ios 6 ruined itunes match.

[GIZBUG]

Its a shame we can't download individual songs anymore from itunes match to our phone, only full albums. Seems like this is a way to raise data rates on carriers. Interesting read here on the issue. I will try to roll back to 5.1 ASAP

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/09/26/users-reporting-a-big-bag-of-hurt-with-itunes-match-and-ios-6/

 

[zhenya]

The author of that article is misinformed. You can't download individual tracks in the old manner, which is probably to reduce confusion. You can however download individual tracks by creating a playlist and adding the tracks to that.

You can also delete songs by turning off Match, deleting whatever you want to delete, then turning Match back on.

Overall, Match is much improved in iOS6. Previously Match downloaded everything you listened to permanently, meaning you had to constantly manage usage or your Music library would consume all free space. Now it sets aside a small portion of storage to cache music you have listened to recently, removing the need to manage usage for most users. In iOS5, it was also nearly impossible to listen to music as it was downloading on all but very fast connections. Now it streams well even on poor 3g connections (it's even worked for me on Edge).

 

[VeryQueasy]

I have to disagree with you. I love the way they've done iTunes Match as far as how quick the songs play without having to download then listen. It never worked for me while driving on 3G and now it's absolutely perfect while I drive.

The only time I can see myself needing to actually download music on my phone would be if I was going on an airplane that did not have WiFi... Otherwise, since I've had the iPhone(s) I've never really completely lost coverage for more than a few minutes (I haven't gone out of the country though). But I imagine if you're going on a trip or something you can easily prepare some pre-loaded music using the playlist technique.

My only gripe at the moment is the play count/last played data doesn't seem to update and I use both of those a lot. So I've been using a 3rd party app to keep track of what I play then I go update the play counts manually. I believe they will be fixing this in iTunes 11 though, I hope.

 

[GIZBUG]

So I have to make a playlist on my phone, and individually add songs from itunes match? Streaming is not an option for me, as I am up in the air flying for 8 hrs a day with no wifi/4g

 

[zhenya]

So I have to make a playlist on my phone, and individually add songs from itunes match? Streaming is not an option for me, as I am up in the air flying for 8 hrs a day with no wifi/4g

You can make the playlist either on your phone or in iTunes (since Match syncs playlists as well). Then download that playlist.

The other option is to start downloading an album and then stop the songs you don't want.