Apple Music Apple Music Merge worth it?

[dukebound85]

I have been a subscriber to Apple Music for some time and have alswas not merged my library with my files for fear of the synching with Apple music will destroy my library (ie different editions, artists not matching, etc)

However, I would very much like to make playlists of new music I listen to in Apple music and it seems the only way (?) is to add to my library - which requires merging.

Is merging safe these days with Apple Music? My files stay my files correct?

 

[Crunchynut]

I tried this 18 months ago and it ended up in right mess - my precious rips replaced by wannabes and duplicates left right and centre. So i keep them separate or sync incrementally so I can control what happens and reject it if the sync process doesn’t do what I want.

It may have gotten better by now though, with software updates.

 

[dukebound85]

ugh, doesn't inspire confidence to use

 

[pup]

I have no love nor confidence whatsoever in the Music app, but I’ve kept my library synched since I signed up years ago and have never had any issues with ripped files getting replaced.

 

[martens]

I thought the whole point of iTunes Match was to just make it streamable, not archive it. It's always been lossy, compared to CD quality. I think it tops out at AAC 256 kpbs and that's part of the terms. The program predates broadband after all when that rate was considered pretty good at the time. But that's better than most 'legacy' MP3 files of the early days, and upgrades those. And there's plenty of things I've ripped that are not available in the streaming services. It means I don't need to be tied to a CD player to listen to it.

 

[LCC0256]

I would be interested in learning more about the facts here. I have been "Apple Music" subscriber in it's various stages since before it was even called iTunes. I have my 07 iMac with iTunes where ALL my music sits. I consider it my master music library because the music flies all sit on the SSD drive in the iMac. I ripped 500 or so songs - the rest have come from Apple - either purchased/matched or "added to my library" from my Apple Music membership. I looked the other day on my iMac & my ripped songs were still lossless ALAC since I had made sure to have the settings set at the highest quality while ripping through the optical drive on the iMac. However the REST OF THE MUSIC files are in AAC. I had been an iTunes Match member prior to Apple Music subscriber. Now supposedly Apple is streaming in higher resolution than it had been historically. I am not going to risk doing anything to my OG library sitting in iTunes on my old iMac. However I would like to know since none of my other MacBook pros have any music files sitting on their respective SSD's -when I do use them to stream music do they receive that music from the cloud in something other than AAC? Ditto for my iPad & iPhone - do they too receive the music from the cloud in something other than AAC? I sincerely appreciate any comments. Thank you Larry C

 

[Crunchynut]

iPad and iPhone music apps have settings to determine download quality and hence you can choose compressed (AAC), lossless (16 bit 44.1 KHz) or hi-re lossless (24 bit 48KHz and above). I don’t know about Mac as I’m not a user.

 

[martens]

iPad and iPhone music apps have settings to determine download quality and hence you can choose compressed (AAC), lossless (16 bit 44.1 KHz) or hi-re lossless (24 bit 48KHz and above). I don’t know about Mac as I’m not a user.

On Mac, it looks like 16 bit 44KHz, even if Hi-Res lossless is available. Or AAC if lossless isn't available. You can choose to download Dolby Atmos by default, when that is available.