iTunes Match worth it for me? After 1 day, I'm thinking NOT!

[dmk1974]

My brother was telling me about his iTunes Match setup an I'm intrigued, but really wondering if it's worth it for me.

Here is my current setup:

• Mac Mini: Houses all of our family's music and media. iTunes is always open and Home Sharing on as well.
• MacBooks and PCs in the house: All are networked to that Mac Mini and can play everything in iTunes shared from the Mac Mini via Home Sharing.
• iPods/iPads/iPhones: When in the house on the same network, can also play everything from the Mac Mini via Home Sharing.
• 2 Apple TV devices (2nd gen and a 3rd gen)
• All computers and iOS devices use the same Apple ID for iTunes/Apps.

From what I have read and understand, the only real benefit of iTunes Match (for me) is:

• Can connect to the Mac Mini library when not at home on the iPhones and stream music and playlists (similar to Pandora).
• But can my wife and I simultaneously stream music to our iPhones if we are both out and about? Or only 1 at a time?

The other benefit that I have seen from other posts is that it will convert songs to 256k AAC format. But for me, I have most of my ripped music in 320k MP3 that I don't want changed. If I get iTunes match, will it automatically convert all of them or only any tracks it finds that are not at least 256k quality? This part I am unclear on and is my main hesitation for subscribing to iTunes Match. I do not want those 320k MP3s altered.

 

[Lunfai]

My brother was telling me about his iTunes Match setup an I'm intrigued, but really wondering if it's worth it for me.

Here is my current setup:

• Mac Mini: Houses all of our family's music and media. iTunes is always open and Home Sharing on as well.
• MacBooks and PCs in the house: All are networked to that Mac Mini and can play everything in iTunes shared from the Mac Mini via Home Sharing.
• iPods/iPads/iPhones: When in the house on the same network, can also play everything from the Mac Mini via Home Sharing.
• All computers and iOS devices use the same Apple ID for iTunes/Apps.

From what I have read and understand, the only real benefit of iTunes Match (for me) is:

• Can connect to the Mac Mini library when not at home on the iPhones and stream music and playlists (similar to Pandora).
• But can my wife and I simultaneously stream music to our iPhones if we are both out and about? Or only 1 at a time?

The other benefit that I have seen from other posts is that it will convert songs to 256k AAC format. But for me, I have most of my ripped music in 320k MP3 that I don't want changed. If I get iTunes match, will it automatically convert all of them or only any tracks it finds that are not at least 256k quality? This part I am unclear on and is my main hesitation for subscribing to iTunes Match. I do not want those 320k MP3s altered.

Unfortunately you can only attach one phone to iTunes match, meaning you and your wife will need separate subscriptions / libraries. Okay here's an explanation of iTunes match.

• I can attach five machines onto iTunes Match, not including Apple TV and iPhone, not sure about iPad.
• Your entire library will be synced to iTunes, if your song/single/album is not on the iTunes store then it will upload them.
• If your song/single/album is on iTunes, then it'll match it up to the 256 kbps AAC from the iTunes store.
• Your entire library will be in the Cloud, meaning your Mac Mini doesn't have to be powered on.

I would assign all music on one computer with the local backup and then use iTunes match on two separate accounts, although you will have to sync each iTunes match on when you add new music, but this is the best solution.

EDIT: Apparently it works on more then one device, although I haven't tried. Do you use same iCloud too? I tried it a while ago and it was signed into a different App Store/iCloud account, so I'm unsure.

 

[OllyW]

Unfortunately you can only attach one phone to iTunes match, meaning you and your wife will need separate subscriptions / libraries.

Are you sure about that?

Apple says...

When you subscribe to or enable iTunes Match, your device or computer will be associated with your Apple ID. Your Apple ID can have up to 10 devices and computers (combined) associated with it. For more information about associating devices and computers to an Apple ID, see this article. When you subscribe to iTunes Match, Genius will begin associating information about your iTunes library with your Apple ID. You will not be able to disable Genius while using iTunes Match.

No mention about it being restricted to one iPhone.

 

[dmk1974]

Unfortunately you can only attach one phone to iTunes match, meaning you and your wife will need separate subscriptions / libraries. Okay here's an explanation of iTunes match.

• I can attach five machines onto iTunes Match, not including Apple TV and iPhone, not sure about iPad.
  

[/B]

This part is where I am confused. On the Apple site, I read the following:

How many devices can iTunes Match support?
iTunes Match supports up to 10 devices — including your computer, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV.

Seems like it wouldn't matter what the mix and match was of the 10 devices. But would kinda suck if only 1 allowed to connect and play at a time.

 

[Lunfai]

Are you sure about that?

Apple says...


No mention about it being restricted to one iPhone.

I edited but it might be 5 computers and 5 devices. I know I'm currently having a problem registering a 6th computer due to not deactivating one machine before I sold it :/, 5 devices could apply to iOS. You might need the same iCloud account logged in, which isn't ideal for my devices, as they need their own messages/contacts backed up.

(P.S I need to contact them for a reset, but theres a yearly limit, but I just haven't gotten around to do it)

 

[dmk1974]

Another question I have: As long as you have an internet connection, iTunes Match seems like a pretty nice idea. But when traveling for work, and on a plane, I want certain playlists downloaded entirely to my iPhone (like I currently have at the moment). Does iTunes Match replace what I already have on there?

 

[Lunfai]

Another question I have: As long as you have an internet connection, iTunes Match seems like a pretty nice idea. But when traveling for work, and on a plane, I want certain playlists downloaded entirely to my iPhone (like I currently have at the moment). Does iTunes Match replace what I already have on there?

Yes, replaces your entire synced library. All existing content will be deleted on the device but your playlists will be updated with your iTunes Match (synced songs) and it'll be available to play on any device.

You can download any of these songs (albums/playlists) to your iOS device for offline playing. Here's a screenshot that shows one of the albums on my iTunes match, as you can see next to the songs (or the album) you can just tap the icon and it'll download them ^^.

http://cl.ly/image/1o0Q2F3b3f0d/IMG_2539.PNG

 

[dmk1974]

Yes, replaces your entire synced library. All existing content will be deleted on the device but your playlists will be updated with your iTunes Match (synced songs) and it'll be available to play on any device.

You can download any of these songs (albums/playlists) to your iOS device for offline playing. Here's a screenshot that shows one of the albums on my iTunes match, as you can see next to the songs (or the album) you can just tap the icon and it'll download them ^^.

http://cl.ly/image/1o0Q2F3b3f0d/IMG_2539.PNG

Ok, cool. Sounds like I can select an entire playlist to download instead of, in some cases, tapping on 200 individual songs to download.

Starting to lean towards iTunes Match. I like the way I've had my iTunes and music organized for the past 5+ years and don't want it all screwed up!

 

[Lunfai]

Ok, cool. Sounds like I can select an entire playlist to download instead of, in some cases, tapping on 200 individual songs to download.

Starting to lean towards iTunes Match. I like the way I've had my iTunes and music organized for the past 5+ years and don't want it all screwed up!

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if iOS 6 is different but on iOS 7 you need to tap each song on playlists, which is kinda annoying, again I'm not sure if it's different on iOS 6, and the work in progress music app in 7 hasn't been finished yet. However, iTunes Match is totally worth it for me, and I couldn't recommend it more then enough.

It won't break your music organisation in any way, as it just matches it to the iTunes Store or uploads them. Even if the same song is on iTunes Store, but you've named them incorrectly then it'll upload that version instead, and it'll be available in the Cloud. All it does is add an Cloud symbol, all songs are kept in the directory like normal, you can choose to keep a backup and delete them and rely purely on the service, but I keep a local copy just incase, and they'll always be there, unless you choose to hide it.

I've been using it for around 6-7 months, and I'm defiantly re-subscribing.

 

[dmk1974]

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if iOS 6 is different but on iOS 7 you need to tap each song on playlists, which is kinda annoying, again I'm not sure if it's different on iOS 6, and the work in progress music app in 7 hasn't been finished yet. However, iTunes Match is totally worth it for me, and I couldn't recommend it more then enough.

It won't break your music organisation in any way, as it just matches it to the iTunes Store or uploads them. Even if the same song is on iTunes Store, but you've named them incorrectly then it'll upload that version instead, and it'll be available in the Cloud. All it does is add an Cloud symbol, all songs are kept in the directory like normal, you can choose to keep a backup and delete them and rely purely on the service, but I keep a local copy just incase, and they'll always be there, unless you choose to hide it.

I've been using it for around 6-7 months, and I'm defiantly re-subscribing.

Thanks again for the info. I'll have to see how the downloaded playlist works in iOS 6.

If I do subscribe and use it for a year, but then decide to cancel a year from now, I'm assuming that my iTunes library and playlists resident on my Mac Mini will not be altered...I would just lose the Cloud portion, right? I can then manually download my playlists to my iPhone via USB just like I do today.

 

[Lunfai]

Thanks again for the info. I'll have to see how the downloaded playlist works in iOS 6.

If I do subscribe and use it for a year, but then decide to cancel a year from now, I'm assuming that my iTunes library and playlists resident on my Mac Mini will not be altered...I would just lose the Cloud portion, right? I can then manually download my playlists to my iPhone via USB just like I do today.

Yepp! Would be silly if they stole your library ^^. Just remember to keep the library on your main machine, for example if I deleted my psychical library after I synced my songs to the service (so only iCloud version remain) to save machine space. Then once iTunes Match expires then my library would be inaccessible, as I deleted the psychical files.

 

[dmk1974]

Allright, I just subscribed and it is setting up now. Looks like it's gonna take a while to complete the 3 steps listed in iTunes. I'll check back on it later. Thanks! I hope this works well!

 

[SpaceKitty]

This part is where I am confused. On the Apple site, I read the following:

How many devices can iTunes Match support?
iTunes Match supports up to 10 devices — including your computer, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV.

Seems like it wouldn't matter what the mix and match was of the 10 devices. But would kinda suck if only 1 allowed to connect and play at a time.

That's correct. I have two Macs, two iPhones and one iPad all using the same iTunes Match account.

 

[dmk1974]

This setup is taking FOREVER! It seriously may take a few days. It seems to be cycling over and over and over for the last 900 songs I have. It goes through step 1, then step 2 with ~800-900 songs to go, and then on step 3 it seems to only upload a few songs at a time and then starts all over with step 1.

Over and over and over again. Started this up about 6 hours ago. Is this normal?

Here's a video I recorded of what it is doing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjY37tdyWFc

 

[crzdcolombian]

This setup is taking FOREVER! It seriously may take a few days. It seems to be cycling over and over and over for the last 900 songs I have. It goes through step 1, then step 2 with ~800-900 songs to go, and then on step 3 it seems to only upload a few songs at a time and then starts all over with step 1.

Over and over and over again. Started this up about 6 hours ago. Is this normal?

Here's a video I recorded of what it is doing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjY37tdyWFc

deleted all the matched songs. This speeds it up. I had 21K. It matched 17K and then just started uploading them instead of matching but it was stuff like the beatles, bob dylan which is weird. I have 4k uploaded. I have been deleting the uploaded files and trying to match them again and it works sometimes. It's just kind of fustrating. I am not sure if I would recommend match. It took way too long. I suggest just backing up all your info on a HD and call it a day. If you do have 25k songs you probably download them illegally so why not just download better/newer files if you need your songs at a higher bitrate

 

[dmk1974]

Well, after almost exactly 12 hours, my iTunes Match setup was complete (pretty much). Nice to save space on my iPhone and have common playlists across devices.

HOWEVER, even after 1 day of using it, I am starting to regret it. I think they still need to work on this service.

• 1.) Out of about 7200 songs, it had to upload about 1000 of them that did not "match". I don't get it. 90% of the songs I have were actually CDs that I ripped in iTunes years ago. Even more frustrating, a lot of albums, like Van Halen 1984, had 2 songs that it matched and then the rest of the songs on the album had to upload. What the heck?
  
• 2.) Dozens of other tracks I had said they were not eligible to even upload to the cloud. Why not? I have a number of sounds clips from movies and shows that I had in a playlist in iTunes now that will not be shared across the devices that have iTunes Match turned on. Sucks.
  
• 3.) And this is probably the deal killer...I figured that this service to allow streaming songs from the cloud would provide a Pandora-like service. Driving to work, I piped the tunes via iTunes Match during my commute which is 1/2 hour each way. Thank goodness I still have a grandfathered unlimited plan. 1 hour of playing streamed music used 760 MB of data!!! I don't think I've ever used that much watching NFL Sunday Ticket in a single day, much less an hour! PLUS it seems that even for songs that I did NOT select to fully download from the cloud still take up space on the iPhone since I started the day using 300 MB of space and now it sits at 1.1 GB.

Is there a way to just cancel within a day and get a refund for this? For those of you that find this worth it, WHY despite these listed short-comings?

 

[SanjeevRana]

Well, after almost exactly 12 hours, my iTunes Match setup was complete (pretty much). Nice to save space on my iPhone and have common playlists across devices.

HOWEVER, even after 1 day of using it, I am starting to regret it. I think they still need to work on this service.

• 1.) Out of about 7200 songs, it had to upload about 1000 of them that did not "match". I don't get it. 90% of the songs I have were actually CDs that I ripped in iTunes years ago. Even more frustrating, a lot of albums, like Van Halen 1984, had 2 songs that it matched and then the rest of the songs on the album had to upload. What the heck?
  
• 2.) Dozens of other tracks I had said they were not eligible to even upload to the cloud. Why not? I have a number of sounds clips from movies and shows that I had in a playlist in iTunes now that will not be shared across the devices that have iTunes Match turned on. Sucks.
  
• 3.) And this is probably the deal killer...I figured that this service to allow streaming songs from the cloud would provide a Pandora-like service. Driving to work, I piped the tunes via iTunes Match during my commute which is 1/2 hour each way. Thank goodness I still have a grandfathered unlimited plan. 1 hour of playing streamed music used 760 MB of data!!! I don't think I've ever used that much watching NFL Sunday Ticket in a single day, much less an hour! PLUS it seems that even for songs that I did NOT select to fully download from the cloud still take up space on the iPhone since I started the day using 300 MB of space and now it sits at 1.1 GB.

Is there a way to just cancel within a day and get a refund for this? For those of you that find this worth it, WHY despite these listed short-comings?

The only reason for me now is iTunes Radio is included in the same price ...and I am loving it ... stopped listening to my collection altogether and just play the radio now

As for refund, YES, contact the Sales Support and they will help you in this. Point out the 'data usage' flaw and you wont have any trouble

 

[From A Buick 8]

The only reason for me now is iTunes Radio is included in the same price ...and I am loving it ... stopped listening to my collection altogether and just play the radio now

As for refund, YES, contact the Sales Support and they will help you in this. Point out the 'data usage' flaw and you wont have any trouble

how do you get the itunes radio

 

[Bear]

how do you get the itunes radio

It will be in iOS 7 and the iTunes update that will probably come out about the same time. Registered iOS developers have access to the beta of iOS 7.

 

[jimthing]

For those of you that find this worth it, WHY despite these listed short-comings?

Yes, it still does a lot of what is says on the tin it's meant to do. Over WiFi, you can download almost anything in your collection (up to 25 thousand tracks) to where ever you happen to be with your device away from home, so you can listen to anything you own whenever you feel like it.
It's not Apple's fault that downloading data uses-up a lot of your erm...data plan, during streaming. ALL data is data, and anyone with sense downloads on their nearest WiFi connection BEFORE travelling for an hour.

Also the metadata should not alter for the version you download from Apple (Store or uploaded iCloud), compared to the ones you ripped in your own collection, only the audio is downloaded the metadata doesn't change.

I should say here, Match allows you to keep your original track and/or download Apple's version, eg. i keep ALAC lossless versions, and have the option to additionally download the Apple 256kbps AAC version in Mac (or Win) iTunes.