Apple announces iTunes Match music service for $24.99 per year
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."
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."
Comments
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.
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...
Now if I could get all by bootlegs it would be fantastic. Those count for about 2 TB of that music.
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.
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
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?
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.
This is huge. But where is the STREAMING?
Who said anything about streaming? You can't believe everything you read on rumor sites.
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.
This... is awesome...
Where'd you get a 4TB drive? Is it just two 2TB drives in a case?
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