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Grr. Not ready to install iOS 5 on my iPhone, but so want to play with this. What to do.

(EDIT: waiting for a release candidate.)

B
 
I just "streamed" a song without downloading it. I had the choice of clicking on the cloud to download it or just hitting play and it streamed.

Now it may have started to download it but it was still streaming before it finished downloading.
Thanks for letting us know about this. I always thought it would work this way. Thanks for confirming it.
 
I just "streamed" a song without downloading it. I had the choice of clicking on the cloud to download it or just hitting play and it streamed.

Now it may have started to download it but it was still streaming before it finished downloading.

Oh man, we can argue this endlessly until someone comes up with visual proof to back it up. Then again, an Internet connection can be so fast as to make the distinction between streaming and downloading irrelevant...
 
question: it asked if i wanted it and i said no to the subscription (for the time being). Now can i subscribe later (i can't find the iCloud tab anymore) if i wanted. And will songs purchased from iTunes work without a subscription. I was always fuzzy on iTunes match.
 
Curious to read reviews about how well this works. For instance is the match feature better than the "Get Album Art" feature in terms of being able to identify songs? I have several CDs I ripped at low bit rates 5-7 years ago when HDD space was much more valuable and it would be totally awesome if iTunes Match lives up to its potential. However to get there iTunes would need to be more like Shazam at IDing my music than it is currently.
 
You do have to download. iTunes match isn't a streaming service. It's a downloading service.

It is actually both, right now I am streaming some songs on my MacBook Pro without downloading it. If I want I can download it.

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question: it asked if i wanted it and i said no to the subscription (for the time being). Now can i subscribe later (i can't find the iCloud tab anymore) if i wanted. And will songs purchased from iTunes work without a subscription. I was always fuzzy on iTunes match.

Yes. The option should be in the Store menu.
 
So how do you actually access the songs from an iphone/ipad? In the "music" app or in the "iTunes" app? I'm not seeing it.
 
Can somebody let me know how iTunes match actually matches the songs in your library?

Earlier this year I had to recover my iTunes library from a bad hard drive and some of my songs now end earlier than they should. I'm hoping iTunes match will let me replace those tracks, but if it matches by looking at the wave form I might be out of luck.
 
Can somebody let me know how iTunes match actually matches the songs in your library?

Earlier this year I had to recover my iTunes library from a bad hard drive and some of my songs now end earlier than they should. I'm hoping iTunes match will let me replace those tracks, but if it matches by looking at the wave form I might be out of luck.

They will, but Apple states in the release notes that it is not working 100% at the moment.
 
I just "streamed" a song without downloading it. I had the choice of clicking on the cloud to download it or just hitting play and it streamed.

Now it may have started to download it but it was still streaming before it finished downloading.

Where do you stream from? The iTunes app rather than the Music app? I assume there is no way to make a playlist in the iTunes app? have to stream 1 by 1?
 
Oh man, we can argue this endlessly until someone comes up with visual proof to back it up. Then again, an Internet connection can be so fast as to make the distinction between streaming and downloading irrelevant...


Ok. I just tested one song. It's a Bob Dylan song that is in my Mac Pro library.

Nettle Moore. It's a 13MB song.

On my IOS device library I have no songs downloaded.

I tapped on the song and it took about 30-45 seconds and it started playing. I have good internet speeds but I don't think it downloaded 13MB. The icon showed the little circle spinning. Then the song started playing. The spinning circle stopped for a sec then started up again a few seconds later.

From this I am thinking it was buffering the song.

I played it and it is still not on my iPad.

You can either tap on the song or tap on the cloud.
Tapping on the song causes it to buffer for a few seconds and tapping on the cloud starts the download.

Take that for what you will.
 
I got that too. Annoying. We have to delete songs now? Doesn't seem like the best way around this problem

Separate them into separate libraries?

Just checked my library 23K songs in the library on my main box. Phew.

So all the stuff it can match that is 128kbps will be "upgraded" to 256kbps? Gotta make sure I have enough disk space when I get around to trying this.

B
 
Curious to read reviews about how well this works. For instance is the match feature better than the "Get Album Art" feature in terms of being able to identify songs? I have several CDs I ripped at low bit rates 5-7 years ago when HDD space was much more valuable and it would be totally awesome if iTunes Match lives up to its potential. However to get there iTunes would need to be more like Shazam at IDing my music than it is currently.

Assuming that iTunes hasn't gotten considerably better in identifying songs in your library than it currently exhibits in getting cover art and creating genius playlists, I think you'll see user reviews all over the place depending on what kind of music they listen to.

That said, you might be able to force iTunes to redownload what you want by manually adjusting the metadata of your ripped songs to match the iTunes Store listings.
 
Im not sure how this is going to really be beneficial for someone that has around 3000 songs.

What would be the benefit?

(if you don't have anything helpful to say, just keep it to yourself).

I've got 1400 songs. 300 are iTunes purchases. So I know what you're saying. Not sure if it's worth the $25. All of my "other" music is from CDs I've had for years with no pirated crap. I think I'll wait and see first. But on the bright side this encouraged me to finally download iWork for iOS beta.
 
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