iTunes in the Cloud for Music Rolling Out in Japan, iTunes Match Coming Soon?

[MacRumors]

It has been just over a month since Apple's last round of expansion for its iTunes Match service, but it appears that the company may be preparing to add Japan to the mix.

As noted by Mac Otakara, the "iTunes in the Cloud" music component has gone live in Japan, with the "Purchased" tab within the desktop iTunes Store and the iOS music application now allowing users to access their previously-purchased iTunes Store music. The iTunes in the Cloud service has until now been limited to apps and books in Japan.

Apple's iTunes Match service that allows users to match or upload their entire libraries of music acquired from any source to Apple's iCloud is a step further than the music re-download service just now rolling out. There are, however, currently no other countries in which Apple offers iTunes in the Cloud music capabilities without also offering iTunes Match. iTunes Match is currently available in 37 countries, and if iTunes in the Cloud music downloads are now appearing in Japan it seems that iTunes Match may not be far behind there.

Article Link: iTunes in the Cloud for Music Rolling Out in Japan, iTunes Match Coming Soon?

 

[bungiefan89]

Oh, boy! This is... oh wait, this doesn't affect me at all.

 

[marcusj0015]

Whats the difference between iTunes Match and iTunes in the cloud?

 

[DenisAuermann]

Great news for the Japanese!!!!

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

Whats the difference between iTunes Match and iTunes in the cloud?

iTunes in the Cloud let's you download all of your iTunes purchased content from any device again. FREE.

iTunes Match let's you download your music that Apple has matched in your library that was purchased elsewhere. $24.99/yr

 

[jon1987]

I thought that iTunes in the cloud was one of the best things to happen to iTunes in years. I'm sure the people of Japan will be delighted.

I'm now praying for Movies in the cloud. I can only imagine how many films I have bought and lost over the years.

 

[hurrderrp]

my take on this... Japanese iTunes looks really ugly!

Stay tuned.

 

[GunZi]

Launching iTunes Match and Japanese Siri at the same time?

Just wondering

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i see this as a big evidence that Siri for Japan is coming in iOS 5.1

 

[iEvolution]

Sure hope iTunes Match launches better over in Japan because the iTunes Match in the US is still buggy, matching explicit with clean lyrics never mind the disaster it leaves your iTunes library looking like.

 

[Andronicus]

Hope it works better for you than it does for me.

 

[ghostface147]

I think iTunes match is a joke. Doesn't do album covers perfectly, currently replaces explicit tracks with clean tracks...and with data caps, even less useful.

 

[pmz]

I think iTunes match is a joke. Doesn't do album covers perfectly, currently replaces explicit tracks with clean tracks...and with data caps, even less useful.

I'm as big an Apple fan as it gets, and unfortunately I have to agree with you.

I love iTunes Match for both what it is, and what its supposed to be, but Apple has done a terrible job of implementing it.

The fact that they're continuously rolling it out to new markets without fixing the problems it has, fills me with dread for their current leadership.

I don't want to get into the "if steve were here" nonsense.....but I don't understand how Apple, a company with such high standards, can be happy with iTunes Match as it is, and continue deployment without addressing very serious problems.

1. Album Artwork.
2. Explicit/Clean confusion (which is akin to data loss)
3. Inexplicable Matching errors, where certain Matchable tracks are uploaded instead.
4. Lack of support for AudioBooks.

 

[Andronicus]

I'm as big an Apple fan as it gets, and unfortunately I have to agree with you.

I love iTunes Match for both what it is, and what its supposed to be, but Apple has done a terrible job of implementing it.

The fact that they're continuously rolling it out to new markets without fixing the problems it has, fills me with dread for their current leadership.

I don't want to get into the "if steve were here" nonsense.....but I don't understand how Apple, a company with such high standards, can be happy with iTunes Match as it is, and continue deployment without addressing very serious problems.

1. Album Artwork.
2. Explicit/Clean confusion (which is akin to data loss)
3. Inexplicable Matching errors, where certain Matchable tracks are uploaded instead.
4. Lack of support for AudioBooks.

Agree strongly with 1 & 2. I hope they have a remedy for this. All my Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg is censored now!

 

[milo]

Sure hope iTunes Match launches better over in Japan because the iTunes Match in the US is still buggy, matching explicit with clean lyrics never mind the disaster it leaves your iTunes library looking like.

Amen to that, it looks like once again they're going to dump buggy software on more users instead of fixing the bugs before releasing wider.

Match has been out for months with no fixes, it's pretty shameful how badly Apple has botched it.

 

[Jetson]

delete

 

[japanime]

I'm delightfully surprised by this announcement. I had felt the Japanese music conglomorates (Sony in particular) would never have allowed this.

Perhaps iTunes Match, too, will indeed be arriving here soon. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[RamGuy]

Still no love for Norway

 

[BornAgainMac]

It looks hard to use.

 

[longpath]

Considering that AVEX TRAX pulled a number of its acts from the US iTunes Music Store, I'm wondering how much, if any, AVEX TRAX acts will be left after this rolls out.

Hopefully, it will mean that Apple and AVEX TRAX have come to some agreement and some of their acts will come back to the US.

 

[dickiew]

I have accounts in the UK store and Japan store. The relevant "ugly" pages look the same to me in both stores.

I had lots of problems setting up Match on my UK account, mainly because CDs that I had ripped years ago had slightly different titles that failed to "match". My Mac spent weeks trying to match and upload tracks, a process that still hasn't finished (not helped by my aging Mac hardware...)

I'll try the new service with a small part of my collection and see how it goes...