I know pretty well what iTunes Match is and what it is not. In fact, the only thing I have an issue with is that there is not currently a way to quickly delete all of the downloaded songs that you've just listened to. So for the time being, I will manually delete each song, which is a bit of a hassle, but not really that bad at all. Hopefully there will be a future update to allow batch deletion of songs from different albums, but if not then I'm prepared to live with it.
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iTunes Match - I don't get it!
- Thread starter imacken
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I know pretty well what iTunes Match is and what it is not. In fact, the only thing I have an issue with is that there is not currently a way to quickly delete all of the downloaded songs that you've just listened to. So for the time being, I will manually delete each song, which is a bit of a hassle, but not really that bad at all. Hopefully there will be a future update to allow batch deletion of songs from different albums, but if not then I'm prepared to live with it.
No, as a matter of fact if your tags are screwed up, it can cause problems with them being matched, because that's how iTunes matches it.
How do you expect it to recognize and match them if they aren't properly tagged? The titles have to at least be correct.
I read this in another thread and it has stopped me from paying for match (for now). Obviously I need to do some more research, but having to go in and delete songs is a total pain.
I thought it actually does more than read the tag info. Sort of like how TuneUp does.
Nope! I had a couple with screwed up tags that had to be uploaded, once I correct the tags and updated match, their status then changed to matched, so it doesn't appear it reads anything but the tags. They were common songs, so if it checked other stuff, they would have been matched to begin with.
If only it were that easy. I waited an entire day for it to scan, 50% of my files (ripped from CD's I OWN) werent found, and there isnt a simple "update music" command to do a batch upgrade for the files that did match.
Im sure I have a lot to learn, but just like with everything else in this iCloud update then things dont work as simply as Apple users are used to.
No, but the procedure is quite simple.
1. Sort your songs by iCloud status.
2. Delete all matched songs from your library, not iCloud. Names remain.
3. Select all names.
4. Click download.
5. Go grab a cup of coffee (or a beer). The matched, 256kbps versions of your matched songs will begin to download onto your local drive.
5. Done.
Quick question...when you delete the songs from your hard drive and then re download from the cloud do they automatically go back into any playlist you had them in before deletion?
It has to look at both meta-info and actually scan the files. It's probably like how youtube and facebook do it. They scan your (in this case videos) and will recognize songs in them and give you copyright notifications.
If it only looked at metadata info, what's stopping me from renaming all of my files to songs I'd like for free and then hitting "update iTunes Match"?
I would bet anything it first scans the files like shazam/soundhound. If a 1-for-1 match is made, it goes with it. If a 1-for-1 match isn't made, it probably looks at the metadata to narrow it down or something. But there's no way just metadata will get a match. Try it - change one of your songs to another song title (and update it with the wrong/proper artist, etc), and you'll see that it doesn't match.
As for the streaming questions, it goes like this:
- I enable match on my desktop pc. It does it's thing.
- I enable match on my iPhone. NOTHING CHANGES ON MY IPHONE that was the same as my iTunes on my PC was before I enabled match. No songs get deleted, etc. If you sync regularly, it's as if nothing happens.
- You will notice a few things though:
First, if your PC had songs on it that your iPhone didn't, those songs will appear on your iphone with a little cloud next to them. Click the cloud and it downloads the song (matched or uploaded, it doesn't matter). Click the actual song title and it'll play the song "like" it's streaming, but it is still downloading it. IE: NO PURE STREAMING OPTION.
Let's say there was a 128k song you had on both your iPhone and PC. On your PC, you've enabled match and decide to delete this song and redownload the 256k version. THIS DOES NOTHING TO THE 128k VERSION ON YOUR IPHONE. If you want that 128k version on your iPhone to become the 256k version, it doesn't happen automatically, you'll have to do the identical process of deleting it from your iPhone, and redownloading it.
It seems like Itunes Match makes sure your songs all "match" across devices, but it could care less about which bit-rate version they are.
The only way I can think of truly matching your iPhone with your PC/Mac (as in, get those 256k versions on your iPhone without taking a year doing it) would be to turn off Match on your iPhone, sync with your proper list of songs on your PC/Mac, and then turn back on Match on your iPhone.
Any thoughts on that?
I have an album full of random songs (ripped by a friend) and each song is Track 01, Track 02, Track 03 etc. and it matched all of the songs and kept the tags the same. I'd like iTunes Match to fill in the track info for me, but it seems to keep your edits intact regardless of whether it can match them or not.
iTunes Match helps a lot if you have multiple computers. I have both everything you see in my signature as well as a windows 7 machine. iTunes match is amazing because the second I make a new playlist or change a rating on a song it reflects across all my machines. Also my macbook pro and air don't have disc drives so I add music to my windows 7 machine through a cd and it magically appears on all my computers..
Also on my iPhone i permanently store about 3000 songs on it, but now I always have access to my whole collection. Also on the iPad i only store apps and videos on it, however if I am on wifi i still have my whole collection
That is why iTunes match is awesome
This is part of apples plan of making the cloud your media hub and not your computer.
It makes your computer just another device like an iPod or iPad
I didn't even mention the backup and upgrading of your music.
Also on my iPhone i permanently store about 3000 songs on it, but now I always have access to my whole collection. Also on the iPad i only store apps and videos on it, however if I am on wifi i still have my whole collection
That is why iTunes match is awesome
This is part of apples plan of making the cloud your media hub and not your computer.
It makes your computer just another device like an iPod or iPad
I didn't even mention the backup and upgrading of your music.
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Sounds like you needed a music tagger, not iTunes Match. I don't think iTunes Match was meant to do that.
Try this first then run Match again
http://thelittleappfactory.com/tagalicious/
Well assuming you're on a Mac.
Update: Oops there is a PC version =D
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To me, iTunes Match is a glorified USB sync option, allowing me to sync my library remotely.
I have a single computer with 12xxx songs in my library and have a smart playlist that I sync with my iPhone that contains the songs I actually like/want to listen to, which is only about 9GB worth. The only benefit that Match would give me is if there's a song/songs that I didn't sync that I really wanted to listen to while away from home.
Is there something I'm missing with my use case where Match would benefit me other than upgrading my lower bitrate music to 256kbps?
You have to give it up to Apple though since this is a truly GENIUS idea to get something out of those that have a collection obtained outside of iTunes Music Store, since we're already able to redownload stuff bought in iTunes without Match.
I have a single computer with 12xxx songs in my library and have a smart playlist that I sync with my iPhone that contains the songs I actually like/want to listen to, which is only about 9GB worth. The only benefit that Match would give me is if there's a song/songs that I didn't sync that I really wanted to listen to while away from home.
Is there something I'm missing with my use case where Match would benefit me other than upgrading my lower bitrate music to 256kbps?
You have to give it up to Apple though since this is a truly GENIUS idea to get something out of those that have a collection obtained outside of iTunes Music Store, since we're already able to redownload stuff bought in iTunes without Match.
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Fantastic direction. But the problem I have is:
1) Half my library wasnt recognized despite them being almost entirely ripped from CD's on iTunes
2) Out of the ones that did match with the cloud then more than 3/4 of those have the cloud icon grayed out and I cant click it.
So out of about 8000 songs then I probably have 4000 matched and only 500 are eligible for redownload. And oddly enough, out of those 500 then I'd say a good portion are the ones that were pirated back in the day. I have the CD's for the unsupported files so Im not sure if I should re-rip thousands of songs or give up because, once again, pirating seems to be easier for the end user than legal methods.
I really wish they could let us skip a few steps and just verify we own the CD and queue the tracks for download.