Anyone still sync with iTunes?

[adamhunteratc]

Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering how many people out there still sync their music through iTunes rather than using something like iTunes Match or Apple Music? I'm including a poll to get a general idea of how people sync their personal music libraries.

 

[casperes1996]

Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering how many people out there still sync their music through iTunes rather than using something like iTunes Match or Apple Music? I'm including a poll to get a general idea of how people sync their personal music libraries.

I cast a vote for iTunes Sync, but let it be noted that I've only done this once the past 2 years or so, and that most of my music is bought through iTunes, and thereby can always be downloaded or streamed to any device. It's only my ripped CDs that I sync with iTunes, and once it's done, it's done, and I am not getting anymore CDs these days

 

[Paco II]

If it weren't for the requirement to use iTunes to sync Tones (how antiquated!), I wouldn't need to sync with iTunes at all. Currently using iTunes Match.

 

[JamiLynee]

If I pay for music, it's mine. And I still sync the old fashioned way because I like it to remember pictures and passwords

 

[Goatllama]

iTunes wired sync! I just trust a cable more than I do wireless, not to mention I prefer to own my music rather than stream it. Don't want to rely on an internet connection to play songs.

 

[casperes1996]

Looking at how this poll is going, I don't think us here (MacRumors crowd) are very representative of the general public.

 

[Paco II]

I'm not sure why anyone would want to sync with a cable when wifi syncing is so much easier. Also, poll is skewed as I use both iTunes match as well as Spotify

 

[Pspressart]

I use WiFi sync for my iPhone and cable sync for my iPad because I connect my iPad to my PC to charge it overnight.

 

[Bart Kela]

I use iTunes Desktop Sync because of my particular musical interests and devices.

I'm a classical music fan (and jazz to a lesser extent) and much of my iTunes Library is derived from CD rips. In fact, I have two iTunes libraries, one is lossy, the other is lossless AAC. I also have three devices: an iPhone, an iPad and a moldy old iPod classic 160GB. The latter gets the lossless AAC files.

Due to the classical music (and jazz) marketplace, I can get superb classical music performances from the local library or used CD stores like SecondSpin.com. This allows me to rip lossless copies. Using iTunes Match, I can upload lossy copies and often get matched iTunes Store copies which are better than my own rips. Note that if I am buying used classical CDs, they are often a fraction of the cost of downloadable iTunes Store albums.

Also, the local classical music radio station has a free Download of the Week song. Even if I don't like everything, maybe 30 or so are worth keeping every year. These are typically ordinary 192KB MP3s, maybe 256KB, but if I upload to iTunes Match, delete the local file, then re-download, often I get a 256KB "Mastered for iTunes" AAC. That's a $1.29 value per song, so the value of these new tracks is $38.70 versus the iTunes Match cost of $20. It makes more sense for me to keep using iTunes Match.

Stores like SecondSpin are a godsend to those of us who care about access to inexpensive lossless audio tracks. Someday this may change, but not tomorrow.

 

[adamhunteratc]

Looking at how this poll is going, I don't think us here (MacRumors crowd) are very representative of the general public.

Yeah, it seems like this is a fairly old-school group that doesn't trust the cloud (which is understandable).

 

[bigjnyc]

Yeah, it seems like this is a fairly old-school group that doesn't trust the cloud (which is understandable).

not necessarily... Just folks who have their own music collection and don't want/need to pay Apple $10 a month to stream music.

 

[JackieInCo]

I still sync on my Mac. I finally let my iTunes Match sub expire because I got tired of having to fix the wrong album artwork that it always seemed to apply to a few thousand of my songs. Took hours to fix. I still have artwork that is wrong.

As for backing up to the cloud, I once tried restoring a backup to an iPad Air and it failed. I had to set it up as new. Since then, I always do backups and sync with my computer.

 

[adamhunteratc]

not necessarily... Just folks who have their own music collection and don't want/need to pay Apple $10 a month to stream music.

Well you could use iTunes Match as well for just $25/year rather than $120/year. That gets your music collection synced to all your devices without all the other crud from Apple Music.

I still sync on my Mac. I finally let my iTunes Match sub expire because I got tired of having to fix the wrong album artwork that it always seemed to apply to a few thousand of my songs. Took hours to fix. I still have artwork that is wrong.

My iTunes Match sub expires at the end of this month. I'm debating renewing or not. It hasn't messed up anything like it has for you and others; I'm just debating if it's worth it.

I've been a Match user since it first came out. My primary reason for getting it back in the day was because I had a 16GB iPhone. So iTunes Match allowed me to have access to all my music (most of which wasn't purchased on iTunes) without taking up precious internal storage. But now I have a 64GB iPhone, which is more than enough space for my library. So that point is moot.

The other advantage to iTunes Match is keeping all devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV) in sync without having to ever plug in to the computer. This is obviously Apple's goal (to be completely wireless), but I'm just not sure they are there yet.

Apple also killed the final advantage of iTunes Match: having access to ad-free iTunes Radio. I loved having that feature. But they took that away and rolled it into Apple Music. I'm still kind of miffed about that.

I'm also concerned Apple will deprecate iTunes Match in an effort to push people toward Apple Music. But I guess no one will know that until it happens.

 

[mjschabow]

Only when I download a bootleg live recording.