iTunes Match and your PC

[Tadaas]

I pay Apple $25/yr and then my iTunes library is scanned on my PC by iTunes Match. The vast majority of my songs will match with existing songs on iTunes. Now I can download any of these songs from the cloud to my iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch at will. The fantastic news is that a digitally "upgraded" copy is supplied.

The crazy thing is that the device with the horrible speaker now has the digitally upgraded song, while my PC, which is connected to some great speakers, is left with the inferior ripped copy. (I know the iOS device could be connected to good headphones or AirPlay speakers) It just doesn't make sense to me that the PC is left with the bad copy under this deal. Now maybe iTunes Match could also cloud the song to my PC but now I have two copies at the PC and I probably have to keep the ripped copy as proof of ownership or to use if I decide to not pay the $25/yr later.

Watch for inflated iTunes Libraries but they are on our machines and not the machines at the NC data center. To upload all your music to Amazon or Google will take a long time as Apple stated but it will take longer to download all the digitally "upgraded" copies to your PC.

I believe at the end I will like iTunes Match but I want to understand some things about it.

 

[swbca]

Create a new library to get 256K upgraded songs

After fully syncing my Windows PC to iTunes Match for the first time, I created a new emtpy itunes library and then downloaded all songs from iTunes Match to the new library. I kept the old library by renaming the folder "itunes-original" (these were all file formats that would work on my Android phones). The next time I opened iTunes it couldn't find the renamed folder so it created a new library. Then I joined the PC to iTunes Match again. Then the songs all downloaded automatically.

When I joined a second PC to iTunes Match, I had to request the downloads one album at a time. I don't know why the original PC was automatic and the second was not.

This worked for me because I didn't have many playlists to lose by abandoning my original library. Now I am waiting for Android phones to support .AAC so I don't have to maintain two librarys.

 

[FoldingTime]

After you have done the iTunes match, delete one of the songs from iTunes that does NOT have a cloud icon. Make sure you DO NOT select the delete from icloud check box.

A cloud icon will now appear next to this song. Click on the cloud icon to download the song.

Repeat for any other song you want.

 

[PNutts]

The crazy thing is that the device with the horrible speaker now has the digitally upgraded song, while my PC, which is connected to some great speakers, is left with the inferior ripped copy. (I know the iOS device could be connected to good headphones or AirPlay speakers) It just doesn't make sense to me that the PC is left with the bad copy under this deal. Now maybe iTunes Match could also cloud the song to my PC but now I have two copies at the PC and I probably have to keep the ripped copy as proof of ownership or to use if I decide to not pay the $25/yr later.

Locally you can choose to have only your original ripped copy, two copies (the original and the matched copy), or just the matched copy (by deleting your original). You do not need to keep the original for proof of ownership and once downloaded the files are yours to keep even if you do not continue the service.

Watch for inflated iTunes Libraries but they are on our machines and not the machines at the NC data center. To upload all your music to Amazon or Google will take a long time as Apple stated but it will take longer to download all the digitally "upgraded" copies to your PC.

Not knowing your specific situation I'll say that generally download speeds are faster than upload speeds. And downloading 80% of your library is faster than uploading 100% of it.