Thank you carriers, for making iTunes Match Useless!

[Dwalls90]

iTunes Match is the great music cloud syncing feature Apple brought to us last year. But unfortunately, now that unlimited data features are far and few between, or being throttled, Apple's concept of cloud music has been more or less shattered.

I have 10,000 songs in my library. Obviously downloading each and every one would not only take forever, but also consume around 70Gb of data. That said, even with an entry level plan of 2-3 Gb, one is only left with the ability to download 280-430 songs a month, assuming they use absolutely no other data, which is extremely unrealistic.

So, can someone please tell me ... what is the value of iTunes Match for someone that isn't constantly on WiFi? That considered, even if you are on WiFi, then chances are you can already access a computer with iTunes anyways, so the ability to have cloud music services is lessened in worth even further.

 

[Mliii]

iTunes Match is the great music cloud syncing feature Apple brought to us last year. But unfortunately, now that unlimited data features are far and few between, or being throttled, Apple's concept of cloud music has been more or less shattered.

I have 10,000 songs in my library. Obviously downloading each and every one would not only take forever, but also consume around 70Gb of data. That said, even with an entry level plan of 2-3 Gb, one is only left with the ability to download 280-430 songs a month, assuming they use absolutely no other data, which is extremely unrealistic.

So, can someone please tell me ... what is the value of iTunes Match for someone that isn't constantly on WiFi? That considered, even if you are on WiFi, then chances are you can already access a computer with iTunes anyways, so the ability to have cloud music services is lessened in worth even further.

Just another thing to be "grateful" to our WONDERFUL cell carriers for...

 

[forty2j]

Yes, carriers suck. On the other hand, it's unlikely you'll need the 70Gb of music all at once, and can just stream whatever you want to listen to and probably not worry about filling the data plan.

 

[outie2k]

I guess there's a misconception of how you use iTunes Match.

You are not required to download every single song of your 70GB library to the phone. In fact, no iPhone can fit that many songs in the internal storage. iTunes Match made it so that they are all accessible to you when you need them.

 

[dilutedq]

No IPhone has that much storage,
and no one has that much time to download that much music and listen to it all at once. You should never have to download the music over the network, and should be able to live off of that kind of stuff through periods of being on wifi.

 

[dccorona]

I believe iTunes Match has been changed to stream unless you choose to download. Streaming will use less data than downloading the song as far as I know, so you could actually get more songs than that in a month.

A helpful way around this at least partially is to look at your iTunes and put as many of your most listened to songs on the device as possible. You can still stream your music, but you'll be doing it far less because most of what you listen to is kept locally.

 

[HowardSmith]

iTunes Match is the great music cloud syncing feature Apple brought to us last year. But unfortunately, now that unlimited data features are far and few between, or being throttled, Apple's concept of cloud music has been more or less shattered.

I have 10,000 songs in my library. Obviously downloading each and every one would not only take forever, but also consume around 70Gb of data. That said, even with an entry level plan of 2-3 Gb, one is only left with the ability to download 280-430 songs a month, assuming they use absolutely no other data, which is extremely unrealistic.

So, can someone please tell me ... what is the value of iTunes Match for someone that isn't constantly on WiFi? That considered, even if you are on WiFi, then chances are you can already access a computer with iTunes anyways, so the ability to have cloud music services is lessened in worth even further.

70gb for songs!

Sorry but I am GLAD they will throttle you! This is not YOUR network to clog up with you overgrown music collection! Cull out your Joan Baez collection and give us all a break!

You really sound more like you are bragging!

 

[KeepCalmPeople]

Is there any way to reduce the bitrate when streaming?

Aside from that, I don't think there's much point in getting irate with the carriers. I have 20 iTunes movies in the cloud that I can't download over cellular, as together they would amount to about 50GB.
Apple offers a service - you use it at your own peril, just like any other service.

 

[Wicked1]

I just do all my downloading on wifi as much as possible anyway and I have the 2 gb plan and never go over.

 

[wknapp0924]

Do you people read at all?

He doesn't want to download all 70gb of music at once. What he is saying if he streams just 10 songs a day which is about 45 minutes then he will burn through his entire data package. I agree Itunes match is completely worthless and I might just shut mine down in a couple weeks when it is ready to renew....

Even if you do download music on Wifi before you leave the house you have to make a seperate playlist just to do it and cant just go through and pick individual songs anymore. The downloading takes forever over wifi also which renders the service on the Iphone useless.

The only saving grace for me is having all my music on my macbook air without using any space, same goes with the AppleTV.

 

[Interstella5555]

iTunes Match is the great music cloud syncing feature Apple brought to us last year. But unfortunately, now that unlimited data features are far and few between, or being throttled, Apple's concept of cloud music has been more or less shattered.

I have 10,000 songs in my library. Obviously downloading each and every one would not only take forever, but also consume around 70Gb of data. That said, even with an entry level plan of 2-3 Gb, one is only left with the ability to download 280-430 songs a month, assuming they use absolutely no other data, which is extremely unrealistic.

So, can someone please tell me ... what is the value of iTunes Match for someone that isn't constantly on WiFi? That considered, even if you are on WiFi, then chances are you can already access a computer with iTunes anyways, so the ability to have cloud music services is lessened in worth even further.

iTunes Match is terribly conceived service that Apple pushed out last year. Carriers dropping unlimited data has only highlighted the problems with the concept of storing media you own on the cloud

Fixed that for you. Are you at all surprised? I have unlimited data and would touch it with a 10 foot pole. Any service that requires a persistent connection to access media you own is bound to fail. Period. It doesn't matter how many people who don't understand the underlying drawbacks try and promote it, it's a bad idea.

 

[wknapp0924]

I just do all my downloading on wifi as much as possible anyway and I have the 2 gb plan and never go over.

If you just turn off match on your phone you can plug your phone into the computer and transfer the songs 10 times faster!! Itunes Match for Iphone useless.

 

[alent1234]

you can download music to your phone over wifi and play from the phone without streaming

is the music better somehow if you stream it?

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If you just turn off match on your phone you can plug your phone into the computer and transfer the songs 10 times faster!! Itunes Match for Iphone useless.

only value i see is that if you have complicated playlists then Match will keep them no matter how many computers you change out.

 

[MrXiro]

Yep... the carriers are slowing down the growth of technology at this point... and sadly it's becoming that EVERY device is moving to be a connected device we will rely on needing more data and carriers will charge more money for less usage.

 

[Interstella5555]

you can download music to your phone over wifi and play from the phone without streaming

is the music better somehow if you stream it?

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only value i see is that if you have complicated playlists then Match will keep them no matter how many computers you change out.

If you somehow want to delude yourself that doing so doesn't consume more battery life, eat into your tiered data plan or make it impossible to access your music when you don't have a persistent data connection, then yes, it's better to stream.

 

[wknapp0924]

you can download music to your phone over wifi and play from the phone without streaming

is the music better somehow if you stream it?

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only value i see is that if you have complicated playlists then Match will keep them no matter how many computers you change out.

You can do that without having the Itunes match service. It is a great service for your computer and AppleTV, and to make all your personal Mp3s Itunes quality, and I guess that to me is worth the $25.00 a year.

 

[Interstella5555]

Yep... the carriers are slowing down the growth of technology at this point... and sadly it's becoming that EVERY device is moving to be a connected device we will rely on needing more data and carriers will charge more money for less usage.

cell phone tech isn't the only tech around, nor are carriers the only data providers.

 

[mKTank]

iTunes Match is terribly conceived service that Apple pushed out last year. Carriers dropping unlimited data has only highlighted the problems with the concept of storing media you own on the cloud

Fixed that for you. Are you at all surprised? I have unlimited data and would touch it with a 10 foot pole. Any service that requires a persistent connection to access media you own is bound to fail. Period. It doesn't matter how many people who don't understand the underlying drawbacks try and promote it, it's a bad idea.

Don't be daft. You're missing the point of iTunes Match. You can still store songs for offline listening. iTunes Match basically offers to "extend your storage" by storing extra music on the cloud in case you ever want to listen to it but hadn't downloaded it on the device.

 

[alent1234]

If you somehow want to delude yourself that doing so doesn't consume more battery life, eat into your tiered data plan or make it impossible to access your music when you don't have a persistent data connection, then yes, it's better to stream.

how is caching via wifi going to eat up your tiered data?

some of us older folk aren't so ADHD/OCD that we have to have a specific song right now or we're just going to explode

 

[Interstella5555]

Don't be daft. You're missing the point of iTunes Match. You can still store songs for offline listening. iTunes Match basically offers to "extend your storage" by storing extra music on the cloud in case you ever want to listen to it but hadn't downloaded it on the device.

Then why not increase storage capacity? Here, have an external drive for your computer, but there will be times where you can't access it randomly. Sounds like exactly what I want to get into. Beyond that if you're really toting the phone as being able to hold all these amazing apps, my music, movies, take great quality photos, shoot video...wouldn't it make a little more sense to, I don't know, store that locally?

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how is caching via wifi going to eat up your tiered data?

some of us older folk aren't so ADHD/OCD that we have to have a specific song right now or we're just going to explode

Well no one said WiFi, but you're right, as long as I stay inside I'll be fine!!!

 

[forty2j]

What he is saying if he streams just 10 songs a day which is about 45 minutes then he will burn through his entire data package.

If his usage pattern exceeds his data plan, he should buy a bigger data plan. For the record, for 1 hour of streaming music a day I come up with 860 MB/mo, so that's one tiny package he has there.

 

[darkside flow]

I agree that some carriers are making iTunes Match a virtually useless service on the go but that isn't a fault of Apple or iTunes Match.

I've got a 6GB plan and my carrier doesn't throttle above and beyond that (obviously because I would be paying overage charges anyways! lol).

What I do is set up a series of "Smart Playlists" for Recently Added within 1 day, 2 weeks and 1 month. I will generally download the 1 month playlist over WIFI which gives me access to all the songs I've added to iTunes Match/purchased within that period. That saves the bulk of my data to download additional music that I may want to listen to over cellular data.

One thing I'd warn against is playing your iTunes Match library on shuffle. You'll notice if you go to your downloads that it is pre-loading a number of the next songs in that randomized playlist and that eats up a ton of data. Simply select and play individual songs to save your data.

 

[MrXiro]

cell phone tech isn't the only tech around, nor are carriers the only data providers.

They are the only ones for on the go data access... sure there are hotspot locations but they are few and far between not to mention often times slowed down by an over abundance of users.

At&t used to charge $20 for unlimited data then it moved to $30 with the 3G now it's tiered and shared for an extra fee. It's a downward trend for the consumer clearly.

 

[greytmom]

so that's one tiny package he has there.

Yes, indeed.

 

[pooleman]

I used iTunes Match to get all of my music on my home computer onto my work computer. Works great.