Apple Music Transfer Music / iTunes Library to New Mac?

[NightFox]

My iTunes/Apple Music library of a few thousand tracks is a mixture of matched AAC and MP3 tracks in a mixture of bit rates from 128kbps to ALAC.

I'm getting a new Mac mini tomorrow, which will serve as my main Mac and will hold the definitive local copy of my music library. What's the best way of getting my library onto there? Is it the old school way of physically copying the original local library from my old Mac to the new one, or will I actually end up with a 'better quality' version of my library if I just let the new Mac sync with my iCloud Music Library and download everything from there (e.g. get lossless or higher bitrate versions of tracks where available replacing my originals)?

My concern of going down this route is whether any of the tracks would pick up DRM in the process, as I would be losing my original, local source files (OK, so I'd archive a copy somewhere). I don't want to find that at some point in the future if I stopped paying an Apple Music subscription (or Apple retired the service) I suddenly lost half of my library (all physical owned and ripped tracks).

Thanks!

 

[Phil77354]

Move your iTunes library to another computer

On your PC, use the iTunes backup feature to move your library to a new computer.

support.apple.com

 

[NightFox]

Move your iTunes library to another computer

On your PC, use the iTunes backup feature to move your library to a new computer.

support.apple.com

Thanks, but that doesn't really answer my question - that's the 'old school' way I referred to in my OP. My question is what's the best way to do this to end up with the best quality tracks, DRM free, stored locally on my Mac?

Let's say I have a poor quality MP3 in my library, which Apple Music can match to a 256kbps AAC version. If I copy over my library, I'll still end up with my bad MP3 version, whereas if I download my library from iCloud I'll end up with the better AAC DRM-free version in my local library.

However, the opposite also applies. If I have a high quality VBR ALAC track in my library, I'll still have the same version if I copy the library from my old Mac, but if I download the library instead and Apple Music can match that track, I'll just end up with a poorer 256kbps version (unless Apple happens to have a lossless version).

So I guess my question is what's the best way to ensure I end up with a local library which preserves the 'best' available version of all of my tracks, whether that's my original ripped version or Apple Music's matched version, which will vary between one track and another?

 

[Phil77354]

Thanks, but that doesn't really answer my question - that's the 'old school' way I referred to in my OP. My question is what's the best way to do this to end up with the best quality tracks, DRM free, stored locally on my Mac?

Let's say I have a poor quality MP3 in my library, which Apple Music can match to a 256kbps AAC version. If I copy over my library, I'll still end up with my bad MP3 version, whereas if I download my library from iCloud I'll end up with the better AAC DRM-free version in my local library.

However, the opposite also applies. If I have a high quality VBR ALAC track in my library, I'll still have the same version if I copy the library from my old Mac, but if I download the library instead and Apple Music can match that track, I'll just end up with a poorer 256kbps version (unless Apple happens to have a lossless version).

So I guess my question is what's the best way to ensure I end up with a local library which preserves the 'best' available version of all of my tracks, whether that's my original ripped version or Apple Music's matched version, which will vary between one track and another?

That's an interesting objective. I don't have anything in my own library that is such low quality so I would have never thought about doing that.

Since there hasn't been anyone else here offering any thoughts, my suggestion is that you go to Apple Support Communities and raise the question there. I've found those discussions to be very helpful on occasion:

Official Apple Support Community

Find answers with millions of other Apple users in our vibrant community. Search discussions or ask a question about your product.

discussions.apple.com

 

[ThirteenXIII]

It depends on a few variables; do you have any playlists you want synced over or is it just albums/songs you have? Do you want to start with a clean slate? And if you are already paying for an Apple Music subscription you have a few options with that.

Regardless of which way you go back up your files.

what I did was, I bought a Mac mini that is for music only and is connected to my hifi. I manually imported all of my original music (CD-Rips and lossless files), then I signed in with my Apple ID to see my iTunes/Music purchases and downloaded those, then I enabled Apple Music so I can add additional albums I don't own yet.

I did have a few albums I wanted to match, some I just decided to replace with Apple Music files and purchase later. But Apple Music does the same thing as iTunes Match (according to: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204146), so you should be fine there.

For your original music, if you are using Apple Music, it will upload that to the iCloud Music Library and match it on other devices; so if you have ALAC files it will match to 256Kbps AAC for your other devices such as your iPhone or other computers. (edit) Actually, I noticed it will match it depending on your Apple Music settings and what is available in Apple Music/iTunes store, so I have a CD rip of one album and downloaded it on another computer and it provided me the Lossless version, but with WAV files I converted to ALAC and this album is not in Apple Music or iTunes, it provided me 256Kbps AAC via iCloud Music Library/Match.

That may not answer your question specifically, or TL;DR....back up your current files, and import them into your new computer's Music library manually so the source files and library is there. so the source files will take precedence and shouldn't be replaced by any other versions if you are using Apple Music unless you match. Then add whatever you want via Apple Music or iTunes Match and it should sync as you want.