Songs incorrectly matched in iCloud Music Library

[Matt T]

There are plenty of similar threads to this from the past and I'm fairly certain I have read through them all without finding a solution, so I guess this is more for me to vent than anything else...

Recently I discovered that iTunes Match / iCloud Music Library / whatever it's called these days has incorrectly matched a number of my live concert albums with studio versions of most songs. These were albums I purchased on CD and ripped to iTunes years ago, but are also available on the iTunes Store and Apple Music. Most of the albums and song names were edited slightly by me to remove tags like "(Live from London)" etc because I don't like seeing those in my library.

For years this has worked fine. I am 100% confident that I have ripped these albums after I subscribed to iTunes Match and have played them on my iPhone without ever syncing them across, so initially the songs were either uploaded or matched correctly and the experience was as it should have been. During that time I've reformatted my Mac and bought a new iPhone, all the while assuming all my music was in iCloud and not ever really thinking much about it. Then yesterday I go to listen to a live album I haven't listened to in a while on my iPhone and I hear the studio versions of my songs instead. So it seems to me that something has happened in iCloud or elsewhere on Apple's side at some point to re-match my songs incorrectly.

Unless anybody is aware of a way I can force iTunes to re-match or manually upload the correct versions of these songs, now I'm faced with the task of tracking down all my CDs of these albums (boxed away somewhere in the back of my storage) and re-import them all over again. And yet that still won't guarantee they won't one day be incorrectly re-matched without notice.

"It just works", my ass.

 

[mjschabow]

There are plenty of similar threads to this from the past and I'm fairly certain I have read through them all without finding a solution, so I guess this is more for me to vent than anything else...

Recently I discovered that iTunes Match / iCloud Music Library / whatever it's called these days has incorrectly matched a number of my live concert albums with studio versions of most songs. These were albums I purchased on CD and ripped to iTunes years ago, but are also available on the iTunes Store and Apple Music. Most of the albums and song names were edited slightly by me to remove tags like "(Live from London)" etc because I don't like seeing those in my library.

For years this has worked fine. I am 100% confident that I have ripped these albums after I subscribed to iTunes Match and have played them on my iPhone without ever syncing them across, so initially the songs were either uploaded or matched correctly and the experience was as it should have been. During that time I've reformatted my Mac and bought a new iPhone, all the while assuming all my music was in iCloud and not ever really thinking much about it. Then yesterday I go to listen to a live album I haven't listened to in a while on my iPhone and I hear the studio versions of my songs instead. So it seems to me that something has happened in iCloud or elsewhere on Apple's side at some point to re-match my songs incorrectly.

Unless anybody is aware of a way I can force iTunes to re-match or manually upload the correct versions of these songs, now I'm faced with the task of tracking down all my CDs of these albums (boxed away somewhere in the back of my storage) and re-import them all over again. And yet that still won't guarantee they won't one day be incorrectly re-matched without notice.

"It just works", my ass.

This happened to me a year or two ago and unfortunately I had to re-add everything in iTunes, and then it worked and I haven't had any problems since. I actually thought Apple fixed this issue so I'm surprised to hear that this happened to you recently.

 

[Rigby]

This cannot be repeated enough: iCloud Music Library is *not* a backup system, precisely for the reason you stumbled upon. The matching process is heuristic and not always 100% accurate, so there is no guarantee that you'll be able to download the original song again. Always keep a backup of your original music files (these days you can buy cheap USB sticks with enough room for most music libraries).

 

[Tech198]

Apple music/iTunes match was never marketed as "Download all your music again as *perfectly* matched."

Apple only stated you could listen to millions of songs and upload/match your own tracks..

To say otherwise, would be a false claim.

This is why you have a backup.

It's only "if" Apple stuff it up, i have my original still but i wouldn't rely on any streaming service without peace of mind.

 

[bilibug]

I use Apple Music, as I love the integration with Siri, but....

It is a mess. You can have uploaded songs correctly matched for months to one day find that they've been rematched to the wrong track. This is very common with remixes, remasters and live recordings. Music comes an goes without any announcement. At least give me the option of buying it if it is otherwise going to be removed from my library.

Even more annoying, if you add a greatest hits or compilation album FROM Apple Music, you will often find that a few days later, that album is broken up into several separate albums in your library, as the songs matched to the original releases. You are no longer able to listen to the album as a whole.

Since the beginning, I've always felt that iTunes and iPods were designed to be radio replacements, where the user plays a bunch of their favorite singles, rather than a whole album at once. The song database is designed that way. That was my gripe 10+ years ago, and still is.