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'iTunes Match' Allows Both Streaming and Downloading of Music

Ok. Now I can confirm that iTunes Match does indeed actually stream.

Steps used to validate :

1. Opened settings>usage>music.
2. It showed 468Mb
3. Deleted the data. It then showed 0kb
4. Opened the Music app
5. Played one song by Dylan and the Dead
6. In theory this should have placed approx. 3Mb of data on my iPad
7. Closed the music app
8. Went into settings>usage>music
9. It showed 0kb of data.
Had this been a download it should have shown approx. 3Mb of data. It didn't. It showed 0Kb. so it did indeed stream.

Case Closed.
:D
 
chrmjenkins said:
[Streaming] frees up space on your iphone/ipod touch for apps, movies, games, photos etc. It also allows you to buy a smaller iphone. It also allows those with very large music collections to have access to all of it anywhere they have a data connection. It essentially gives your iphone an unlimited amount of storage when it comes to music (assuming you don't have data caps to worry about).
Click to expand...

But downloading from iCloud is equally essentially an unlimited amount of storage when it comes to music as well, isn't it? For example, I'm at the coffee shop and download MR Greatest Hits and some other albums, listen to some of it on the bus, then I dump half of it and download DJ Apple's Anthology Vols. 1 & 2, and when I get tired of that I toss some of it and get some more from the cloud. Streaming means you fiddle less with deleting things, which is nice, but I don't see why people are as excited about it as they are. Thanks to Peace for his replies as well.
 
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AaronEdwards said:
Very simple. Checksums, both of the whole file, and also parts of it to make sure that adding/editing characters doesn't invalidate the checksum. There's also the tags added by the person/group who ripped the cd, and very simply, the filename.
Click to expand...

So Apple would get a list of known illegal mp3s released on file sharing sites and compare them to that? Otherwise, cant every single person have a different mp3 file for the same song since they rip it from a CD and encode it in any number of different mp3 bitrates, encoders, quality levels, etc. I guess I just dont understand what they could compare a users mp3 file with to determine if it was legal or illegal since you can encode an MP3 legally in a million different ways.

----------
Carouser said:
But downloading from iCloud is equally essentially an unlimited amount of storage when it comes to music as well, isn't it? For example, I'm at the coffee shop and download MR Greatest Hits and some other albums, listen to some of it on the bus, then I dump half of it and download DJ Apple's Anthology Vols. 1 & 2, and when I get tired of that I toss some of it and get some more from the cloud. Streaming means you fiddle less with deleting things, which is nice, but I don't see why people are as excited about it as they are. Thanks to Peace for his replies as well.
Click to expand...

I think you are essentially correct and a lot of this comes down to personal preference. I would rather have a file actually downloading while its streaming so I can listen to it again later without having to use cellular data again. Its just like a cache that keeps recently played songs. You can delete them whenever and redownload so it seems even more flexible than streaming to me.
 
Has anyone tried this with pirated music yet?
I'll admit, some of my library isn't strictly kosher, this is only because i like to "try before i buy" with new artists, then i will buy it if i like it. Personally, i don't think labels can complain about my policy, if i don't like the album, i'll delete it, so they're not losing out on anything, in many cases labels have gained purchases from me downloading an album before buying it.

Edit: Thumbs down all you want. but no one loses any money, as i've said, i'm happy to buy music and have over 100 purchased CDs and more vinyls
 
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johnredcorn said:
I have 3100 songs that I personally ripped with EAC and converted to ALAC. I have been unsuccessful in completing the iTunes match process, as each attempt it gets to 99% on step 2 and then stalls.

However, when i access my iTunes match library via another Mac or one of my idevices, i can see the majority of my music and I have the option to stream or download. What is especially interesting is that when i download the songs from the cloud, it downloads my original ALAC version with an additional meta tag that contains my account name. This has been the case so far with every song I have downloaded. My library is over 80 gigs, and the appleid i am using for iTunes match has not been converted to iCloud. Therefore, it seems there is no storage limit at present for housing songs that did not find a match.

edit: The uploaded music retained my album art and meta tags.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that report--I've been waiting to hear about the ALAC situation. I really hope Apple continues this practice and keeps original ALAC files uploaded to iCloud in case you need to re-download them later. What I'd love to find out though is how it handles downloading those files onto an iOS device (does it still give you the ALAC or a lossy AAC) and how does it handle streaming that ALAC (does it actually try to stream your ALAC file or does it transcode it on-the-fly to something more appropriate for streaming).
 
Lvivske said:
Yeah, this is terrific.

I just wish it was 320kbps playback.

I have a SSD and space is at a premium on there....but its also my audiophile setup and I don't want to downgrade my entire library just to save pricey gigabytes
Click to expand...

You couldn't tell the difference between 256 and 320, even though you've convinced yourself you can. :rolleyes:
 
bitfactory said:
You couldn't tell the difference between 256 and 320, even though you've convinced yourself you can. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I don't know...I can't speak for others abilities. Maybe they can, I don't know. I just know I can't tell the difference...and it really doesn't bother me.
 
sclawis300 said:
Does anyone else think there will be some sort of limit to the laundering of the illegal music? Maybe lets say, after you have created your initial library in the cloud, next year it changes to only allow itunes purchases to be added to your icloud library? I am not sure there would be a way to do this without excluding legally purchased CDs that you rip.
Click to expand...

If that happened then you can expect Apple to be sued by Amazon at least. I expect Amazon mp3 downloads to be recognised, and if Apple changed their terms so that AppStore purchases work in the cloud and Amazon purchases don't, then there would be trouble.
 
futbalguy said:
So Apple would get a list of known illegal mp3s released on file sharing sites and compare them to that? Otherwise, cant every single person have a different mp3 file for the same song since they rip it from a CD and encode it in any number of different mp3 bitrates, encoders, quality levels, etc. I guess I just dont understand what they could compare a users mp3 file with to determine if it was legal or illegal since you can encode an MP3 legally in a million different ways.
Click to expand...

Compare the files stored on the consumer's computer with the checksums, tags, filenames of known illegal versions. You don't think the RIAA stores that kind of information?

-----------

One thing I've never argued is that Apple should report any illegal files to the RIAA, I'm more for illegal files not being matched, and if a high enough number of files are deemed illegal, then the consumer should be barred from using iTunes Match.
 
Lvivske said:
Depends on production quality, but I can.


320 vs lossless is a waste of time though
Click to expand...

yes, you can listen to very small differences between higher bitrates, but not with an iPhone speakers or phones, not even with your default mac speaker system. so 256kpbs is more than enough, 192kbps would also be fine too since we are not actually using pro gear to listen to the content. ;)
 
chrmjenkins said:
Frees up space on your iphone/ipod touch for apps, movies, games, photos etc. It also allows you to buy a smaller iphone. It also allows those with very large music collections to have access to all of it anywhere they have a data connection. It essentially gives your iphone an unlimited amount of storage when it comes to music (assuming you don't have data caps to worry about).

That being said, I still have unlimited data and downgraded to the $10 messaging plan on AT&T, so I'm in it for the long haul and a feature like this makes sense to me.
Click to expand...

I think you're missing the point, which is that there is essentially zero difference between "streaming" and using iCloud to download the song, listen to it, and delete it. I'm also confused as to why this is such a great extra feature, we've always known you could essentially do this. I guess people are just excited that the delete part gets done for them? Or, perhaps the fact that you don't need to wait for the song to download fully before being able to listen to it? I guess that's really the only advantage.
 
This is not as cool as i thought it would be. Call me an audiophile, or whatever, but all my songs are in uncompressed format. meaning 256 sounds like **** to me. And i laughed hysterically at his comment on it "playing in a higher bitrate". nice buddy that you know how things work right? You can NEVER increase the bitrate of a file to make it sound better. It will appear as a higher bitrate sure but the quality won't increase. for example. CDs are 1444 bitrate but most of the songs when ripped to any lossless audio codec would be 900-1100 bitrate. either way, i think this is a failure to me because i don't own anything under 320kbps. All i wanted to do is wirelessly be able to sync my library in the exact quality to my iphone/pad. if it doesn't do that in the same quality as my music this is useless to me even at low prices like that.

FYI uncompressed audio is essentially useless unless you have kick a$s headsets like mine.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

If iTunes Match syncs your master playlists and can stream one song after another seamlessly whether the file is local or in the cloud, then streaming is a huge advantage over one song at a time manual downloading.
 
finalcut said:
this service will only be interesting to match and level up the quality or your tunes. I tried having all my music in one of my WD world edition and streaming from my house wifi and itunes was freaking slow and "skipping" tunes is not something I want

So I can imagine the same over internet. Also, I don't think ppl will do it with their ipod/iphone over 3G costwise. After all, only americans have unlimited plans on their phone
Click to expand...

Eerrrrrr! From the UK here! Hello? We have unlimited data and free tethering, way cheaper than in the USA.
 
Multiple iCloud accounts

Can someone who's using the beta of iTunes match and iOS 5 let me know if it's possible to use 2 distinct accounts with a single iOS device. That is, can I set up iTunes match (and the Store) such that it uses name1@me.com (assuming this has been upgraded to an iCloud account) while using name2@me.com (assuming this has been upgraded to an iCould account) to sync email, contacts, cal, etc?

This is important for those families, like mine, where two people have iOS devices which need to sync their individual personal data (email, cal, contacts) but also wish to upgrade a shared iTunes library to iTunes Match.

I know that currently it's possible to use two Apple IDs on a single iOS device - one to sign in to the Store, and another (Mobile Me) account to sync mail etc...but I'm worried that once iCloud comes online and Mobile Me is discontinued this will no longer be possible?

thanks.
 
achtung! said:
yes, you can listen to very small differences between higher bitrates, but not with an iPhone speakers or phones, not even with your default mac speaker system. so 256kpbs is more than enough, 192kbps would also be fine too since we are not actually using pro gear to listen to the content. ;)
Click to expand...

Oh, of course, for portable devices 256 is fine.

But my original post was about wanting to free up disk space on my laptop, which does have the pro gear for listening.


hmm...
Can I play off a network drive? Like, play off it while on my network but if I take it on the go, iTunes/Cloud recognize the files are missing and stream as a substitute? (and if i get back on my network, recognize its there, and play off the network; you get the picture)
 
Is anyone else getting horrible matches? It only ended up matching about half my songs. I only own a handful of items that are not available on iTunes. Has anyone found a way to tell what songs it did and didn't match?
 
Question guys, but will this sync my ratings and metadata across the board or anything like that? I'm a rating addict.
 
I purchased Itunes Match and I can not get it to get past the first step in the process.

I keep getting this error:

"We could not complete your iTunes store request. An unknown error occurred (4010).

Help anyone?
 
CountBoni said:
Eerrrrrr! From the UK here! Hello? We have unlimited data and free tethering, way cheaper than in the USA.
Click to expand...

Which carrier offers free tethering and unlimited data?
I know Tesco offer unlimited data, but "Personal Hotspot" is not available on my iPhone 4 on Tesco mobile.
 
Sedrick said:
WRONG. The song is actually downloaded to a temp file as it's playing. Read it a weep folks: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/08/30/apples_itunes_match_beta_doesnt_technically_stream_music.html
Click to expand...

I guess they did this to reduce server load. The plus side of this is if you listen to a playlist (or album or whatever) once, you only have to use that # of data bandwidth once, which should help reduce our costs too if we're on the go.

Tom8 said:
For all intense and purposes, it's streaming. It's instant playback rather than waiting for it to download, it's only not streaming on a technicality
Click to expand...

exactly. the data buffer is stored locally for a temporary amount of time, rather than zero amount of time. Much better.
 
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