'iTunes Match' Allows Both Streaming and Downloading of Music

[Tom8]

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Thank god I get unlimited data with my tesco contract

Are you sure?

I *think* Tesco are one of those providers that advertises "unlimited" data, but tucks away an FUP in the small print...

Tesco do at least claim they have a fair use policy, but I'm not sure what it is. I've hit 4GB before & not been charged more than my standard £20 a month.

Has anyone tested this over 2G/3G to see how much data it actually uses to stream?

 

[paulsalter]

Yes, you're paying the general license fee. I'm sure the thought is better to have everyone paying $25 a year (in addition to everything they purchase legally) than just have you torrenting music and the record companies making nothing. You'll still be a douche, but at least they're getting something for it.

With streaming being an option, this service is going to flat out dominate.

Cheers for the confirmation

Can potentially see this having an impact on iTunes sales

 

[BanterClaus]

Well I'm not excepting this to come to the UK before next year. Looks awesome still though.

 

[BlackMangoTree]

Streaming the whole store, until then this service is nothing fancy.

 

[callme]

iTunes changed all those 128kbps songs over to 256kbps a long time ago.

No they did not.

If you purchased a track that was 128kbps (and DRM'd) then it is still 128kbps in your library unless you pay for an iTunes Plus track upgrade to the 256kbps (non DRM'd) version.

Apple are still selling the iTunes Plus upgrades for your 128kbps (DRM'd) tracks at the moment, which will not be required if you use the iTunes Match service.

Unfortunately there is no real indication of when iTunes Match will be available in the UK, I seem to remember seeing something about a 2012 date for the UK release.

 

[MasterHowl]

Looks ace!

My iTunes music is about 20GB in total, and I don't really listen to half of it... I only keep it for old times sake!

This way, I can still have all those songs in my library, without it taking up precious hard drive space ^.^

I'm betting this service will be especially good for any MacBook Air owners, since they have small hard drives.

Woo!

 

[callme]

Spotify= $4.99 per month = $59.98 per year.

iTunes Match = $24.95 Per year.

Spotify = access to the full library of music that spottily hold on their servers - millions of songs.

iTunes Match = Access to ONLY the songs you have in your iTunes Library, NOT the full iTunes Store content.

Big difference.

 

[MacFly123]

AT&T, you're gonna have to pry my unlimited data from my cold, dead hands.

Until the inevitable day when you take it away even from customers who are grandfathered in.

Ya, it is just a matter of time! I kinda wish I would have stayed on the unlimited plan now

 

[OllyW]

Well I'm not excepting this to come to the UK before next year. Looks awesome still though.

Unfortunately there is no real indication of when iTunes Match will be available in the UK, I seem to remember seeing something about a 2012 date for the UK release.

You are both correct, iTunes Match isn't expected to launch in the UK until at least Q1 2012.

----------

I have a US account I set up years ago with a free song, unfortunately it looks like it's only going to function with a Credit Card.

If anyone was able to get this to work using just an iTunes card please feel free to correct me.

Yes, i just tried that too. Asks for god damn credit card.

Have you tried using PayPal?

 

[Piggie]

I will admit I'm as yet unsure if this will encourage, discourage or make no difference to piracy.

If I had to put my money on one of the three, I'd take a guess it will encourage it a bit. Not much but a bit.

If you can steal something and it looks stolen, knowing that you can in effect hand it in in secret and have it changed for free into something that now is official. Might that make you more lightly to steal a few more things in the future now you know you can get them changed into legit items for free?

We shall see, but as yet I'm unsure, knowing what humans are like when it comes to getting something for nothing.

 

[MrSmith]

If you can steal something and it looks stolen...

How does music 'look stolen'?

 

[locust76]

Screw you, Apple. You want a subscription fee from me? Better let me rent TV shows again, goddamnit!

 

[BillyBobBongo]

Have you tried using PayPal?

I haven't, that's an interesting approach. Perhaps by setting a delivery address in the US you could fool the system. Certainly worth looking into.

Top out-of-the-box thinking!

 

[Seppentoni]

Oh great. I imagine siting in a train full of people and everyone is triyng to stream music at once.

 

[bushido]

I obtained iTunes beta 6.1 from another source and signed up for iTunes Match with a non-developer account which I'm surprised it let me do so. I also was able to pay with itunes credit. I had 79$ credit on my account from a 100$ itunes gift card I got for my birthday and I now have 54$. It didn't even ask me if I wanted to use a credit card instead, it just asked if I wanted to buy and then subtracted from my account. It's matching my songs now, will report back if any issues.

how did u do that, it's telling me "check back later to subscribe"

 

[Tom8]

Do you read anything into the fact Apple are giving them 3 months free? maybe they're betaing the service for those 3 months, which would mean it launches in November

Edit: Scratch that, Apple already said iCloud would launch in "Fall" November is Winter.

 

[Frosticus]

Oh great. I imagine siting in a train full of people and everyone is triyng to stream music at once.

Try to not think about it. Better yet, download what you need before getting on the train.

 

[kendo88]

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Thank god I get unlimited data with my tesco contract

I don't believe you do, pretty sure all Tesco contracts have either had a set limit, or are unlimited with a fair use policy of 500mb or 1gb.

 

[iWizzard]

To bad i will need 4 progams for media.

Podcaster to stream podcast
Spotify for most music
Icloud for some music
sumocast to stream video from home (can also replace icloud)

I want one media app

 

[Sedrick]

I wouldn't trust the RIAA for a second if you so much as have one CD you torrented. I can hear them knocking on doors now. I'll have to see some kind of agreement with Apple first.

How does music 'look stolen'?

Good point. No way to tell, really I suppose. I'll bet the RIAA is stewing in their juices about now.

 

[axcurtis]

25 a year

Yes, Insanely Great Mac did say $25 a month at the end of the video. He meant $25 a year.

 

[japanime]

I think it's great that we all get to talk about iTunes Match here on MacRumors.

But I'm also curious — by posting that video, isn't Insanely Great Mac violating the iOS Developer non-disclosure agreement (and in a very public way)?

 

[Mad4WDW]

Smart Playlists

Hi,

Just wondering if someone can answer for me what happens with smart playlists. There's a few things that spring to mind I couldn't see answered earlier in the thread.

Do my playlists get uploaded to the icloud service? I have a ton of smart playlists some interlinked etc that drop songs and replace them as they get played. I guess these playlists would just stay on my iMac where they were created?

So if my assumption is correct I would have to manually recreate these playlists on my Macbook Air, but would they work with all the music stored in icloud exactly the same as if the music was local?

What about playcounts etc some of my playlists use playcounts and last played etc. Would the interactions with my music on my Macbook Air be reflected in my main iTunes library on my iMac?

Hope I made sense, just trying to get my head around this.

Thanks in advance

Greg

 

[mijail]

So basically, this will save you harddrive space for $25 a year with putting all your music in the cloud instead of saving it to your harddrive. I'm trying to think why would I need this service?

In fact, you could just hum to yourself and skip taking care of the hard drive.

 

[Tom8]

I don't believe you do, pretty sure all Tesco contracts have either had a set limit, or are unlimited with a fair use policy of 500mb or 1gb.

Not true, this is from my last bill, where i used almost 3GBs of data, and didn't get charged

On the tesco website, it does say they have a fair usage policy, but i am yet to hit their data cap and i've been with them for 13 months now

Edit: And this is my usage so far this billing month, which started on August 22nd