iTunes Match as a way to synchronize my multiple iTunes libraries?

[jent]

Over the years I've used quite a few Macs and for whatever reason each time I've upgraded to a new computer I've started fresh with my iTunes library. On an external hard drive I have several previous iTunes libraries with songs not in my current, rather small iTunes music library.

If I subscribe to iTunes Match, can I upload all the songs from each of these libraries so that they are unified under my Apple ID? This way I could download on-demand (which I see as essentially one step short of streaming) any of my songs on my current Mac, iPad, and iPhone without needing to fully merge my large former music libraries on my MacBook Air's minuscule SSD.

After subscribing to iTunes Match, I would install a fresh copy of OS X on an external hard drive, boot up from it, and then use my Apple ID to upload the music from each of my iTunes libraries (by Option-clicking iTunes when launching it to select non-default iTunes library directories).

I was just wondering if there was a guide or walk-through that explained the process or if anyone knew if this would work. Many thanks for the help!

 

[zhenya]

I'm not entirely clear on how you are suggesting to do this, but I can tell you how to do it. Create one iTunes library that you add all of your music that you'd like to have matched. You don't have to option-click to choose different libraries, just add the folder locations of all the music you want to one library. You can only have one master library for matching purposes, so don't try to select different libraries.

Once everything is in that one iTunes instance, turn on Match and wait until it completes. Then you can access that library from any of your other computers or iDevices. On computers you can stream only or download a portion of the music locally. On iDevices you can keep it all in the cloud but once you play a song it will reside locally on the device (no streaming).

 

[jent]

Would doing this preserve metadata like Date Added (to iTunes) and Play Count?

 

[zhenya]

It will preserve the metadata of the account that you ultimately choose to Match, but no, it cannot merge metadata from multiple accounts. Once you have Matched your library, metadata will be consistent across all computers/devices that access that match account.

I assumed that wouldn't be too much of an issue for you because you say you start fresh at each new computer anyways, so this is just starting fresh again.