iTunes Match - question about actual downloaded version

[RRmalvado]

I signed up for iTunes Match a couple of weeks ago and it works great. Keeping my PC, my MBA (2011) and my iPhone synced up with my music has never been easier.

I have a few albums I personally ripped and were matched successfully (192kbps constant MP3s). To save some space on my MBA I deleted the MP3s and attempted to redownload the Matched AAC version (since they were matched) of songs that I play more often.

The songs that were downloaded were my exact versions! For example, the iTunes version of one song in particular is 5:01 in length, my version was 5:13. When I downloaded the Matched version it was also 5:13.

Shouldn't it be the iTunes version that I'm downloading, i.e. the 5:01 song?

Thanks for any input.

 

[ZMacintosh]

from what i understand, it matches closely with the album/track specifically and not time, etc.

I have a few albums that have say "hidden tracks" at the end of certain songs that I know are not in iTunes. Which isnt a huge dilemma but were ripped at a lower quality (320Kbps MP3, ie).

I have a lot of music that I would love matched on itunes but there is still something about it that I'm still a little cautious about that is preventing me to sign up and just do it. The idea sounds amazing enough...

 

[RRmalvado]

from what i understand, it matches closely with the album/track specifically and not time, etc.

I have a few albums that have say "hidden tracks" at the end of certain songs that I know are not in iTunes. Which isnt a huge dilemma but were ripped at a lower quality (320Kbps MP3, ie).

I have a lot of music that I would love matched on itunes but there is still something about it that I'm still a little cautious about that is preventing me to sign up and just do it. The idea sounds amazing enough...

Yes I understand that it matches the song.

However, if I delete the local copy and then want to redownload it later why am I downloading "my" version and not the "iTunes matched" version.

In other words, are we just uploading our entire libraries (which looking at the way Match works, we are not), but then why are the songs that we are redownloading, that are matched, the same song we originally had and not the iTunes version?

Anybody has an idea?

 

[ZMacintosh]

Yes I understand that it matches the song.

However, if I delete the local copy and then want to redownload it later why am I downloading "my" version and not the "iTunes matched" version.

In other words, are we just uploading our entire libraries (which looking at the way Match works, we are not), but then why are the songs that we are redownloading, that are matched, the same song we originally had and not the iTunes version?

Anybody has an idea?

seems to be a known issue, and has happened with various tracks on my end too.
Either its not scanning the entire track information (meta data, waveform, etc) properly.
I have some albums that are al 256Kbps AAC match and some are mixmatched.

File a bug report:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html