iTunes Match thread

[sclitheroe]

I took a look and didn't see any conversation around iTunes Match, which is now available in Canada, so I thought I'd start a thread for our collective exploration of the new service from Apple.

Of ~19,000 tracks on my machine, ~5000 were purchased, ~10,000 more were matched, and I had about 4000 tracks to upload, which is just finishing up after running overnight. (having 5 megabit upstream is fantastic)

When I'm done my initial upload, I'll be starting to explore iTunes Match on my devices and machines in the next little while here, and if I find anything interesting or helpful I'll add it to this thread.

[J Diddy]

A question about your lower quality music getting upgraded to higher quality with Match...

Does Match replace the file on your computer or just provides you with a higher quality version of the song in the cloud?

Thanks.

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

A question about your lower quality music getting upgraded to higher quality with Match...

Does Match replace the file on your computer or just provides you with a higher quality version of the song in the cloud?

Thanks.

It doesn't replace it, but you technically can delete yours and download a higher quality version from the cloud (assuming the file was matched and not uploaded)

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by silentsim

It doesn't replace it, but you technically can delete yours and download a higher quality version from the cloud (assuming the file was matched and not uploaded)

Correct. Will be testing this today .

I've also found some good guides to creating smart playlists to help you quickly bring your matched library up to the higher bitrate spec, such as:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1636...atch_fast.html

From what I've been reading, its best to work in relatively small batches - people have had issues with the Mac running out of temporary space when upgrading, etc. You also want to be very careful, if you have a well organized library, that the stuff is coming back down in an orderly and properly tagged fashion. No sense in destroying your carefully curated library by deleting and re-downloading thousands of songs at a time and having it not go well.

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Correct. Will be testing this today .

I've also found some good guides to creating smart playlists to help you quickly bring your matched library up to the higher bitrate spec, such as:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1636...atch_fast.html

From what I've been reading, its best to work in relatively small batches - people have had issues with the Mac running out of temporary space when upgrading, etc. You also want to be very careful, if you have a well organized library, that the stuff is coming back down in an orderly and properly tagged fashion. No sense in destroying your carefully curated library by deleting and re-downloading thousands of songs at a time and having it not go well.

From what I see Match keeps the metadata that was used when matching, not replacing it with their own

[silentsim]

Currently upgrading all my songs to 256kbps. Match was worth it for the first year just for this.

[jar_e]

So I'm making the jump atleast for the first year to upgrade the majority of my music. Also figure it will be great for my iphone too. My break down is purchased just under 1900, acquired around 13 000 through other means (cd rips, etc.). Should be interesting to see how it goes and how much I need to upload to the cloud.

[Igottago]

I'm interested in this but scared of it as well. From what I understand, I will have access to stream all of my music (from the cloud) as long as there is wifi available? And if I need to download to a device I'm free to do so?

What if I want my entire collection with me on a device in the traditional sense -- like a regular Ipod. Can I still do that?

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by Igottago

I'm interested in this but scared of it as well. From what I understand, I will have access to stream all of my music (from the cloud) as long as there is wifi available? And if I need to download to a device I'm free to do so?

What if I want my entire collection with me on a device in the traditional sense -- like a regular Ipod. Can I still do that?

On an iPhone/iPad it will download the songs. It starts playing the song as soon as it starts downloading, so it may feel like streaming.
On any mac/AppleTV it can stream the songs without downloading.

You can still sync a regular iPod, but for iOS 5 devices you need to use iTunes Match instead.

[jar_e]

^^Does it need to be wifi? Or on my iPhone, can I just download a song off the cloud with 3G?

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by jar_e

^^Does it need to be wifi? Or on my iPhone, can I just download a song off the cloud with 3G?

Yes there is an option to enable cellular downloading so you can use 3G.

[Igottago]

Originally Posted by silentsim

On an iPhone/iPad it will download the songs. It starts playing the song as soon as it starts downloading, so it may feel like streaming.
On any mac/AppleTV it can stream the songs without downloading.

You can still sync a regular iPod, but for iOS 5 devices you need to use iTunes Match instead.

Ok so its still going to take up hard drive space on my iphone/ipad. Not sure that really works for me as I've got lower capacity iphone and ipad and I have loads of music. I might be the only person in the world that still uses an Ipod classic to have access to my entire collection.

I do like the idea of getting a higher bitrate though.

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by Igottago

Ok so its still going to take up hard drive space on my iphone/ipad. Not sure that really works for me as I've got lower capacity iphone and ipad and I have loads of music. I might be the only person in the world that still uses an Ipod classic to have access to my entire collection.

I do like the idea of getting a higher bitrate though.

Yeah. Who knows, maybe in the future they will allow streaming on an iPhone/iPad but as of now it downloads it. But it is nice to have access to all of your library wherever you go in good quality.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

You also want to be very careful, if you have a well organized library, that the stuff is coming back down in an orderly and properly tagged fashion.

Looks like I have to do some organizing...

Originally Posted by Igottago

I might be the only person in the world that still uses an Ipod classic to have access to my entire collection.

Nope.

Originally Posted by silentsim

On any mac/AppleTV it can stream the songs without downloading.

But can it download them, or does it only stream? I don't want to have to have net access to listen to my music library.

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Looks like I have to do some organizing...

But can it download them, or does it only stream? I don't want to have to have net access to listen to my music library.

You can download on a Mac without a problem. AppleTV only streams as it has no storage.

[Russic]

I've enjoyed it so far. I'm a little concerned that the downloads are just a little too high quality for my iPhone. I've quickly racked up a 2GB library and I haven't listened to all that much. I really wish they'd let us stream to the iOS devices.

I love being able to call up anything with Siri though, that is very helpful. Siri still isn't great for music listening, but that will get better with time. She certainly has some quirks.

[TurnedTheCorner]

I'm not too interested in the multi-device snycing since I only have two iPods and that's easy to do. But the higher bitrates does sound appealing.

Does it mess up your own tags or groupings in iTunes? Like if I bought a song from some band's Greatest Hits album but then changed the year of release, album name and cover art to match to what album it was originally released on? I'm leery of the tags becoming an abomination.

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

I'm not too interested in the multi-device snycing since I only have two iPods and that's easy to do. But the higher bitrates does sound appealing.

Does it mess up your own tags or groupings in iTunes? Like if I bought a song from some band's Greatest Hits album but then changed the year of release, album name and cover art to match to what album it was originally released on? I'm leery of the tags becoming an abomination.

It leaves your tags alone. Even when you download it off the cloud, it appears to have saved your original tags.

[sclitheroe]

I was reading that iOS devices will automatically prune downloads as additional space is required - in essence, if it works as advertised, you don't have to worry about space on iOS, just listen to your library and don't worry about what is being downloaded, removing stuff you've already listened to, etc. Apparently it knows about disk space, what items are in what playlists, what you've listened to frequently and recently, etc.

[fredr123]

Does anyone have any advice for the best way to set this up with a single Macbook and two iPhones? The wife and I each have an iPhone but heretofore have shared the same account on the Macbook. We've been using separate AppleIDs on our phones for purchases.

I would like us both to be able to easily sync our phones to the library on the Macbook and have access to those tunes on Match. It would be cool if we didn't have to purchase the same song twice (once with each AppleID) too if that's possible. I'm not opposed to just using the same AppleID for purchases going forward, but I want to be really careful that our contacts/mail don't get all messed up. I use my iPhone for work a lot and can't let my wife have access to a lot of the stuff on there.

Is there a guide for similar situations? Thoughts?