What exactly does MusicMatch do?

[radiogoober]

Quick question:

What exactly does MusicMatch do?

I've read about it - ie, that it will upgrade your existing non-Apple store music to a higher bit rate and make it available on iCloud. If I have ripped a CD to my Mac at a terrible bitrate (ie 128), will MusicMatch go through and re-download that CD at the higher bitrate?

Ty

 

[poloponies]

Quick question:

What exactly does MusicMatch do?

I've read about it - ie, that it will upgrade your existing non-Apple store music to a higher bit rate and make it available on iCloud. If I have ripped a CD to my Mac at a terrible bitrate (ie 128), will MusicMatch go through and re-download that CD at the higher bitrate?

Ty

iTunes maintains a vast catalog of music stored in a higher bitrate (256) format. With the new iCloud storage scheme, any music you have purchased through iTunes remains in the cloud and can be accessed by any registered device. With the Match program, if you pay the $25 annual subscription then any tracks (up to 20,000) in your local iTunes library which were not recorded by Apple as iTunes purchases will be treated exactly the same as if you had purchased them through iTunes and will be accessible to all registered devices in the higher bitrate format. It's a transparent process.

 

[radiogoober]

iTunes maintains a vast catalog of music stored in a higher bitrate (256) format. With the new iCloud storage scheme, any music you have purchased through iTunes remains in the cloud and can be accessed by any registered device. With the Match program, if you pay the $25 annual subscription then any tracks (up to 20,000) in your local iTunes library which were not recorded by Apple as iTunes purchases will be treated exactly the same as if you had purchased them through iTunes and will be accessible to all registered devices in the higher bitrate format. It's a transparent process.

Cool. So I ripped a Beatles CD to my Mac in 128 kbps. I subscribe to MusicMatch. I can now download the same Beatles CD to my iPhone and iPad in 256 kbps. On my wife's computer, that uses the same Apple ID, she can then download it in 256 kbps. But it stays as 128 kbps on my computer? .. Couldn't I just take the files off of her computer and overwrite them on mine?

 

[darngooddesign]

Cool. So I ripped a Beatles CD to my Mac in 128 kbps. I subscribe to MusicMatch. I can now download the same Beatles CD to my iPhone and iPad in 256 kbps. On my wife's computer, that uses the same Apple ID, she can then download it in 256 kbps. But it stays as 128 kbps on my computer? .. Couldn't I just take the files off of her computer and overwrite them on mine?

I don't believe you can download anything. Its all streaming.

 

[radiogoober]

I don't believe you can download anything. Its all streaming.

No, there's no streaming in iCloud at all.

 

[BrennerM]

Cool. So I ripped a Beatles CD to my Mac in 128 kbps. I subscribe to MusicMatch. I can now download the same Beatles CD to my iPhone and iPad in 256 kbps. On my wife's computer, that uses the same Apple ID, she can then download it in 256 kbps. But it stays as 128 kbps on my computer? .. Couldn't I just take the files off of her computer and overwrite them on mine?

I am pretty sure that you will be able to download it onto your computer as well within iTunes. What is not clear is if it will overwrite the old 128kbps file or if it will just add the new 256k file (meaning you have to delete the old duplicate manually).

 

[Carouser]

I am pretty sure that you will be able to download it onto your computer as well within iTunes. What is not clear is if it will overwrite the old 128kbps file or if it will just add the new 256k file (meaning you have to delete the old duplicate manually).

Or whether the 256k file will be accessible at all outside of the iTunes interface (unless someone already knows and wants to clarify).

 

[BrennerM]

Or whether the 256k file will be accessible at all outside of the iTunes interface (unless someone already knows and wants to clarify).

Well it is an unprotected AAC file so I don't see why it wouldn't work outside of iTunes with any application that can play AAC files. No different than any music you purchase from iTunes today. Unless they are going back to adding DRM to the files (which I have heard no mention of) they won't be able to stop you from using that AAC file outside of iTunes.

 

[aristobrat]

Couldn't I just take the files off of her computer and overwrite them on mine?

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to take the original files off of YOUR computer and redownload them from the cloud (directly back to your computer).

 

[radiogoober]

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to take the original files off of YOUR computer and redownload them from the cloud (directly back to your computer).

Ooooo that's a good idea! Once MusicMatch "knows" you have the files, you could delete them and re-DL the high quality ones. Nice.

Another thought: Once you re-DL all your non-Apple music, why would you keep up the $25/yr subscription?

 

[dukebound85]

I don't believe you can download anything. Its all streaming.

No, you can't stream, you download

Ooooo that's a good idea! Once MusicMatch "knows" you have the files, you could delete them and re-DL the high quality ones. Nice.

Another thought: Once you re-DL all your non-Apple music, why would you keep up the $25/yr subscription?

Because some people want the ability to access all their music from any apple device anywhere

 

[Piggie]

We won't really know 100% for sure till it launches life.

We know what Steve Jobs said, but there is still room for things to be, let's say adjusted for the meaning of the words.

And we have no idea yet if this will even work for the rest of the world.

 

[aristobrat]

Another thought: Once you re-DL all your non-Apple music, why would you keep up the $25/yr subscription?

Because some people want the ability to access all their music from any apple device anywhere

That'd be my guess too.

If you don't pay the $25/year for the second year, you'd lose the ability to access those songs from the cloud.

 

[Carouser]

If you don't pay the $25/year for the second year, you'd lose the ability to access those songs from the cloud.

Yeah, no kidding, especially since that's the main selling point of iTunes on iCloud. This concern over where the files go sounds to me like people think iCloud is supposed to be a way to scam a better-quality file from a 16k mono rip or something.

 

[BergerFan]

That'd be my guess too.

If you don't pay the $25/year for the second year, you'd lose the ability to access those songs from the cloud.

Hmm. A better way, would be, that if you stopped paying the subscription, any music you previously 'matched' would remain yours, as you've already had those songs converted, like iTunes plus does locally. So, if you cease paying, all that should happen, is that you can't match any further music, until you begin paying once more.