Apple Music Apple Music, iTunes Match and Ripped CDs

[philstubbington]

Before subscribing to Apple Music, my wife and I used to sync a single music library (mostly ripped CDs where we've bought the original on CD) on my Mac to both 'phones via a wired connection. This worked just fine, but doesn't work with Apple Music, and is what we want to be able to do - having the same shared music library on both iPhones, as well as access to Apple Music.

I seem to be able to see newly ripped CDs on my iPhone, but my wife can't.

I was advised at one point by Apple Support that I needed iTunes Match, but as far as I can make out this doesn't allow me to shared ripped music?

Has anyone else solved this, if so how? Thanks.

 

[philstubbington]

After much back and forth with Apple support, who don't seem to know the answer, I've figured it out myself.

I leave "Sync Library" switched on on my account, and CDs that I've ripped to my MacBook eventually appear on my iPhone which is under the same account, via the cloud.

I've turned "Sync Library" off on my wife's account, and sync the library via a cable.

I suspect another option would be for us to use a single account on all devices (obviously I can see the music I've ripped on my iPad too, which is also under the same account, but would need to download it if I wanted to play it without streaming it).

So, no need for iTunes Match and the above works just fine with Apple Music.

Just thought I'd post it in case anyone else is trying to get their head around a similar situation!

 

[Phuz01]

I'm curious... Has Apple Music attempted to overwrite album/song/artist metadata in your ripped library?

I have an extensive iTunes library of ripped CDs (approximately 3,000); many of them are international, and some of them were "unofficial" releases, such as rips of LPs that never got an official CD/digital release.

I've also changed the album names, genres, and sort metadata on many recordings purchased through iTunes, as I came up with certain conventions for curating my collection to make it more accessible (and more flexible for creating playlists based on artists, genres, year of initial release, or Oscar/Grammy/Tony nominees). I found these would change if I shared information about my library with Apple, so I disabled that in my iTunes settings.

While I would love to have access to the Apple Music library, I've put hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours into the curation of my collection, and I'd hate to see all that overwritten/destroyed if I subscribe to Apple Music. It doesn't look as though iTunes Match is included by default with Apple Music, but that seems like the biggest threat to what I've built. Have you had any experiences that would suggest such overwriting is a possibility, or that subscribing to Apple Music would prevent me from disabling the iTunes setting "Share details about your library with Apple"?

 

[philstubbington]

I'm curious... Has Apple Music attempted to overwrite album/song/artist metadata in your ripped library?

I have an extensive iTunes library of ripped CDs (approximately 3,000); many of them are international, and some of them were "unofficial" releases, such as rips of LPs that never got an official CD/digital release.

I've also changed the album names, genres, and sort metadata on many recordings purchased through iTunes, as I came up with certain conventions for curating my collection to make it more accessible (and more flexible for creating playlists based on artists, genres, year of initial release, or Oscar/Grammy/Tony nominees). I found these would change if I shared information about my library with Apple, so I disabled that in my iTunes settings.

While I would love to have access to the Apple Music library, I've put hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours into the curation of my collection, and I'd hate to see all that overwritten/destroyed if I subscribe to Apple Music. It doesn't look as though iTunes Match is included by default with Apple Music, but that seems like the biggest threat to what I've built. Have you had any experiences that would suggest such overwriting is a possibility, or that subscribing to Apple Music would prevent me from disabling the iTunes setting "Share details about your library with Apple"?

We're a little behind you then - only 2,134 albums Might beat you if I ever get my vinyl collection out of the attic though.....

I very much doubt you want iTunes Match - Apple Support were really dreadful understanding what I think is quite a simple 'use case' - one library of ripped CDs, shared with two or more people in the same household.

As far as I can tell, your meta data should be okay. I'd be inclined to copy the entire library before experimenting though. I recently upgraded to a new MacBook Air so still had access to the original library on the previous MacBook Air.

I've just experimented with a newly ripped CD today as follows:-

1. ripped it to the Mac, the 'location' still shows as a local file, but it also shows as uploaded to the Cloud.
2. added custom lyrics to a single track,
3. removed the download, the custom lyrics are still there, but location is showing as 'cloud' rather than the local file location
4. downloaded the track again from the cloud, the custom lyrics are still there, the location is again showing as a local file, and I can see the physical file in Finder.

Does that help?

 

[Phuz01]

As far as I can tell, your meta data should be okay. I'd be inclined to copy the entire library before experimenting though. I recently upgraded to a new MacBook Air so still had access to the original library on the previous MacBook Air.
...
Does that help?

Wow... I appreciate all the effort you went through to test this. One thing I noticed when my library was still connected to Apple is that song titles/artists and album art would just randomly change over time, and occasionally to something completely incorrect. But if iTunes Match isn't a required add-on, and if I can continue to keep my library free of third-party curation, then I may just have to give Apple Music a try.