iTunes Match was a disaster.

[tonyr6]

I wanted ad free iTunes Radio and the price was cheap only $25. Well I subscribed and it took forever even just to send the information to Apple. Then it finally started to upload my songs. My connection slowed down to a halt. I could not even stream radio. Then it keep stopping just to start over again sending information to Apple and I had to stop it a few times. Then it started uploading again and then stopped again.

On my iPod Touch I turned on iTunes Match and it erased every song I had on there. I tried to sync the music from my laptop but it refused to see it. When I opened the Music app it even crashed a few times. Then it said loading iTunes match but zero songs loaded.

I then had enough and called Apple up and said I want to cancel iTunes Match. I then wiped my iPod Touch and restored it and all my music copied over fine but then I had problems with it always asking for my password and the App Store not showing purchased apps. iTunes on the iPod Touch refused to even load.

On the phone with Apple again after logging out of my device. After logging in again and having to put my password in four times it worked fine except for it not showing purchased apps but then the iTunes app started to work again. Apple then said that they were reporting having problems.

Now the App Store is showing my purchase history and everything is fine. Someone will call me tomorrow for a followup call.

All this frustration for ad free iTunes Radio. Heck with it I will stick with Slacker Radio Plus.

 

[boltjames]

+1

I have to tell you just how disappointed I am in Apple, first time I can honestly say they've designed a terrible product. Like you, I spent the $25 just to get ad-free iTunes Radio and got this instead:

1. Match doesn't work on my Apple TV, can't see any of my 10,000 songs that I didn't purchase via iTunes.

2. Match does work on my iPhone, but it nuked my library clean so that when I take my next flight I'll have zero music loaded on my drive.

3. Match pulls every fugly one of the 500 Playlists I have in iTunes, not the 100 that matter. Doesn't seem to be a way to pick the ones you want, puts them all on there.

4. iTunes Radio blows. Today it played an ACDC song on my custom "I Am The Walrus" Radio station. Despite the fact that I have an Elton John station, a Billy Joel station, a Justin Timberlake station, it's been two days and I've yet to hear a single track by any of the artists that the stations are named for. Whenever a classic track is played on a classic album, I get the cover art from the Greatest Hits album instead. "Layla" plays and I get some cheesy Best Of Eric Clapton cover art.

...and best of all...

5. iTunes Radio still plays commercials. Still get the "iTunes Radio..." bumper every 10 songs or so, today my $25 commercial-free iTunes Radio decided I must want to know that Kenny Chesney has a new disc in iTunes and forced me to listen to 30 seconds of highlights.

Tragic. What a mess.

BJ

 

[tonyr6]

I guess Apple thinks that you have to have a always on connection even to listen to your own music. That is not always the case. If I am out with no internet I rely on my locally stored music but with iTunes Match I still need a WiFi connection. Pathetic.

Apple support is great though and now I am just waiting for a credit.

Also Slacker Plus does play "Slacker Radio" promos that are a few seconds but you can turn them off.

 

[Rigby]

I guess Apple thinks that you have to have a always on connection even to listen to your own music. That is not always the case. If I am out with no internet I rely on my locally stored music but with iTunes Match I still need a WiFi connection. Pathetic.

I don't really understand most of what was written in the previous posts, but this is definitely not true. Of course you can store songs locally on the device with Match enabled. You either download them from the cloud by tapping the download icon, or sync them before enabling Match. But the whole point of course is to get direct access to your music on the device without having to use iTunes, so I don't really understand why you subscribed in the first place if you only want to sync via iTunes.

Regarding your startup problems, initially you need to give Match some time to match/upload and process your library, especially if you have a large library. For me, Match is working really quite well.

 

[Monte2]

I guess Apple thinks that you have to have a always on connection even to listen to your own music. That is not always the case. If I am out with no internet I rely on my locally stored music but with iTunes Match I still need a WiFi connection. Pathetic.

Apple support is great though and now I am just waiting for a credit.

Also Slacker Plus does play "Slacker Radio" promos that are a few seconds but you can turn them off.

It sounds like you're totally confused to how Match works. It doesn't upload all your songs, it "Matches" them with what's already in the itunes cloud...which is millions of songs. It shouldn't take that long. I have over 100GB music and took maybe 30 min. Try doing it with google music...took over 1 week! They actually upload all the songs.

Once you turn match on in your iphone/ipad/touch, it tells you it will remove everything on the device. You then need to download directly from there. It's good for people who have a lot of old poor quality files or who want to be able to manage their music right from the device. It also gives you a permanent backup of all your songs in icloud. Sounds like you still prefer the old way of connecting to itunes every time.

Works great for me...in appletv as well.

If you want to be able to stream all your songs all the time try google music.

 

[crzdcolombian]

No a bunch of common songs don't work on itunes match. A bunch of Abbey Road and White Album of the beatles. Albums that basically everyone has twice and legally.

I have 22K songs and only 17K was matched. Tho it took maybe 1 1/2 weeks to be uploaded. I would delete the matched songs to speed up the process. It helps a bit but some songs don't get matched and just get uploaded which takes forever. My biggest issue is if why not match the whole CD if they see I have 20 songs out of 21 !!! Why upload the 21st song !!!

I found looking up exactly how it is on itunes changing the name and then making it into a mp3 or AAC works for it to get matched but for 4-5k songs I have unmatched. It's just not worth me doing that.

I am very disappointed with Match and I can easily get my money back but dont want to deal with their customer service. Also most my Cds are at 320kbps and itunes match gives you less than that

 

[tonyr6]

I have a bunch of older albums too mostly from the 80's and 90's including Michael Jackson Albums but I only have 2.42 GB of music all encoded at 128k AAC so space is not a issue.

I just thought that I can leave match on and still keep my own 128k AAC files that I encoded from my own purchased CD's I ripped in iTunes but no when I turn it on it erases everything on my iPod Touch. No thanks.

Anyway Apple support is great and they credited me for iTunes Match. It is not worth the hassle for iTunes Radio which is really not that great. Too many repeats and I thought Slacker Plus (with AOL Radio) was repeating too much but iTunes Radio is much worse. Slacker Plus has a much better variety includes AOL Radio at no extra charge and gives you unlimited skips.

 

[wxman2003]

I must be confused a bit. I signed up, and yes it erased my music. But before I went on my trip, I turned off itunes match on my phone, and then synced my phone on itunes on my mac and my music was back on my phone. Came home, and turned itunes match on and it deleted the music. Worked as expected.