Pay for iTunes Match for one year and then discontinue?

[mkrishnan]

Is anyone considering buying iTunes Match for one year, and then discontinuing? Some people (ref) have suggested that pirates could get "amnesty" this way, on the cheap, but what I am thinking is more that, for $25, if I pay and then go through the process to replace all my old music with re-downloaded iTunes Plus, I get...

- DRM-free versions of all the old iTunes songs I never upgraded (iTunes says I have 403 songs that are eligible for upgrade, for which it wants $109.80, but I have something like 900 protected song files when you count all the iTunes freebies, which are not eligible for Plus).
- Re-rips of much of the old music I ripped at 128k before I changed my settings to rip CDs at 256

This is actually not a bad deal for $25....

Does this work (apparently? I gather no one has tried it yet.) That is, as long as I follow the process to re-download all songs that need re-downloading from the cloud, I end up with all of these songs in 256k DRM-free permanently?

 

[tj2001]

Is anyone considering buying iTunes Match for one year, and then discontinuing? Some people (ref) have suggested that pirates could get "amnesty" this way, on the cheap, but what I am thinking is more that, for $25, if I pay and then go through the process to replace all my old music with re-downloaded iTunes Plus, I get...

- DRM-free versions of all the old iTunes songs I never upgraded (iTunes says I have 403 songs that are eligible for upgrade, for which it wants $109.80, but I have something like 900 protected song files when you count all the iTunes freebies, which are not eligible for Plus).
- Re-rips of much of the old music I ripped at 128k before I changed my settings to rip CDs at 256

This is actually not a bad deal for $25....

Does this work (apparently? I gather no one has tried it yet.) That is, as long as I follow the process to re-download all songs that need re-downloading from the cloud, I end up with all of these songs in 256k DRM-free permanently?

Why are people so adamant about abusing this system? Positively Apple's engineers must've foreseen this hopeful bait and switch concept and have safeguards in place.

Do you honestly believe they would just let people flip their entire libraries for $25 and be a free-bird... good luck with that.

 

[mkrishnan]

Do you honestly believe they would just let people flip their entire libraries for $25 and be a free-bird... good luck with that.

I don't know, honestly. Several sources are reporting that that's the way it works. But as I noted, I own all this music. I'm not clear how I see it as an abuse. The initial matching is of value to me, but the ongoing service doesn't do much for me.

 

[danny_w]

I don't know, honestly. Several sources are reporting that that's the way it works. But as I noted, I own all this music. I'm not clear how I see it as an abuse. The initial matching is of value to me, but the ongoing service doesn't do much for me.

I agree. I already have all of my music ripped and I rarely buy music these days, so the ongoing service does me no good.

 

[msavwah]

the benefit of an ongoing subscription is if you don't keep a local copy of all of your tunes, or if you add more.
A plus for someone who may have a large library but only a macbook air, or end up with only an iPad or something like that.

 

[mkrishnan]

the benefit of an ongoing subscription is if you don't keep a local copy of all of your tunes, or if you add more.
A plus for someone who may have a large library but only a macbook air, or end up with only an iPad or something like that.

Yes, I could see that -- if that were the case for me, or if the way this worked really allowed for untethering of iOS from the computer, then it might be more appetizing. I hope that Apple does get there in the next couple of years (I don't think they're there now).

 

[JohnDoe98]

I upgraded all my purchased/protected AAC songs, some which were 128kbps, to Matched 256kbps'. : )

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Why are people so adamant about abusing this system? Positively Apple's engineers must've foreseen this hopeful bait and switch concept and have safeguards in place.

Do you honestly believe they would just let people flip their entire libraries for $25 and be a free-bird... good luck with that.

Actually yes that is exactly how it works. And its not abuse since it obviously works with no prompts whatsoever. My protected and purchased music was all up-converted for me. iTunes Match is one heck of a deal, even without iCloud functionality.