Apple announces iTunes Match music service for $24.99 per year

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Apple's new iTunes Match service will scan a user's library of songs, including those ripped from their own CDs, and match the songs up with the library of 18 million songs available through iTunes for $24.99 per year.



When it launches this fall, iTunes Match will offer the same benefits to personally ripped CDs as is granted to music purchased through the iTunes Store. Apple's software will scan a user's hard drive to identify the music they have saved locally, and that content can then be re-downloaded to any device.



Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs boasted that the new service will take just minutes to match up songs with the cloud. He ribbed other, competing offerings from Google and Amazon, which take "weeks" to upload extensive music collections.



As was previously rumored, users will not need to upload songs, as their content will simply be matched up with the high-quality 256Kbps AAC audio files Apple has stored on its own iTunes servers. Anything that can be matched up is upgraded to the higher quality, without any digital rights management.



Any songs that don't match up with content available on iTunes will be uploaded and stored so that users can access them on the go.



Jobs said that iTunes Match is an "industry leading offer," with a flat price of $24.99 per year no matter how many songs users may have on their computer.



Shown in concert with the new service were photos of Apple's $1 billion data center in North Carolina. Jobs showed off the eco-friendly facility as evidence that Apple is "serious" about this new product.







"If you want all the benefits of iTunes in the Cloud for music you haven’t purchased from iTunes, iTunes Match is the perfect solution," Apple's official promotional materials read. "It lets you store your entire collection, including music you’ve ripped from CDs or purchased somewhere other than iTunes. For just $24.99 a year.



"Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to your iCloud library for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 18 million songs in the iTunes Store, most of your music is probably already in iCloud. All you have to upload is what iTunes can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. And all the music iTunes matches plays back at 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 172
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Looks good! Will this be free for those with almost a full year of MobileMe paid for?
  • Reply 2 of 172
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    This is huge. But where is the STREAMING?
  • Reply 3 of 172
    ihxoihxo Posts: 567member
    24.99 not a bad deal at all.
  • Reply 4 of 172
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bageljoey View Post


    Looks good! Will this be free for those with almost a full year of MobileMe paid for?



    Mine just renewed too. I am hoping for about 4 years free.
  • Reply 5 of 172
    owpeckeowpecke Posts: 4member
    Wait so lets say i have these rediculously old cds (most of which are not english) and are not in the iTunes Song DB, will they still be uploaded to the cloud or will itunes match only allow songs that it recognizes?
  • Reply 6 of 172
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by owpecke View Post


    Wait so lets say i have these rediculously old cds (most of which are not english) and are not in the iTunes Song DB, will they still be uploaded to the cloud or will itunes match only allow songs that it recognizes?



    It as got to be the latter, I imagine...
  • Reply 7 of 172
    owpeckeowpecke Posts: 4member
    Thanks for the confirm !
  • Reply 8 of 172
    I saw the number 20,000 songs. Will there be a limit? I have 3 TB of music on a 4 TB drive. My next option is a drobo. At $25 a year this is great.



    Now if I could get all by bootlegs it would be fantastic. Those count for about 2 TB of that music.
  • Reply 9 of 172
    giffengiffen Posts: 30member
    I hope this is a good matching program but I don't have high hopes, iTunes can't even match album art for most of my cd ripped music, even extremely popular songs and artists, such as most of the AC/DC songs. More than likely it won't be able to match very many at all.
  • Reply 10 of 172
    o4blackwrxo4blackwrx Posts: 383member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by drewfreemanrph View Post


    I saw the number 20,000 songs. Will there be a limit? I have 3 TB of music on a 4 TB drive. My next option is a drobo. At $25 a year this is great.



    Now if I could get all by bootlegs it would be fantastic. Those count for about 2 TB of that music.



    No limit on them he was just comparing it to "other services" to show the value in it. If you're in the market for a Drobo let me know as we are an authorized reseller and I'll help you out.
  • Reply 11 of 172
    fritz88fritz88 Posts: 2member
    Its a shame they dont have higher quality than 256 kbps. Thats to low quality if you have a serious hifi system...
  • Reply 12 of 172
    kmareikmarei Posts: 178member
    isn't this also a way to make all the pirated music people have downloaded, become legit?

    say i've downloaded a pirated CD

    once i do itunes match, this ripped music becomes legit and i can access it on any device
  • Reply 13 of 172
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    He said it would upload what it didn't recognise.
  • Reply 14 of 172
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by drewfreemanrph View Post


    I saw the number 20,000 songs. Will there be a limit? I have 3 TB of music on a 4 TB drive. My next option is a drobo. At $25 a year this is great.



    Now if I could get all by bootlegs it would be fantastic. Those count for about 2 TB of that music.



    Where'd you get a 4TB drive? Is it just two 2TB drives in a case?



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kmarei View Post


    isn't this also a way to make all the pirated music people have downloaded, become legit?

    say i've downloaded a pirated CD

    once i do itunes match, this ripped music becomes legit and i can access it on any device



    It doesn't "become legit", but you get to pay $25 a year for the rest of eternity for access to it. So there's the money from piracy the music industry wants.



    Or you could buy the album for less than a $25 one-time purchase and have it for free anywhere. Many pirates will go legit and the ones that won't will still be paying.
  • Reply 15 of 172
    lochiaslochias Posts: 83member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    This is huge. But where is the STREAMING?



    Who said anything about streaming? You can't believe everything you read on rumor sites.
  • Reply 16 of 172
    badtzbadtz Posts: 949member
    I think the biggest question mark is ... will it allow for STREAMING to iOS devices?
  • Reply 17 of 172
    wattsupwattsup Posts: 38member
    I don't think they mentioned "streaming." It looks like it is just a wireless sync feature. That's a really big difference as you'll still have to download and store the music on whatever device that you want to use for playback.



    Actually, other than the new iTunes match service for $25 all this adds for music is wireless sync, not really that much different than attaching your iOS device over USB to iTunes, other than the fact that USB will be much faster.
  • Reply 18 of 172
    owpeckeowpecke Posts: 4member
    "Any songs that don't match up with content available on iTunes will be uploaded and stored so that users can access them on the go."



    This... is awesome...
  • Reply 19 of 172
    jrichjrich Posts: 1member
    So, seperate from matching your exisiting music catalog, does this service allow you to stream music ala Napster, or Rhapsody?
  • Reply 20 of 172
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Where'd you get a 4TB drive? Is it just two 2TB drives in a case?



    LaCie 4big Quadra



    http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10313
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