Quickly Upgrade All iTunes Matched Songs to 256Kbps

[milo]

Yet another warning to be EXTREMELY cautious and make sure everything is backed up before deleting.

I've been trying to upgrade a few things, just found an album where the matched/downloaded files all have the ends cut off. Downloading again has the exact same problem, looks like Apple may have corrupted files on their server. So along with all the other problems with Match, "upgrading" has the potential to wreck perfectly good files. Awesome.

 

[BiggAW]

What about playlists? Wouldn't the low-bitrate songs end up disappearing from them, and not be replaced by the high-bitrate added to the library? So you'd basically have to do a manual replacement of them all? Sounds like quite a bit of a pain. I'd like the 256k songs, although I already have 50GB+ on my iPhone, so maybe not such a good idea.....

 

[milo]

Deleting a song file doesn't remove it the song from the library or from playlists, the alias to the song still appears in playlists and when you download again it's back with no noticeable difference. Same goes for ratings and play counts, these are maintained whether the actual file is there or not.

 

[BiggAW]

Deleting a song file doesn't remove it the song from the library or from playlists, the alias to the song still appears in playlists and when you download again it's back with no noticeable difference. Same goes for ratings and play counts, these are maintained whether the actual file is there or not.

How do you delete the file and not the entry in the iTunes library? This sounds appealing, it just sounds really risky...

 

[milo]

How do you delete the file and not the entry in the iTunes library?

Just select a song in iTunes and hit the delete key, it will bring up a box asking if you're sure which includes a check box "also delete this song from iCloud". As long as you don't select that box it will delete the file but leave it in the playlists and the cloud.

If you want to try it out, back up one file (copy it to another hard drive or whatever) and make a note of the rating and playlists it's in. But it should still be visible in iTunes, just with a cloud symbol with an arrow inside, still with rating, play count, and in all the same playlists.

 

[BiggAW]

Just select a song in iTunes and hit the delete key, it will bring up a box asking if you're sure which includes a check box "also delete this song from iCloud". As long as you don't select that box it will delete the file but leave it in the playlists and the cloud.

If you want to try it out, back up one file (copy it to another hard drive or whatever) and make a note of the rating and playlists it's in. But it should still be visible in iTunes, just with a cloud symbol with an arrow inside, still with rating, play count, and in all the same playlists.

hmmmm nice. Now I'll just have to do some space calculations, which I think will kill the plan, but it's nice to know that there are options out there...

 

[BiggAW]

Well, it's not going to happen until they come out with a 128GB iPhone (and a few years down the road at that).

 

[milo]

The point is that you don't put your whole library on your phone, you put on less since you can download additional songs on the go whenever you have a connection available. If you want your full library on your device all the time, match isn't the service for you.

 

[BiggAW]

The point is that you don't put your whole library on your phone, you put on less since you can download additional songs on the go whenever you have a connection available. If you want your full library on your device all the time, match isn't the service for you.

That's why I bought the 64GB iPhone!!! Oh yeah, download a bunch of songs, chugging right through my 2GB of data. Yeah right. If I'm going to stream, I'll use Pandora, as they are extremely bandwidth efficient, they are using an advanced 32kbps AAC+ codec which is highly bandwidth efficient, and uses 1/8 the bandwidth of downloading 256kbps songs.

EDIT: That doesn't make much sense. Pandora and iTunes are two different services. What I am saying is that I have iTunes for my own music stored locally, and Pandora for streaming radio, but it is efficient enough to use day to day, and will work even on a weak signal/congested network/ EDGE.

Uh oh, the Christmas music wandered on the iPhone this morning:

 

[milo]

That's why I bought the 64GB iPhone!!!

Put your favorites on the phone and leave them there, and you can still access anything else you might want on the fly (and you can also use wifi if it's available).

If you want everything on your phone at once, match isn't for you.

And if you are happy listening to files at 32k then again Match isn't for you. Pandora is a totally different kind of service, it's like comparing apples and oranges. If you really want the 256 for home listening you can always upgrade the files then sync your iPhone with the old school sync and switch on "convert to 128".

 

[BiggAW]

Put your favorites on the phone and leave them there, and you can still access anything else you might want on the fly (and you can also use wifi if it's available).

If you want everything on your phone at once, match isn't for you.

And if you are happy listening to files at 32k then again Match isn't for you. Pandora is a totally different kind of service, it's like comparing apples and oranges. If you really want the 256 for home listening you can always upgrade the files then sync your iPhone with the old school sync and switch on "convert to 128".

Yeah, apparently Match won't work out. The only decent use for Match is exactly the title of this thread: upgrade and run. Yeah, I added an edit in there because Pandora isn't really that related to my local music collection, only on the technical side of things.

The "old school sync???"? You mean how you put music on an iPhone, with a USB cable?? It's not "old school", it's how you do things. I thought about the "covert to 128", but quickly gave up on that because the amount of CPU power required would be simply insane, even on my quad i7, it would probably at least take overnight with some serious heat issues on the MBP end of things.

 

[milo]

You mean how you put music on an iPhone, with a USB cable?

Yes, either via USB or wifi sync. With the 128 it will take a while but if your intention is to put your entire library on and leave it there it's something you'd only have to do once.

 

[dealmaker]

How is this working out for everyone? Thinking of doing it but worried I lose anything!!!!

 

[milo]

How is this working out for everyone? Thinking of doing it but worried I lose anything!!!!

I've had albums where matched and replaced versions cut off, had to revert to my backup.

I'd wait until it's more reliable.

 

[BiggAW]

Yes, either via USB or wifi sync. With the 128 it will take a while but if your intention is to put your entire library on and leave it there it's something you'd only have to do once.

Yeah, the 128 would take forever. It also kind of defeats the point of getting the 256kbps iTunes Match files, and most of my home listening is through the high bitrate Pandora (192k I think).

---goes to iTunes and actually tries it---

I just tried it in iTunes, and converting 320k mp3 to 128k AAC was going at ~67x, which would do my entire library in 6 hours. Not as bad as I thought... And it can only use one core of the Quad i7, imagine if it could use 8 threads!!!. Wow, have we come a long way from the days of 10x conversions!

EDIT: Clarity.

 

[phphreak]

Actually, a much better method of doing this is making a new smart playlist with these settings:

• iCloud Status is Matched
• Kind is not Matched AAC Audio File

This will make a playlist of only the songs iTunes Match was able to Match, and not just the low bitrate songs that it was potentially unable to match. It will also not show the songs you've redownloaded from iTunes Match already and only the ones you already have on your computer that have not been matched.

edit: I didn't see that it already had these settings after it chose music and low bitrate in the original post. Still, this is how I've been doing it, and it works great.

thanks. i used your suggestion.

 

[Fuzzy.Dunlop]

I'm a bit confused about Match and would be grateful for any help

I've got a total library of 23,150

@320kbps = 13,591
@256kbps = 4,894
@192-256kbps = 1,420
@128kbps = 329

Included in total library is podcasts, audio books etc.. So i'm guessing iTunes match isn't worth it for me?

Wish iTunes would give me the option to see what would be matched/unmatched before committing to buy

 

[SuperCachetes]

I'm a bit confused about Match and would be grateful for any help

I've got a total library of 23,150

@320kbps = 13,591
@256kbps = 4,894
@192-256kbps = 1,420
@128kbps = 329

Included in total library is podcasts, audio books etc.. So i'm guessing iTunes match isn't worth it for me?

Wish iTunes would give me the option to see what would be matched/unmatched before committing to buy

The point of Match is music access. It really doesn't matter what's matched/not matched; you will have access to all of it. This thread is really about what bitrate your home library can end up being. If you have a lot of music that is matchable but is <256 kbps, there's an upgrade process. If most of your library is legit 320kbps ripped music, that may not matter since your music might be higher quality than what Apple has anyway.

As many have discovered, the kinks are not all worked out yet, and there are times when iTunes will upload your version of a song (at whatever bitrate it is) even though the song is sold in iTunes. It's annoying if you have 128kpbs albums that only partially upgrade - but really, you're no worse off than you were before. You're paying $24.99 to access that music, not necessarily to raise/lower the bitrate - but the upgrade is possible, and well worth it to some.

A side note: with a library the size of yours (mine is not far off from that) I would not recommend Match if you do not have unlimited data. Since Match came out, my 32GB iPhone has filled up with stuff I've downloaded form the cloud to listen to. A lot of that was on 3G.

 

[Fuzzy.Dunlop]

The point of Match is music access. It really doesn't matter what's matched/not matched; you will have access to all of it. This thread is really about what bitrate your home library can end up being. If you have a lot of music that is matchable but is <256 kbps, there's an upgrade process. If most of your library is legit 320kbps ripped music, that may not matter since your music might be higher quality than what Apple has anyway.

As many have discovered, the kinks are not all worked out yet, and there are times when iTunes will upload your version of a song (at whatever bitrate it is) even though the song is sold in iTunes. It's annoying if you have 128kpbs albums that only partially upgrade - but really, you're no worse off than you were before. You're paying $24.99 to access that music, not necessarily to raise/lower the bitrate - but the upgrade is possible, and well worth it to some.

A side note: with a library the size of yours (mine is not far off from that) I would not recommend Match if you do not have unlimited data. Since Match came out, my 32GB iPhone has filled up with stuff I've downloaded form the cloud to listen to. A lot of that was on 3G.

thanks for the reply, I'm in the UK and have true unlimited (no restrictions, allowed tethering etc etc..)

May just try it for the year, but, I have a lot of obscure stuff which will probably be bundled into different albums, from reading different threads

 

[SuperCachetes]

thanks for the reply, I'm in the UK and have true unlimited (no restrictions, allowed tethering etc etc..)

May just try it for the year, but, I have a lot of obscure stuff which will probably be bundled into different albums, from reading different threads

It hasn't screwed me yet, and I am quite anal with my metadata, wrt albums, naming, versions, etc.

Biggest hassle has been artwork on iDevices... sometimes it shows, sometimes not - and I mean "the artwork for the current song shows up when I activate the screen, but goes away when I unlock and go to the Music app."

There is also a limit to download size on 3G (here in the states anyway) that I did not know about until I tried to pull down a 12-minute song from my cloud. Discovering that the hard way really irked me, but not enough of my library is that big to be a real nuisance. If you have a lot of classical, I'm not sure what you do...

 

[Fuzzy.Dunlop]

It hasn't screwed me yet, and I am quite anal with my metadata, wrt albums, naming, versions, etc.

Biggest hassle has been artwork on iDevices... sometimes it shows, sometimes not - and I mean "the artwork for the current song shows up when I activate the screen, but goes away when I unlock and go to the Music app."

There is also a limit to download size on 3G (here in the states anyway) that I did not know about until I tried to pull down a 12-minute song from my cloud. Discovering that the hard way really irked me, but not enough of my library is that big to be a real nuisance. If you have a lot of classical, I'm not sure what you do...

We have the same thing here, with the app store I cannot download any app over 20mb on my phone. But, can tether my phone and download GB's worth of updates, go figure

Just checked my classical playlist (for e.g) and it's 92 songs for 1.12gb of data

I'm also mega anal about artwork etc.. my whole library is lovingly tagged and has no missing artwork, everything in its correct album etc etc..

 

[Confuzzzed]

I am not as technically savvy as most people on these boards, yet managed to convert my 1,200 odd songs that were inferior quality and now my entire 3,000 song library is in pristine condition. I couldn't help thinking though, as my machine was downloading over a thousand songs that perhaps the point to all this is Apple's way of migrating us all away from needing huge hard drives. Why should I keep my iTunes library on my hard drive when I can access it at home over the wifi any time I want? And on my iOS devices anywhere I want?

As I have both a tetra desk top and a MBA, I say roll on the 128GB SSDs without fear of running out of space. Or am I missing the point somewhere?

 

[Benbikeman]

As I have both a tetra desk top and a MBA, I say roll on the 128GB SSDs without fear of running out of space. Or am I missing the point somewhere?

I think it depends how much trust you place in a storage medium you don't personally control. I like iTunes Match, but I don't see myself eliminating my own hard drive storage anytime soon!

As for deleting lower-bitrate music to replace with matched tracks, given some of the experiences reported here with tracks chopped off, I'll leave that a while and proceed with extreme caution some way down the road.

 

[ibosie]

Creating the smart playlist I noticed plenty of music with status "Matched" but which I know to be absent from iTunes store. Curious to find out more I deleted one item and initiated a download from iCloud. The new track had the same meta data including my no-name track name "Track 01", was still 128kbps but an entirely different song. From this experience I would be very nervous to replace anything from the cloud without first verifying the accuracy of "Matched".

 

[Confuzzzed]

There's a lot of cynicism on this board but from my personal experience it worked perfectly with a high degree of fidelity. And my library is varied all the way from ripped mainstream CDs to classical music compilations and even some rare dance studio mixes. I checked some 300 tracks replaced to higher bitrate tracks from Apple's servers and up to now, I have 100% fidelity. Maybe I got lucky. Maybe people are reciting their beta version experience of 6 months ago. I wish people would disclose their particulars so people reading these boards could make informed decisions. As of Dec 15th, the service appears perfect for MY needs.