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Apple Sending Out iTunes Match Renewal Notices to U.S. Users
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When is the next release?
When will the matching issues be fixed? I have dozens of albums from CDs ripped IN ITUNES that failed to match one or more (usually 50%) of the tracks!
Any other improvements coming? How about the ability to update the metadata from the iTunes store?
When will the matching issues be fixed? I have dozens of albums from CDs ripped IN ITUNES that failed to match one or more (usually 50%) of the tracks!
Any other improvements coming? How about the ability to update the metadata from the iTunes store?
Paying to be a Beta Tester
BOHICA Beta users.
What "just works" with match is your credit card being charged.
BOHICA Beta users.
What "just works" with match is your credit card being charged.
In late August/early September, I got a pop-up on my phone saying my account had expired. I thought that was weird and went ahead and paid the $25 again. At the time it showed up in my bank statement online. Recently it happened again and I checked my account on iTunes and it said my account was set to expire in November. After re-syncing my library and turning match off and on with my phone, the library reappeared. I contacted Apple about it a few days ago and they've been sending me regular updates while they try to figure out what happened. I went back and checked the statements from September and the $25 is listed on there.
I quite like iTunes match!
My library is around 8000 songs at the moment, and 80% of it is matched, 7.2% of it purchased, and the remaining 12.8% uploaded.
Since I've got loads of demos from unsigned bands, and lots of stuff that isn't on the iTunes store (lots of bootlegs, B-sides etc), I don't think that's bad.
To say I upgraded 80% of my library to higher quality audio for £22, I'd say it was worth it!
I don't however use iTunes Match on my iPhone... I'd love to, but 3G internet just isn't fast enough for my liking, and when I'm traveling in places with poor signal it's the worst thing ever.
My library is around 8000 songs at the moment, and 80% of it is matched, 7.2% of it purchased, and the remaining 12.8% uploaded.
Since I've got loads of demos from unsigned bands, and lots of stuff that isn't on the iTunes store (lots of bootlegs, B-sides etc), I don't think that's bad.
To say I upgraded 80% of my library to higher quality audio for £22, I'd say it was worth it!
I don't however use iTunes Match on my iPhone... I'd love to, but 3G internet just isn't fast enough for my liking, and when I'm traveling in places with poor signal it's the worst thing ever.
Unfortunately, no thanks...
I signed up knowing full well that I couldn't fully make use of Match for my main music library, but had hopes that they might lift the cap on tracks. With no hint of that happening, I don't see my continued iTunes MatchGames of juggling "smaller" libraries in order to come in under the cap worth the effort, so no renewal for me.
Add the ability to exclude tracks from matching (i.e., tracks I know won't be matched or that I don't care to have matched) and I might reconsider, even if the cap doesn't change.
I get that Apple is "compromising" with the labels by limiting the size of libraries, understanding that - in the grand scheme of things - they will be shutting out a minority audience. However, I would argue that those of us who do have legitimate music libraries exceeding the cap are also likely to have a bit of disposable income to throw toward additional purchases. It makes total sense for their overall business goals, it just sucks to be left by the wayside by Apple as a marginal customer. They shut those with large CD collections out of iTunes Match and they remove optical drives - making things more difficult for those of us who still buy as much disc-based media as possible.
I wonder at what point the ability to rip CDs in iTunes will be removed, as it doesn't fit their business model going forward?
I signed up knowing full well that I couldn't fully make use of Match for my main music library, but had hopes that they might lift the cap on tracks. With no hint of that happening, I don't see my continued iTunes MatchGames of juggling "smaller" libraries in order to come in under the cap worth the effort, so no renewal for me.
Add the ability to exclude tracks from matching (i.e., tracks I know won't be matched or that I don't care to have matched) and I might reconsider, even if the cap doesn't change.
I get that Apple is "compromising" with the labels by limiting the size of libraries, understanding that - in the grand scheme of things - they will be shutting out a minority audience. However, I would argue that those of us who do have legitimate music libraries exceeding the cap are also likely to have a bit of disposable income to throw toward additional purchases. It makes total sense for their overall business goals, it just sucks to be left by the wayside by Apple as a marginal customer. They shut those with large CD collections out of iTunes Match and they remove optical drives - making things more difficult for those of us who still buy as much disc-based media as possible.
I wonder at what point the ability to rip CDs in iTunes will be removed, as it doesn't fit their business model going forward?
I'm gonna have to wait for iTunes 11 to see how syncing works. I'm not renewing iTunes Match until I see the alternative. iTunes Match on my iPhone never seemed to keep the music that I listen to often, which I thought it would. Even though I have plenty of room on my 64GB iPhone 5, it would just erase my music and redownload it again every time I played it. That took a toll on my data usage, often throwing me over my cap.
It was worth getting it to upgrade all my music to 256K but I can easily WiFi sync my music into my iPhone and iPad.
It was worth getting it to upgrade all my music to 256K but I can easily WiFi sync my music into my iPhone and iPad.
I tried it out for the first year, but had quite a few issues, and overall wasn't very impressed with it. I have already turned off my auto-renewal and don't plan on purchasing again.
I'm using Amazon's competing service for my 45,000 tracks; iTunes Match didn't cut it.
It's a mixed bag; matching/uploading my music collection took over a FRICKIN WEEK!!! On the plus side, they have clients for everything, iPhone, iPad, Android, even the awesome Sonos system which I love.
On the downside, iOS integration is sucky, but that's probably Apple's fault: if you download music, it's only visible in Amazon's MP3 app, NOT in the Apple Music app (the Amazon MP3 Cloud Player shows both your resident Apple tracks and the downloaded Amazon tracks). I don't think apps are able to push tracks into the music repository.
Bottom line, it's clunky, but if you have a fairly large music collection it's your only option; same thing if you want to share with non-Apple devices.
It's a mixed bag; matching/uploading my music collection took over a FRICKIN WEEK!!! On the plus side, they have clients for everything, iPhone, iPad, Android, even the awesome Sonos system which I love.
On the downside, iOS integration is sucky, but that's probably Apple's fault: if you download music, it's only visible in Amazon's MP3 app, NOT in the Apple Music app (the Amazon MP3 Cloud Player shows both your resident Apple tracks and the downloaded Amazon tracks). I don't think apps are able to push tracks into the music repository.
Bottom line, it's clunky, but if you have a fairly large music collection it's your only option; same thing if you want to share with non-Apple devices.
I have both a iP5 and iP4S (5 is my personal phone, 4S is for work) and both are attached to the same AppleID for purchases (I have a seperate ID for iCloud on my work phone as I'd rather keep my personal pictures and such off my work phone and vice versa).
I got a notice as I went to listen to my library (it's about 8000 songs, probably a third of which are bought from iTunes in the first place) that I was no longer subscribed to iTunes match on my personal phone. I figured "Ehh my sub must be up, I'll just go renew it" as I really like the service (especially now that you can stream to iOS devices without having to DL the file). So I log into my account on my computer and it has me on auto renew set for sometime in January of next year.
I checked my work phone and was still connected and subscribed to iTunes match as well and was halfway to the Apple Store when it all of the sudden came back....
All that being said, I've had my share of problems with the service (files not downloading correctly/being corrupted and not playing, this was my first connectivity issue that shut me completely out of the service) but as I've moved over to almost all digital media (which if purchased through iTunes doesn't go toward the 25k cap) I find it to be invaluable for only $25 a YEAR.
To be honest, I'm not sure why anyone would continue to buy disc media (music anyways) at this point. I have somewhere between 5000-6000 songs that I've ripped into iTunes over the years that count toward that cap. So, if I'm someone worried about going over the limit (unless I already have over 25000 songs to begin with), I just buy from iTunes instead! It's not like you're paying any more - especially if you time buying the iTunes cards right (get $50 card for $40 - stuff like that).
I guess the point of this huge long anecdote is three fold:
-I love iTunes match, despite its bugs, and will continue to renew.
-I can't imagine why anyone would buy CDs, especially if they like the idea of iTunes match but are scared of the cap.
-I hope 6.0.1/iTunes 11 fixes some of these bugs
I got a notice as I went to listen to my library (it's about 8000 songs, probably a third of which are bought from iTunes in the first place) that I was no longer subscribed to iTunes match on my personal phone. I figured "Ehh my sub must be up, I'll just go renew it" as I really like the service (especially now that you can stream to iOS devices without having to DL the file). So I log into my account on my computer and it has me on auto renew set for sometime in January of next year.
I checked my work phone and was still connected and subscribed to iTunes match as well and was halfway to the Apple Store when it all of the sudden came back....
All that being said, I've had my share of problems with the service (files not downloading correctly/being corrupted and not playing, this was my first connectivity issue that shut me completely out of the service) but as I've moved over to almost all digital media (which if purchased through iTunes doesn't go toward the 25k cap) I find it to be invaluable for only $25 a YEAR.
To be honest, I'm not sure why anyone would continue to buy disc media (music anyways) at this point. I have somewhere between 5000-6000 songs that I've ripped into iTunes over the years that count toward that cap. So, if I'm someone worried about going over the limit (unless I already have over 25000 songs to begin with), I just buy from iTunes instead! It's not like you're paying any more - especially if you time buying the iTunes cards right (get $50 card for $40 - stuff like that).
I guess the point of this huge long anecdote is three fold:
-I love iTunes match, despite its bugs, and will continue to renew.
-I can't imagine why anyone would buy CDs, especially if they like the idea of iTunes match but are scared of the cap.
-I hope 6.0.1/iTunes 11 fixes some of these bugs
Nope.
My experience with iTunes Match has been nothing short of tragic. Throughout this year with it, I'd say 90% of the time I've been so frustrated with trying to get it to work. I was hoping iTunes would announce some sort of upgrade to the service at one of the events this year, but I got nothing. I'm not going to renew, I'll just stick with Spotify and Audiogalaxy right now.
My experience with iTunes Match has been nothing short of tragic. Throughout this year with it, I'd say 90% of the time I've been so frustrated with trying to get it to work. I was hoping iTunes would announce some sort of upgrade to the service at one of the events this year, but I got nothing. I'm not going to renew, I'll just stick with Spotify and Audiogalaxy right now.
I'd rather just continue to use Spotify Premium on all my devices. There's no need to collect digital music anymore, streaming it at 320kb/s is enough for me. That and I'm not limited by what I've collected or some cap. Not to mention organizing stuff in iTunes is a royal pain if you're importing it from somewhere else.
Or people who are aware of how it works can just turn off auto renew way in advance (I turned it off right after subscribing).
They say if an account expires they delete everything, but I'm doubtful they do that right away. I'm sure after a while to save space, but I can't imagine they'd delete immediately and have many users renew after a few days and have to spend a ton of time uploading everything.
I'm on the fence about renewing (I was hoping to run iTunes 11 first and then decide, so much for that). Honestly, if I do renew, I'm tempted to let it expire first just so that I can start from scratch and see if some of the problems are fixed.
And I guess I'll need to set things up and do a mass download of all matched files before it expires.
I was thinking of getting this service, but after reading the comments I'm not too sure.
Do you all think I should get this service or just gradually buy the songs album at a time (about 150 total songs)
Do you all think I should get this service or just gradually buy the songs album at a time (about 150 total songs)
iTunes Match is great!
Sure, there were a TON of problems when it was first launched.
But fortunately Apple has paid attention to customer complaints and has been fixing the bugs.
When I travel around the country, it's really nice to hookup my Apple TV and be able to share my collection with family and friends, or just to entertain myself.
Sure, there were a TON of problems when it was first launched.
But fortunately Apple has paid attention to customer complaints and has been fixing the bugs.
When I travel around the country, it's really nice to hookup my Apple TV and be able to share my collection with family and friends, or just to entertain myself.
I will gladly renew. The only problem I've ever had with Match is a couple of times when our Apple TV wouldn't load songs, but that was literally only a couple of times and only for a few minutes. A restart of the box fixed it both times.
My wife and I have about 10,000 songs in Match and we share an Apple ID--this works beautifully for us. Every song we have is everywhere all the time, and that is something I have wished for ever since I got my first MP3 player years ago (not an iPod by the way). I think Apple did a good job with this, and it works especially well now that I've ditched my ATT iPhone 4 and switched to a Verizon iPhone 5. I am now seeing how Match is truly supposed to work instead of having to wait on ATT's crappy 3G service to give me my songs.
My wife and I have about 10,000 songs in Match and we share an Apple ID--this works beautifully for us. Every song we have is everywhere all the time, and that is something I have wished for ever since I got my first MP3 player years ago (not an iPod by the way). I think Apple did a good job with this, and it works especially well now that I've ditched my ATT iPhone 4 and switched to a Verizon iPhone 5. I am now seeing how Match is truly supposed to work instead of having to wait on ATT's crappy 3G service to give me my songs.
I didn't join immediately so mine isn't up for renewal yet, but if I'm going to let it run another year I'll need to see some new features and an improvement in service to convince me to continue beyond the 2nd year I think.
My initial experience with Match was awful - one of the worst I've ever had with a paid-for Apple product or service. I persevered, but can readily understand why others may have given up already.
Since then it's been ok, but no more than ok.
More granular controls would be good (I'd really like to have the option to match only specific playlists and choose whether it matches my whole library or a sub-section of it), better control over artwork would be good (sometimes if I add improved artwork it changes it back to the inferior one - it should always stick with the most recent change), and improved matching of CD-imported tracks to the iTunes equivalents that are shorter only by virtue of removed silence/gaps is a must.
Improved matching is the priority, because that's the whole point. If you have the rest of an album it should have some kind of stronger double-checking mechanism that says 'hey iTunes, look, I have tracks 1-9 and track 11 and 12 of this album that match the CD… are you really SURE that track 10 doesn't match?!'
That said, once I'd gone through my initial process of cleaning up my iTunes library and got to replace poorer quality versions with 256kbps AAC versions I've had my money's worth out of it…. so far. But it needs to improve soon to extend beyond that 2 years' worth of value I got from improving my existing downloaded files.
My initial experience with Match was awful - one of the worst I've ever had with a paid-for Apple product or service. I persevered, but can readily understand why others may have given up already.
Since then it's been ok, but no more than ok.
More granular controls would be good (I'd really like to have the option to match only specific playlists and choose whether it matches my whole library or a sub-section of it), better control over artwork would be good (sometimes if I add improved artwork it changes it back to the inferior one - it should always stick with the most recent change), and improved matching of CD-imported tracks to the iTunes equivalents that are shorter only by virtue of removed silence/gaps is a must.
Improved matching is the priority, because that's the whole point. If you have the rest of an album it should have some kind of stronger double-checking mechanism that says 'hey iTunes, look, I have tracks 1-9 and track 11 and 12 of this album that match the CD… are you really SURE that track 10 doesn't match?!'
That said, once I'd gone through my initial process of cleaning up my iTunes library and got to replace poorer quality versions with 256kbps AAC versions I've had my money's worth out of it…. so far. But it needs to improve soon to extend beyond that 2 years' worth of value I got from improving my existing downloaded files.
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