iTunes Match upgrade to 256kbps also "downgrade"?

[sweex]

I am excited about apple's iTunes Match but I am also a bit concerned about the upgrade function because most of my music is in 320kbps or Lossless and I can live with the fact that on the server it's of lesser quality but I really wouldn't want it to change all the higher quality music on my Mac or iPhone. So I wonder if you would have the choice about upgrading and if so, could you select which songs to upgrade?
I guess it's reasonable to assume that they wouldn't do that but you may never know. What are your thoughts about this?

 

[Julien]

I'm also in the same boat except 98% of mine is Apple Lossless. Also pushing near the limit at 18,000 songs. I WAS so hoping Apple would start offering HD or at least lossless music as a new option. I will still be "forced" to buy CD's instead of using iTunes. I will probably use the iCloud service and consider it as a "last resort" backup policy and keep hoping Apple will upgrade to HD or lossless. Will still be forced to sync my music with iTunes and not use iCloud.

Another likely problem is almost 1/2 of my music is classical and the exact artist/recording not available in iTunes. Not sure how this will play out sine it will be a large upload.

 

[kurzz]

Talking to some of the engineers so far, they indicated that the songs that itunes don't match are uploaded, and are not converted. They wouldn't say yet whether they will even allow us to upload lossless however.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

As one person noted, you probably only really care about your lossless files on your computer, not on your more limited-storage iDevices. So worst case, it will match the song, but download the 256 kbps AAC when you choose to download from the cloud. So go ahead and rip that into lossless on the computer, and receive a (damned-high-quality) AAC file on your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad.

For songs it can't find, it will obviously upload what you've got. And if what you've got is lossless, then I have to imagine it will upload lossless.

Personally, I just tested out one thought I had.... I hadn't yet upgraded all of my iTunes purchases to "iTunes Plus" (at 30¢ a song, there are some songs that it just wasn't worth it...) So I tried deleting the song from my iTunes Library (after backing it up,) and using the new re-download function to get it again. Nope, it re-downloaded the 128 kbps protected .m4p version. :-( Oh well, it was worth a try. (I haven't tried on my iPad, though. Maybe if I do it on a physically different device I'll get a different result. I doubt it, though.)

 

[Julien]

As one person noted, you probably only really care about your lossless files on your computer, not on your more limited-storage iDevices. So worst case, it will match the song, but download the 256 kbps AAC when you choose to download from the cloud. So go ahead and rip that into lossless on the computer, and receive a (damned-high-quality) AAC file on your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad.

For songs it can't find, it will obviously upload what you've got. And if what you've got is lossless, then I have to imagine it will upload lossless...

I'm a long time audiophile and only use lossless on my devices (w/UE 11Pro IEM's) so the iCloud is still a downgrade. I'll still have to sync my music from my Mac.

ANOTHER BIG question. Will music match be dynamic or a one time shot? Unless Apple (and the music industry) start offering lossless music for download I will contenue to buy CD's (they are less expensive too).

So will all my new CD rips be matched/uploaded or will it be a one time thing?

I see a potential problem if music match is dynamic. It would give incentive to thieves (pirates is too kind of a tearm) to contenue stealing music and have it matched by iTunes (why buy a few songs of iTunes for $25 when you could have a "all you can eat" iTunes' songs for the same price?).

 

[5wallace]

This Ars article lays iTunes Match out really nicely. Their understanding is that tracks are only replaced in your library when you request them to be. However, only 256bit versions will be available in the cloud. The article is not clear on what happens when you have a lossless version that is not available in the cloud (i.e. does the lossless version get uploaded to the cloud and is it available in the lossless format?). One thing is for sure, your lossless music will not be replaced by the lower quality apple format unless you tell iTunes to do it.

Article is here: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...bout-itunes-match-your-questions-answered.ars

 

[Anonymous Freak]

This Ars article lays iTunes Match out really nicely. Their understanding is that tracks are only replaced in your library when you request them to be. However, only 256bit versions will be available in the cloud. The article is not clear on what happens when you have a lossless version that is not available in the cloud (i.e. does the lossless version get uploaded to the cloud and is it available in the lossless format?). One thing is for sure, your lossless music will not be replaced by the lower quality apple format unless you tell iTunes to do it.

Article is here: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...bout-itunes-match-your-questions-answered.ars

I can confirm that for purchased content that was purchased when it was still 128 kbps DRM-laden, it will only re-download the 128 kbps DRM-laden version, unless you have paid the $0.30 to upgrade it to iTunes Plus. I have tried this on a computer as well as an iPad. I wonder what they will do with music that USED to be on the iTunes Store, but isn't any more? (I have run into a few DRM-laden songs that just aren't available since the move to DRM-free.)

 

[Scarpad]

I am excited about apple's iTunes Match but I am also a bit concerned about the upgrade function because most of my music is in 320kbps or Lossless and I can live with the fact that on the server it's of lesser quality but I really wouldn't want it to change all the higher quality music on my Mac or iPhone. So I wonder if you would have the choice about upgrading and if so, could you select which songs to upgrade?
I guess it's reasonable to assume that they wouldn't do that but you may never know. What are your thoughts about this?

I'd like to rip lossless in Itunes, but untill they allow you to synce it to a device in a lower bitrate that you can choose I will continue to use my Zune HD and Zune Software to do that from WMA Lossless files. It allows you to pick the bitrate you want on your devices and transcodes to that rate. Isue 256.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I'd like to rip lossless in Itunes, but untill they allow you to synce it to a device in a lower bitrate that you can choose I will continue to use my Zune HD and Zune Software to do that from WMA Lossless files. It allows you to pick the bitrate you want on your devices and transcodes to that rate. Isue 256.

iTunes lets you do that...

Connect your device. Go to its main page (Summary tab) and put a check box in the "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC".

Done.

Before trying to troll, make sure the thing you're asking for doesn't already exist. (This has existed since Apple released the very first iPod shuffle. Early on, it was only available on the shuffle - not on any other model of iPod - but it was added as an option for all models long ago. Before the iPhone came out.)

 

[newagemac]

I can confirm that for purchased content that was purchased when it was still 128 kbps DRM-laden, it will only re-download the 128 kbps DRM-laden version, unless you have paid the $0.30 to upgrade it to iTunes Plus. I have tried this on a computer as well as an iPad. I wonder what they will do with music that USED to be on the iTunes Store, but isn't any more? (I have run into a few DRM-laden songs that just aren't available since the move to DRM-free.)

That's because you haven't yet paid your $25 for the matching and upgrading service. Your iTunes purchases at 128kbps won't be available at 256kbps until you pay for the service. What they are currently offering for free does not include upgrading your songs whether you purchased them from iTunes or not.

 

[OllyW]

Before trying to troll, make sure the thing you're asking for doesn't already exist. (This has existed since Apple released the very first iPod shuffle. Early on, it was only available on the shuffle - not on any other model of iPod - but it was added as an option for all models long ago. Before the iPhone came out.)

You are mistaken, it was only added for other devices in iTunes 9.1 which was released on 30/3/10, nearly 3 years after the iPhone came out.