Apple Music Beatles mono remasters and Apple Music

[Cassandle]

I've got a slightly niche request for help.

I have the mono remaster CD boxset of the Beatles albums. Now I've got some really excellent wired headphones I want to re-rip them to my music library in lossless. I've got a folder of the albums in flac (which I now know I have to convert to ALAC 🙄, my mistake)

How do I ensure that Apple Music doesn't just convert them to stereo mixes when I import them. I want to play the lossless files in mono. My previous import (years ago, pre-Apple Music as I've had these CDs for a long time) saw a lot of songs converted to stereo).

 

[swandy]

I have a MP3 rip of the Beatles in mono from when the CDs were released with the stereo and mono versions. I combined all the mono versions in Apple Music to a single album called Beatles in Mono. When I listen in my car or with my AirPods Pro the mix sounds like the mono mixes not the stereo ones. So I guess since none of the mono mixes are in Apple Music the system will stream what I actually uploaded. Sort of like the live bootlegs I have that Apple Music also can’t match.

 

[Brenster]

With difficulty.

My own Beatles In Mono rips were added to my iCloud Music Library, most of which were uploaded unchanged, but the odd track was matched with the stereo version. Also had the same issue with the Capitol Albums vol 1&2 CD sets being incorrectly matched with the US Albums set, but again only with some tracks.

would love Apple Music/iCloud Music Library to have an ‘upload but do not match’ option.

 

[mallbritton]

I don't currently have the mono masters in my library because of this issue. Every time I try to add them to my library all the tracks always get "matched" to the stereo tracks. Not what I want, at all.

 

[amiantos]

I stumbled on a Reddit comment that seems to have found a way to prevent AM from swapping in stereo copies:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleMusic/comments/nvio6y/_/h1gm5yl

Basically just rip or convert to lossless at 96kHz/24-bit and AM won’t try to match them with stereo copies.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I stumbled on a Reddit comment that seems to have found a way to prevent AM from swapping in stereo copies:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleMusic/comments/nvio6y/_/h1gm5yl

Basically just rip or convert to lossless at 96kHz/24-bit and AM won’t try to match them with stereo copies.

If one does this what amount of data is being streamed when listening? Is it 34MB per minute (the approximate size of 24/96)?