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Apple Launches iTunes Match with Release of iTunes 10.5.1 [Updated]

Playlists, play counts and ratings

So if you can no longer sync music with your computer once you move to iCloud matching, then what about your playlists? And are your play counts updated across all devices?? I guess rating are just meta data, so I assume those would be updated as you change them.

Also, I'm trying to understand this, if most of my library is old mp3 rips and I sign up for matching, then I can redownload those songs in the higher format and keep those new files regardless of if I stop using match in the future? Essentially I can upgrade my whole library? (assuming they match).


And anytime I add music to my library, it will be matched and upgraded?
 
ctdonath said:
How do audiobooks fit into this? They tend to break each disc down into ~5-minute chunks, and can chew up a lot of CDs (eyes nearby 30-disc copy of Under The Dome). A few books could chew up a LOT of the 25k track limit (ex.: 46 books like Under The Dome and that's your limit).
Click to expand...

My understanding is that this is songs only, so anything tagged as an audiobook in iTunes is excluded.

If they are tagged as songs then it will try to match them and they will come into the limit.
 
Clarification On iOS Devices

Tones2 said:
That's terrible really, since not only does it mean that you have to download over the air EVERY song that you want on your device permanently but it also means that you can't use the iTunes 128 kbps on the fly conversion to load music onto your device to save room.

This seemed cool until they made that FATAL flaw. What were they thinking?

Is it possible NOT to enable iTunes Match on the devices but still have your uploaded songs (and all meta-data) be "available" for download on request like it does currently using iCloud?

Tony
Click to expand...

All right, hopefully someone will nail this down before I get home from work. I can set up my computers for iTunes Match and leave my iOS devises (iPad 1 and a couple of 32GB iPod Touches) out of the equation, correct? That way I can continue to manually manage my synching of songs and other materials on the iPad/iPod. I'm not interested in cloud based streaming or synching at this time, but I want to upgrade my CD collection currently housed on the hard drive before I leave the country for a few months.
 
ryanide said:
So if you can no longer sync music with your computer once you move to iCloud matching, then what about your playlists? And are your play counts updated across all devices?? I guess rating are just meta data, so I assume those would be updated as you change them.

Also, I'm trying to understand this, if most of my library is old mp3 rips and I sign up for matching, then I can redownload those songs in the higher format and keep those new files regardless of if I stop using match in the future? Essentially I can upgrade my whole library? (assuming they match).


And anytime I add music to my library, it will be matched and upgraded?
Click to expand...

You have to re-scan your library using the Store menu in Itunes to get new music in the cloud.

Your counts and ratings live in the cloud along with your playlists.
 
absurdamerica said:
You have to re-scan your library using the Store menu in Itunes to get new music in the cloud.

Your counts and ratings live in the cloud along with your playlists.
Click to expand...

Actually, iTunes will automatically re-scan when you add anything new. No need in most situations to manually re-scan
 
I was gung-ho to try this, especially after the wait.
Spent a lot of time trying to chop my library down to under 25k songs.
Its at 27.5k, and when I tried to purchase Match it told me I couldn't due to being over 25k.
I now question whether I need or want it. I have a 16g iPad and a 16g iPhone4, and a 160g iPod Classic. I'm not sure its that hard for me to just put what I want to hear currently on the Pad and Phone, and if I want access to (almost) everything I own, there's the iPod Classic.
I'm gonna pass for now although I like the concept and it will work for many/most.
 
Answered my own question--I think

sommer182 said:
All right, hopefully someone will nail this down before I get home from work. I can set up my computers for iTunes Match and leave my iOS devises (iPad 1 and a couple of 32GB iPod Touches) out of the equation, correct? That way I can continue to manually manage my synching of songs and other materials on the iPad/iPod. I'm not interested in cloud based streaming or synching at this time, but I want to upgrade my CD collection currently housed on the hard drive before I leave the country for a few months.
Click to expand...

To add an iOS device to iTunes Match

1.On your iOS device with iOS 5.0.1 or later, go to Settings > Music. You can find the latest iOS software here.
2.Tap the iTunes Match switch to On.




3.To access your music in iCloud, open the Music Player app on your device.
4.Your music in iCloud will be integrated into your local music library. A download button will appear to the right of content that you have in iCloud that doesn't already exist on your device.
Important:

■When enabling iTunes Match on your iOS device, the music library on your iOS device will be deleted and then replaced with your music in iCloud.
■Syncing music with iTunes will be disabled while iTunes Match is enabled on your iOS device.
■By default, downloading over a cellular network is disabled. To download using cellular data, you must manually enable downloads using cellular data.1

Looks like you just have to disable each device and you should be able to match away, computer only, and still manually sync your devices old school. If it works that way I am in.
 
Mono Rips

Does anyone know what happens to mono rips of songs? And I'm not talking about crappy, illicitly obtained MP3s from years ago; I'm talking about mono versions I deliberately have.

E.g., I own the Beatles in Mono box set, and a few others, and I would hate to have those replaced by their stereo versions.
 
touchmonkey said:
I was gung-ho to try this, especially after the wait.
Spent a lot of time trying to chop my library down to under 25k songs.
Its at 27.5k, and when I tried to purchase Match it told me I couldn't due to being over 25k.
I now question whether I need or want it. I have a 16g iPad and a 16g iPhone4, and a 160g iPod Classic. I'm not sure its that hard for me to just put what I want to hear currently on the Pad and Phone, and if I want access to (almost) everything I own, there's the iPod Classic.
I'm gonna pass for now although I like the concept and it will work for many/most.
Click to expand...

I think the big selling point for me was that I had multiple computers, all with libraries that were out of sync with each other. This one library thing, plus not having to have a computer on to listen to music on my Apple TV are huge in my listening world. People with a single computer, though, I'm not sure how useful it is other than upgrading your music.
 
absurdamerica said:
1. There is no more syncing. A song is either on your device or it's not just like with the list of "purchased" music in the iTunes application.

If it's not, click the cloud icon and it will be on your device, After that no data is used because the song exists locally.
Click to expand...

But how does it handle things like smart playlists that auto update? Previously I could just sync everything at once. Now with Match, as songs are played and playlists get updated, does it automatically get the fresh songs at some point? If not, since there's no more "sync" do I have to do a cloud download for each playlist?

Also, whatever they want to call it, when I'm in my house I want to be able to load songs from my local hard drive and not have to sit and wait for it to come from Apple's server.
 
oxocube said:
Does anyone know what happens to mono rips of songs? And I'm not talking about crappy, illicitly obtained MP3s from years ago; I'm talking about mono versions I deliberately have.

E.g., I own the Beatles in Mono box set, and a few others, and I would hate to have those replaced by their stereo versions.
Click to expand...

That is a good question. People in the beta were having issues with getting clean versions of their songs matched when they had the explicit versions.

Remember, though, nothing on your local library gets deleted, so even if it didn't match them right you still have your original files.
 
Where the heck do get iTunes 10.5.1!!!

i purchased iTunes match but it doesn't show up in the column bar???
 
Who is going to be the first person to get their library down just under 25k songs, sign up, let Match complete, and then drop an extra thousand songs in your library?

I can get my library under 25k if I need to - but I don't want to then bump up against the limit in a few weeks...
 
milo said:
But how does it handle things like smart playlists that auto update? Previously I could just sync everything at once. Now with Match, as songs are played and playlists get updated, does it automatically get the fresh songs at some point? If not, since there's no more "sync" do I have to do a cloud download for each playlist?

Also, whatever they want to call it, when I'm in my house I want to be able to load songs from my local hard drive and not have to sit and wait for it to come from Apple's server.
Click to expand...

My unofficial estimate during the beta, was about 5 to 10 minutes for songs, metadata and playlists getting updated on my phone after changing things on my computer. That's not bad.

And remember, any songs you already have locally on your hard drive, iTunes will play first rather than stream. For things like the Apple TV, you have the option to stream from Match or connect to a local computer.

Also, I have a pretty bad internet connection at my house, but my Apple TV still streams all my music without a hitch from Match.
 
oxocube said:
Does anyone know what happens to mono rips of songs? And I'm not talking about crappy, illicitly obtained MP3s from years ago; I'm talking about mono versions I deliberately have.

E.g., I own the Beatles in Mono box set, and a few others, and I would hate to have those replaced by their stereo versions.
Click to expand...

Hey there,

I have the same boxed set in both Stereo and Mono, and it uploaded my MP3s of the Mono mixes and the Stereo mixes separately, just like I had them in iTunes.

Sgt. Pepper's original mono mixes are nothing short of glorious. Now I can enjoy them from anywhere in the world, whenever I want.

Hope this helps!
 
tharris0101 said:
That is a good question. People in the beta were having issues with getting clean versions of their songs matched when they had the explicit versions.

Remember, though, nothing on your local library gets deleted, so even if it didn't match them right you still have your original files.
Click to expand...

The point about it not replacing your original files is key (and often misunderstood I think). It is possible that it will put the wrong version in the cloud, but you will still have the proper one in your main library.

As goes mono vs stereo, I'd like this confirmed but my suspicion is that the checks that it does on the files would differentiate it as a different file to the stereo version and would upload.

If you try it then please report back whether it matches with the stereo or not.

Edit: Answered above. Good news. :)

----------
Jacquesass said:
Who is going to be the first person to get their library down just under 25k songs, sign up, let Match complete, and then drop an extra thousand songs in your library?

I can get my library under 25k if I need to - but I don't want to then bump up against the limit in a few weeks...
Click to expand...

I'd considered that, but what about when you buy a CD in a few weeks, after you have done this? Once you add the other tracks, I assume it will match to 25,000 and then any new CD's won't be uploaded.
 
touchmonkey said:
I was gung-ho to try this, especially after the wait.
Spent a lot of time trying to chop my library down to under 25k songs.
Its at 27.5k, and when I tried to purchase Match it told me I couldn't due to being over 25k.
I now question whether I need or want it. I have a 16g iPad and a 16g iPhone4, and a 160g iPod Classic. I'm not sure its that hard for me to just put what I want to hear currently on the Pad and Phone, and if I want access to (almost) everything I own, there's the iPod Classic.
I'm gonna pass for now although I like the concept and it will work for many/most.
Click to expand...
I think I'm just going to be manually managing my iPhone and iPad a lot now. Everything I have still fits on my 120GB classic (92GB), so that's not an issue. Also nice that you have it backed up, but I back up my library, plus all the FLACs I have transcoded to make my songs fit onto all my devices (including my 200GB MBP) on multiple external hard drives so I better not have multiple hard drive failures at the same time...
 
wherewuz said:
I have the same boxed set in both Stereo and Mono, and it uploaded my MP3s of the Mono mixes and the Stereo mixes separately, just like I had them in iTunes.
Click to expand...

I assume that it matched the stereos didn't it, rather than uploading?

Quite a major matching failure if it didn't. :)

----------
Eric S. said:
I wouldn't be surprised to find there is a significant downside to the way it "matches" music.
Click to expand...

In what way?
 
Nobody's tested whether Genius will match iCloud songs that aren't on the device? That's the main way I'd probably want to use it; streaming songs automatically like Pandora.
 
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