because I have SO enough of Spotify widget crashing multiple times per day and their customer service advising me that I subscribe to their beta testing group, then sending me to a link that's been closed for new applications a year earlier.

Spotify solved the problem of mismatching by allowing you to use local tracks without any cloud nonsense by the way. It's uncomfortable, but works.

 

[randian]

iTunes Match deletes/alters your local iTunes library? If so no way I'm buying it, I have too much rare stuff and carefully curated metadata and album artwork. Is there an alternative for getting your iTunes music onto your iPhone?

 

[mcnaugha]

As some others have pointed out, this is a bit of a misleading article. What it says really only applies to people who just enjoyed matching to content available from Apple. Uploaded content, i.e. that which is not available in the iTunes catalogue, will not be covered/maintained without an iTunes Match subscription. It's possible Apple will absorb the service into an Apple Music subscription but they're going to have to be very clear about it and publish support FAQ, etc. I would advise caution about cancelling iTunes Match subscriptions until we have it from the horse's mouth.
[doublepost=1468926780][/doublepost]

Yes, it would seem iTunes Match is entirely redundant now if you have Apple Music.

I don't believe we have this in writing from Apple. As in my last post, content not available in the iTunes or Apple Music catalogue will not be maintained if you drop iTunes Match subscription. I personally have a lot of content which was obtained via other services and is not match-able to the iTunes/Apple Music catalogue. If I cancel my iTunes Match subscription this will no longer be available from the cloud. I personally use iTunes Match as a music backup/archive facility so that I can clear out space on my computers. Until Apple says it clearly, I am not risking that by cancelling my iTunes Match. Only cancel your iTunes Match if you have never bought/ripped music elsewhere that isn't on sale in iTunes. If your entire collection is bought from iTunes or also available from iTunes then you don't need iTunes Match anymore.

 

[milo]

Wait so they've been using something with worse matching than iTunes match? That's hard to even imagine, Match was atrocious from the beginning and never improved.

 

[malnar]

I can confirm nothing has changed for iTunes Match users who also have Apple Music. It still has the same stupid problems matching that it has had for FIVE YEARS. Easy test: if you own The Beatles In Mono, add one of the mono versions of the albums to IM/AM. It simply matches it to the existing stereo tracks. This is why I keep Google Play Music on my iPhone so I can hear the ACTUAL music I want (because GPM either doesn't match this and uploads, or allows me to fix the incorrect match.) Infuriating.

 

[navaira]

Wait so they've been using something with worse matching than iTunes match?

Half a year ago they matched by title ONLY, ignoring length, album title and other metadata. Actually it was even worse, as "Rebel Heart (Demo 4)" has been deemed to be the same as "Rebel Heart". I assume Match must be an enormous improvement but I'm not going to fork €10 to check that – yet.

 

[YUNOThinkAnalytically]

Well it took long enough. Here's to them fixing the Safari freeze issues on El Capitan sometime this year as well.

That's not a wide spread problem. I'd do some troubleshooting before assuming it's a problem for everyone who uses Safari on El Cap.

P.s. I work out of Safari on El Cap for 8 hours a day 5 days a week and never have any issues with freezing. Also, Try checking out the Safari Tech preview to see if it helps!

 

[Sy7ygy]

& who uses iTunes Match? Wrong again, get with the program Apple. Quality products to serve as a platform for good services from dedicated companies.

Butter spread over to much bread.