# is Itunes match worth it



## clivebuckwheat (Sep 26, 2010)

do I understand that all it does is store your movies and music in ICloud?, how many of you are using this?. Do you find it particularly useful?


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

It stores your music (purchased or not) in iCloud, not movies. Most movies purchased via iTunes are in the cloud by default and you cannot add your own movies to iCloud from outside of iTunes. With iTunes Match, you can access your entire music library when you want it, without actually storing your entire library on your device. (Access to the internet obviously required.)


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## fellfromtree (May 18, 2005)

Wasn't worth it to me. I turned it off. It doesn't match my style- you're all in with Match, or... nothing. You have to be all in.


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## polywog (Aug 9, 2007)

clivebuckwheat said:


> do I understand that all it does is store your movies and music in ICloud?, how many of you are using this?. Do you find it particularly useful?


It'll store up to 25,000 songs. It's great when it works. Sadly sometimes it's a major chore to get it to work.


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## clivebuckwheat (Sep 26, 2010)

Thanks,

I will not try it, I was going to but from what I read here it's not with it. I'll just use home sharing.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

Love home sharing!


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## joltguy (Apr 15, 2005)

FWIW, it's been great for me. Well worth the $28/year. And contrary to popular belief you can still keep your favourite or most played songs on your device so you don't have to hit the cloud every time.

I suspect that Apple will eventually add movies to the iTunes Match experience, even if only over wifi connections.


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

Well worth it for my family as it more easily allows us to manage the content on our various devices, esp when we aren't at home. For example last fall I went on a long road trip out east (Toronto to Cabot Trail and back) and it was great to be able to build a new play list along the way and sync up my songs when we got to the hotel. It sometimes has its quirks but for the most part it is a great service


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## heavyall (Nov 2, 2012)

I'd much rather see larger capacities on iOS devices, than this reliance on cloud services. Cell reception is spotty at best pretty much everywhere I go. I still take my iPod Classic with me to work, and on any road trips and vacations, for no other reason than I can put 160GB worth of stuff on it, so I can listen to anything I want - any time I want. I'd much rather have an iPhone or iPad with a 256GB (or larger) SSD in it!


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## polywog (Aug 9, 2007)

clivebuckwheat said:


> Thanks,
> 
> I will not try it, I was going to but from what I read here it's not with it. I'll just use home sharing.


To me home sharing serves a totally different purpose. My whole intent for iTunes Match was so that I could have access to my entire home library at the office without transferring 200+Gb there, and also so that I could have access to the entire library on my Air when on the road, where I don't have the capacity to have my whole library.

It does a brilliant job when it works. I particularly like how ratings and play counts are global. The big problem I had was a months worth of struggles even getting the whole library there in the first place. Perpetual loops of upload two songs, the process dies and then starts over from the beginning, without warning or reason.


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

It's also nice and easy to sync play lists between multiple devices


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

My 16GB iPhone is a 64GB iPhone thanks to iTunes Match. I love it! Using a cable to sync music is so three years ago.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

dona83 said:


> My 16GB iPhone is a 64GB iPhone thanks to iTunes Match. I love it! Using a cable to sync music is so three years ago.


You can sync without a cable even without iTunes Match using wireless sync. My question is how much autonomy do you lose with iTunes sync? What if your Internet goes down? What happens if you end your yearly subscription? Where does all your music go and how do you access it?


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

dona83 said:


> My 16GB iPhone is a 64GB iPhone thanks to iTunes Match. I love it! Using a cable to sync music is so three years ago.


+1.

Access to my entire iTunes library, from any device, anywhere with internet.


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

I store my most listened to music locally on my devices to conserve bandwidth or in case my Internet connection goes down. If I decide not to renew, I can sync the normal way, but $27.99 is worth it to me. Google and Amazon have a similar service for free but only in the US. 

Honestly, the lack of iTunes Match like service is the biggest reason I am not switching to Android, Windows Phone, etc.


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

fjnmusic said:


> You can sync without a cable even without iTunes Match using wireless sync. My question is how much autonomy do you lose with iTunes sync? What if your Internet goes down? What happens if you end your yearly subscription? Where does all your music go and how do you access it?


If your internet goes down, you can still play stuff you've downloaded or the original content that was matched to iTunes Match.

Once your subscription lapses, you can still access anything you've downloaded (it's DRM free), and of course you still have your original content.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

John Clay said:


> If your internet goes down, you can still play stuff you've downloaded or the original content that was matched to iTunes Match.
> 
> Once your subscription lapses, you can still access anything you've downloaded (it's DRM free), and of course you still have your original content.


Good to know. What about home sharing? Will that still work, because I find it very useful.


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

fjnmusic said:


> Good to know. What about home sharing? Will that still work, because I find it very useful.


It'll still work from the computer that has the originals for sure. Don't know if it works from other computers with only Matched content, as I haven't tried it.


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## fellfromtree (May 18, 2005)

I almost convinced to turn it back on and give it another go. One thing for me- the places where it would be most useful to me are also the places where I have no service or 1 bar, tops.
I think it really messed up my album art too.


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## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

If it worked well, it would be a great service. It is a big headache for me. It is nice that I have all this music on my iPad mini and iPhone, nice how everything is in sync... when it works. So many grayed out songs that just do not work, I am getting duplicate albums, and I know its not me. I preordered an album that came out at midnight, worked fine on my iPhone, iPad, PC, but on my RMBP, I now have 4 of the songs in the album duplicated. I did nothing but search for the album in my iTunes library and then proceeded to watch, again without touching it, as songs were duplicated. This has happened with a few albums, maybe more that I have just not come across yet. Fantastic idea, but it just does not work well. I will not be continuing the service when my year is up, unless there is some major fixes.


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## psycosis (Mar 29, 2005)

dona83 said:


> I store my most listened to music locally on my devices to conserve bandwidth or in case my Internet connection goes down. If I decide not to renew, I can sync the normal way, but $27.99 is worth it to me. Google and Amazon have a similar service for free but only in the US.
> 
> Honestly, the lack of iTunes Match like service is the biggest reason I am not switching to Android, Windows Phone, etc.


FYI.. the Google free service is pretty easy to access from Canada if anyone one really wants it. Just need to vpn/proxy/ip mask/etc to Google music for the initial sign up only. From then on it just works with no issues.


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## Garry (Jan 27, 2002)

I had 10,000 songs in my itunes library, and the HD I had for it crashed. my last backup was over 2 months ago. If I didn't have the songs on the cloud I would have lost a LOT of music, so it was worth it for me for that reason alone


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## ldphoto (Jul 9, 2009)

The initial upload was a pain (uploaded over 40 gigs on a 1 megabit upload), but match has worked quite well. I use it a lot at work on my iPhone through Wi-Fi. Uploading to Match is much better on a fast Internet connection; I'm on a 10 megabit upload connection now, and it makes a big difference.

As Garry mentioned, it's worth it for the backup it provides, although I can also have that with Crashplan now.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

It should also be noted that a significant portion of the fee paid goes to the artist (by way of the record company or rights holder), since each download (yes, even of your own stuff) is considered a "stream" like internet radio (though probably not at the same rate). For indie labels, the money has been a godsend, and it certainly makes me feel much better about using the service.


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## preapps (May 16, 2013)

It’s beautiful, quick, easy to use and everything I’d imagined it to be. I updated my iPad and iPhone to incorporate it, created a separate iTunes library on my Mac so that it was available from there too


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## bluepanties (Sep 30, 2010)

I though it wasn't worth it for me to be honest, personally.


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## jamesB (Jan 28, 2007)

bluepanties said:


> I though it wasn't worth it for me to be honest, personally.


You actually *thought* it wasn't worth it for you to be honest?
Do you find being dishonest more convenient?


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## bluepanties (Sep 30, 2010)

jamesB said:


> You actually *thought* it wasn't worth it for you to be honest?
> Do you find being dishonest more convenient?


No no, it's kind of a phrase where I'm from, adding to be honest to the end sentences, kind of like starting a sentence with "I'm sorry but" when you don't agree with someone, you've got nothing to be sorry about you're just saying it that way for whatever reason the phrase was originally created for.

Anyways, you are right that it didn't make much sense though, so I apologize for that.


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## jamesB (Jan 28, 2007)

bluepanties said:


> No no, it's kind of a phrase where I'm from, adding to be honest to the end sentences, kind of like starting a sentence with "I'm sorry but" when you don't agree with someone, you've got nothing to be sorry about you're just saying it that way for whatever reason the phrase was originally created for.
> 
> Anyways, you are right that it didn't make much sense though, so I apologize for that.


I knew what you meant, I was just jerking your chain, welcome to the colonies. :lmao:


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## fellfromtree (May 18, 2005)

Just reminded of one reason I turned it off- the constant, constant, constant- Contacting iTunes, Delivering your Match results, Waiting For Match Results, Error Contacting iTunes, Sign Out and Sign Back In to iTunes to update Match....
The endless Match update.


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## CTA (Jul 4, 2010)

Like others it took days while it tried to finish +11,000 songs. I like being able to quickly download a song to my phone at work. I'd say worth it for me.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

In addition to the other features already mentioned, iTunes Match holders get iTunes Radio with no ads -- bonus!


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## Mike457 (May 23, 2011)

bluepanties said:


> No no, it's kind of a phrase where I'm from, adding to be honest to the end sentences, kind of like starting a sentence with "I'm sorry but" when you don't agree with someone, you've got nothing to be sorry about you're just saying it that way for whatever reason the phrase was originally created for.
> 
> Anyways, you are right that it didn't make much sense though, so I apologize for that.


Actually, the issue is not that we haven't heard the phrase, but the punctuation. "I thought that it was wasn't worth it for me*, *to be honest, personally." Otherwise, as jamesB points out, you're expressing a preference for dishonesty. BTW, the "personally" is redundant, as you've already said "I" and "for me." 

However, on the subject at hand, iTunes Match has three big problems, and those prevent me from trying it. One, if you have a large collection (and I do), you have to establish a separate, limited in size, iTunes library. Two, if your main library is ALAC, everything is downsampled. Three, you're trapped in iTunes's hopelessly inaccurate (at least, where classical music is concerned) metadata.


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## mgmitchell (Apr 4, 2008)

I'm all confused by this. Not to worry, I'm generally confused.
However, I'm playing my tracks at the moment on ATV2, but just noticed it's playing "5 of 238". I wondered why it's only recognizing 238 tracks when I have over 1 000 and I do remember being able to play all 1 000+ tracks on ATV2. Did something change? The 238 tracks, oddly, are the unchecked songs in my library. That's all that's playing. Weird.
/Mitch.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

mgmitchell said:


> I'm all confused by this. Not to worry, I'm generally confused.
> However, I'm playing my tracks at the moment on ATV2, but just noticed it's playing "5 of 238". I wondered why it's only recognizing 238 tracks when I have over 1 000 and I do remember being able to play all 1 000+ tracks on ATV2. Did something change? The 238 tracks, oddly, are the unchecked songs in my library. That's all that's playing. Weird.
> /Mitch.


Perhaps the rest it is finding through Home Sharing, while iTunes Match finds the other 238.


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## polywog (Aug 9, 2007)

mgmitchell said:


> I'm all confused by this. Not to worry, I'm generally confused.
> However, I'm playing my tracks at the moment on ATV2, but just noticed it's playing "5 of 238". I wondered why it's only recognizing 238 tracks when I have over 1 000 and I do remember being able to play all 1 000+ tracks on ATV2. Did something change? The 238 tracks, oddly, are the unchecked songs in my library. That's all that's playing. Weird.
> /Mitch.


How are you playing them? Is ATV2 playing through iTunes Match, or home sharing? I don't believe that Home Sharing will play songs from your iTunes library that aren't stored locally, though I could be wrong.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

polywog said:


> How are you playing them? Is ATV2 playing through iTunes Match, or home sharing? I don't believe that Home Sharing will play songs from your iTunes library that aren't stored locally, though I could be wrong.


ATV can play any songs you've purchased directly from iCloud, even if they are not stored locally.


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## mgmitchell (Apr 4, 2008)

Thanks for all your expertise. Weird. How do I know if it's on Home Sharing or 'Match'? It says Home Sharing is on on my iTunes. I JUST took the iPad out to the living room, started my music list, hit the ATV2 sync, and the library is now playing! WTH? But it won't directly from ATV2 when I use the Music icon. Hmm. Does this make sense?
/M.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

mgmitchell said:


> Thanks for all your expertise. Weird. How do I know if it's on Home Sharing or 'Match'? It says Home Sharing is on on my iTunes. I JUST took the iPad out to the living room, started my music list, hit the ATV2 sync, and the library is now playing! WTH? But it won't directly from ATV2 when I use the Music icon. Hmm. Does this make sense?
> /M.


The Music icon will get you what's in the cloud. Use the Computers icon to get Home Sharing on TV.


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## mgmitchell (Apr 4, 2008)

BAM!
Thanks, 'fjn'!
Duh.
/M.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

New to the party. 

From what I am reading here it sounds like iTunes Match would be a nightmare for me with over 30,000 songs (250GB), plus I have a lot of oddball stuff that isn't on iTunes.

What I don't quite get is why do you have to upload your songs in the first place. I mean if it is in iTunes (Apple's Library) already shouldn't you just be accessing what is already on Apple's servers and just streaming from a database that is particular to your music Library? I don't think I quite understand how it all works.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

screature said:


> New to the party.
> 
> From what I am reading here it sounds like iTunes Match would be a nightmare for me with over 30,000 songs (250GB), plus I have a lot of oddball stuff that isn't on iTunes.
> 
> What I don't quite get is why do you have to upload your songs in the first place. I mean if it is in iTunes (Apple's Library) already shouldn't you just be accessing what is already on Apple's servers and just streaming from a database that is particular to your music Library? I don't think I quite understand how it all works.


That's exactly what you are doing. They don't upload it if it's already there...they just give you a link. Only the unique stuff gets uploaded. Stevie explained it all a couple years ago at a keynote.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

fjnmusic said:


> That's exactly what you are doing. They don't upload it if it's already there...they just give you a link. Only the unique stuff gets uploaded. Stevie explained it all a couple years ago at a keynote.


Ok thanks, so why is it taking people days to get going? I guess everyone has tons of music that isn't on iTunes?


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

screature said:


> Ok thanks, so why is it taking people days to get going? I guess everyone has tons of music that isn't on iTunes?


I believe that it checks your library very thoroughly and replaced all your lower rez files with 256K versions, so that will take a while to get set up. In a sense, it's laundering all those illegal P2P versions to make them legal, and the artist then gets royalties on a prorata basis.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

fjnmusic said:


> I believe that it checks your library very thoroughly and replaced all your lower rez files with 256K versions, so that will take a while to get set up. In a sense, it's laundering all those illegal P2P versions to make them legal, and the artist then gets royalties on a prorata basis.


I don't have any P2P versions and I don't exactly like the idea of them deciding to replace files on my system, how do I know they are not going to be corrupted during download some how?

I like the idea of being able to access all my music when away from home on an iOS device but not at the possible expense of mucking up my existing iTunes Library and original music files.

For a very large library like mine it seems like a pretty big risk.


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

They don't replace anything in your library. When you enable it the system then scans each song and tries to match it to the copy they have on file. If they find a match they simple add a reference to it on your account and move on to the next song. If they can't find a match they'll upload the copy you have. 

Now once that's is complete on a new device you can then download songs from your account. These will either be the matched songs from iTunes or the copy you uploaded. The interesting part is that for your main library if you have songs that were matched but are less than 256 then you can delete your local copy and then download the matched copy from iTunes to 'upgrade' your copy to a higher bit rate version.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

Andrew Pratt said:


> They don't replace anything in your library. When you enable it the system then scans each song and tries to match it to the copy they have on file. If they find a match they simple add a reference to it on your account and move on to the next song. If they can't find a match they'll upload the copy you have.
> 
> Now once that's is complete on a new device you can then download songs from your account. These will either be the matched songs from iTunes or the copy you uploaded. The interesting part is that for your main library if you have songs that were matched but are less than 256 then you can delete your local copy and then download the matched copy from iTunes to 'upgrade' your copy to a higher bit rate version.


Thanks Andrew. So you have the option to download or not to download, it doesn't happen automatically. Correct?


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## polywog (Aug 9, 2007)

screature said:


> Thanks Andrew. So you have the option to download or not to download, it doesn't happen automatically. Correct?


Exactly it will stream from the cloud the first time. It will sit in the cache for some amount of time and play from there while it's available, or you can opt to download it to your local library and never have to stream it again.


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## polywog (Aug 9, 2007)

fjnmusic said:


> I believe that it checks your library very thoroughly and replaced all your lower rez files with 256K versions, so that will take a while to get set up. In a sense, it's laundering all those illegal P2P versions to make them legal, and the artist then gets royalties on a prorata basis.


That's a pretty broad and bold statement. All of the 1000+ CDs we own have been ripped, some a decade ago at much lower bit rates, when drive space was at a premium. I'm sure I'm not the only one in that position.


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## crawford (Oct 8, 2005)

polywog said:


> That's a pretty broad and bold statement. All of the 1000+ CDs we own have been ripped, some a decade ago at much lower bit rates, when drive space was at a premium. I'm sure I'm not the only one in that position.


See Andrew Pratt's comment above for clarification. Now, if you wish to "upgrade" the bitrate of those 1000+ CDs using iTunes Match, you can.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

polywog said:


> Exactly it will stream from the cloud the first time. It will sit in the cache for some amount of time and play from there while it's available, or you can opt to download it to your local library and never have to stream it again.


Ok but I don't ever want to be streaming when I am at home using my computers to play the music. The only time I would want to stream would be on iOS devices. And with 30K+ songs there is a good possibility that the first time a song is played it may be on an iOS device.

So what happens when I play it for the first time on my computers after the same song has already been played on an iOS device? Will it automatically start to stream it or will it play it from my hard drive? 

Plus most of the time I am playing the music I am using a play list or a genius list, I don't want to have to be pausing after every song and choosing to have it download or not download a song again.

It really seems like it might be quite a bit of a pain for someone with the size of music library like I have.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

screature said:


> Ok but I don't ever want to be streaming when I am at home using my computers to play the music. The only time I would want to stream would be on iOS devices. And with 30K+ songs there is a good possibility that the first time a song is played it may be on an iOS device.
> 
> So what happens when I play it for the first time on my computers after the same song has already been played on an iOS device? Will it automatically start to stream it or will it play it from my hard drive?
> 
> ...


It will play it from the local source when available, otherwise it will stream. If you have an ATV2 or newer, try the Music Stream option for purchased songs. It's pretty quick actually, as it is for Movies and TV Shows as well.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

fjnmusic said:


> *It will play it from the local source when available*, otherwise it will stream. If you have an ATV2 or newer, try the Music Stream option for purchased songs. It's pretty quick actually, as it is for Movies and TV Shows as well.


Ok that is good.

Not interested in buying an ATV2 I already have a Mac Mini as a HTPC which accesses my music on a NAS, the same music and library that all 3 computers in the house access.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

Well then you should be able to find everything you need right in your iTunes library in that case. Local first, stream second.


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## polywog (Aug 9, 2007)

crawford said:


> See Andrew Pratt's comment above for clarification. Now, if you wish to "upgrade" the bitrate of those 1000+ CDs using iTunes Match, you can.


Oh I have already ... my objection was to the assumption that the music would obviously be torrents needing to be "legitimized."


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## polywog (Aug 9, 2007)

screature said:


> Ok but I don't ever want to be streaming when I am at home using my computers to play the music. The only time I would want to stream would be on iOS devices. And with 30K+ songs there is a good possibility that the first time a song is played it may be on an iOS device.


Be mindful of the 25,000 song limit for match, though I'm not sure it applies to "Matched" songs.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

polywog said:


> Oh I have already ... my objection was to the assumption that the music would obviously be torrents needing to be "legitimized."


Doesn't matter the source: tapes, records, CD's, whatever. While you may certainly have only legitimate copies of music, tons of people out there do not. Believe it or not, thus process actually "sanctifies" any illegitimately obtained music.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

Thanks for all the info guys sounds like it may work for me after all -5000+ songs but that is Ok for iOS play back there will still be plenty of music to choose from.

I wonder in what order the music is scanned? By artist then album then song? I would hope this is the order... if so then I guess I won't be able to listen to Warren Zevon or Yalloppin' Hounds on an iOS device.

I wonder how long the process will take?

Is the process very CPU intensive? I sure don't want to bogg down my Mac for days on end.


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## crawford (Oct 8, 2005)

screature said:


> Thanks for all the info guys sounds like it may work for me after all -5000+ songs but that is Ok for iOS play back there will still be plenty of music to choose from.
> 
> I wonder in what order the music is scanned? By artist then album then song? I would hope this is the order... if so then I guess I won't be able to listen to Warren Zevon or Yalloppin' Hounds on an iOS device.
> 
> ...


I'm just speculating here, but I would imagine that the time required is related to how accurately your music files are tagged in the first place (or at least how closely your tagging convention matches those in the iTunes database). 

I don't know how long my ~10,000 song library took to match, but I set it to begin at bedtime and it was finished when I got up.

One issue that hasn't been emphasized enough is that with iTunes match turned on, you no longer manage the music on your iOS device using iTunes. Or at least not in the same way that you might be doing so currently. If you want to transfer a song from your library onto your iOS device, you select it on your iOS device, at which point it downloads from iTunes (via wifi or your data connection). 

Second issue for me is that you have two viewing options on your iOS device: your entire library or just what's on your device. Using the former, it's likely that the amount music on the cloud far exceeds what's on your device and it can get kind of annoying to see kinds of music that you can't immediately access unless you want to stream it. Using the latter, you might forget what else is available and there is no easy way to toggle between the two views.

Now, I'm fairly new to iTunes Match, so perhaps I have it wrong, but that's how it's looking for me. Would love to learn a new workflow for this.


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## polywog (Aug 9, 2007)

screature said:


> Thanks for all the info guys sounds like it may work for me after all -5000+ songs but that is Ok for iOS play back there will still be plenty of music to choose from.
> 
> I wonder in what order the music is scanned? By artist then album then song? I would hope this is the order... if so then I guess I won't be able to listen to Warren Zevon or Yalloppin' Hounds on an iOS device.
> 
> ...


My initial sync seemed to be somewhat random as I recall. It went through, eliminated purchases, then matched songs that it could and then started uploading the remainder. Oddly, some of the "remainder" were songs that should have matched (the rest of the album did) and some were actually iTunes purchases!

I think that's due to over sensitivity to metadata though. I tend to put my songs in proper Genres, and that may have led to missed matches.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

If the gripes listed here are still true I am again extremely hesitant to use iTunes Match.

iTunes Match: another neglected Apple service
Macworld
Apr 30, 2013



> As the iTunes Guy for Macworld, I get many emails about problems with iTunes Match. With iTunes Match nearly 18 months old, it surprises me that such problems are still so widespread. When Apple expanded iTunes Match in January 2013 to 112 countries, I was surprised it did so without fixing any of the bugs associated with the service. iTunes Match remains a source of consternation for many...


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

That was four months ago, and comes from a columnist who solicits for questions involving problems. Do what you want, of course, but bear in mind that way more than 90 percent of reported issues are user error.


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## preapps (May 16, 2013)

It is worth, storing in cloud is easy and entertaining. You may need internet connection for this. LTE makes it quick when wifi is available.


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## Appearbusiness (Aug 29, 2013)

It is a great service.It easily allow us to manage contents on various device and its usefull to me.


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

I was a relatively early adopter. It has been mostly trouble-free for over a year, and I hope the glitchy and tedious setup I and many others experienced is no longer commonplace. 

As it stands, I don't think I'll renew next year. If we get iTunes Radio in Canada by then, it might be enough to justify keeping it. I'll also be looking at the whole feature set. For example, will I be able to load lossless rips onto my iOS device alongside Match content? Or will it remain an all-Match or nothing deal? This has turned out to be something that matters to me, significantly reducing the appeal of iTunes Match.


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## polywog (Aug 9, 2007)

iMatt said:


> I was a relatively early adopter. It has been mostly trouble-free for over a year, and I hope the glitchy and tedious setup I and many others experienced is no longer commonplace.
> 
> As it stands, I don't think I'll renew next year. If we get iTunes Radio in Canada by then, it might be enough to justify keeping it. I'll also be looking at the whole feature set. For example, will I be able to load lossless rips onto my iOS device alongside Match content? Or will it remain an all-Match or nothing deal? This has turned out to be something that matters to me, significantly reducing the appeal of iTunes Match.


I could be mistaken, it's been a while and I don't have an iPhone anymore. But it seems to me I remember syncing Lossless tunes directly from my library, and Match would not re-download if it was a local file...


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

polywog said:


> I could be mistaken, it's been a while and I don't have an iPhone anymore. But it seems to me I remember syncing Lossless tunes directly from my library, and Match would not re-download if it was a local file...


I just checked, and unfortunately you're mistaken.

Once you turn on Match on the phone, you can only manage music on the phone using Match. 

At the time of turning it on, it zaps anything that was previously stored there. 

After that, you can't drag-and-drop or delete anything via iTunes on a computer (whether it's the one with the master library or not).

I don't know whether this design exists for technical, legal or arbitrary reasons, but IMHO it's the single biggest downside of iTunes Match. 

I took a quick look for third-party apps that might do the trick, but at a glance it looks like they all access the same music library on the phone...


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## polywog (Aug 9, 2007)

Rats, I could have sworn I somehow had synced tunes, then turned on iTunes match and kept my local tunes. That certainly is a bit of a drawback.



iMatt said:


> I just checked, and unfortunately you're mistaken.
> 
> Once you turn on Match on the phone, you can only manage music on the phone using Match.
> 
> ...


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

Around a year ago there was a glitch that might have made that possible for a while. I forget the details but there's a good chance that's what you're remembering.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

iMatt said:


> I just checked, and unfortunately you're mistaken.
> 
> Once you turn on Match on the phone, you can only manage music on the phone using Match.
> 
> ...


That's just plain dumb.

Also do you mean that you can't edit your master library on the computer once you have enabled Match?

If so, it is more than dumb, it is idiotic and most definitely a deal breaker for me.


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

No, you can edit your master library to your heart's content. It's managing the library on an iOS device that becomes 100% about Match. Not sure about any additional computers; I think you do retain control over those.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

Ok I see, still kind of dumb though.


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

Apple giveth, Apple taketh away. In exchange for greatly reduced control over the library on your i-device, you do get access to your entire library on it, no matter how small its capacity. That's still a pretty cool thing despite the tradeoffs. 

A third-party music library app -- with a separate library -- would fix all my concerns. Anyone?


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## fellfromtree (May 18, 2005)

Match seems to look much better in iOS 7.

I cleared a big chunk of music off my iPhone to make room for the 7 download. After updating I didn't want to hook up to my computer again, so I switched Match on. 
The playlist I wanted to listen to now shows me clearly and easily which songs are on my device and which are downloadable. 
Have not looked closely, but I think this is going to work for me now.


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