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Apple announces iTunes Match music service for $24.99 per year - Page 2

post #41 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:29pm
Important notes:

Available in beta now in the U.S. only and requires iOS 4.3.1 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM model), iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac or PC with iTunes 10.3. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer in the iTunes Store. Download iTunes 10.3 free.
Requires iOS 5 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac computer with OS X Lion or a PC with Windows Vista or Windows 7 (Outlook 2007 or 2010 recommended). Limit 25,000 songs. iTunes purchases do not count against limit.
Unmatched content will be uploaded; upload time varies depending on amounts uploaded.
Upload time varies depending on amounts uploaded.
Unmatched content will not be upgraded.
Features are subject to change. Access to some services is limited to 10 devices.
GIGO. The truth in all of life.
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post #42 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulAlford View Post

If you've got a serious hi-fi system you'll not play from the cloud on that. All my music is ripped to AIFF and I stream that through a DAC direct from my iMac. iCloud will be my on-the-go source.

I agree but I am so tired of companies not making Hi-Res downloads/streams ,whatever, available. At least as an option with higher cost. BTW i also play my music through a DAC (Naim).
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post #43 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by quinney View Post

Mine just renewed too. I am hoping for about 4 years free.

Apple Support Note here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4597
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post #44 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BGPu View Post

So presumably, it was unnecessary for me to spend hundreds of dollars upgrading my previous iTunes purchases over the past 2 years. Now, for 25 bucks a year, I can upload any 128 kbps iTunes store purchase, and if it's matched, re-download it at 256 kbps.

That is a fundamental problem, how do you lower the price (or up the quality) without infuriating all those who paid the higher price in past?
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post #45 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lochias View Post

Who said anything about streaming? You can't believe everything you read on rumor sites.

The title of this thread (at the moment... hopefully the moderators will fix it to avoid misleading readers) calls it a streaming service.
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post #46 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:33pm
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.

What difference would it make, in practical terms you couldn't possibly listen to all that music in your lifetime even if you listened to music a couple of hours each day since you're likely adding music all the time so you'd never catch up.
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post #47 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bageljoey View Post

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

Why would it be? This is a completely unrelated new service.
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post #48 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:35pm
I am left wondering where this leaves "legit" music not purchased through iTunes. I have a large portion of my music library that I purchased through Amazon MP3. Would I have to pay the annual fee to have this music sync through iCloud?

This could turn into an interesting argument if that's the case. I can picture Apple saying that limiting the service to iTunes-purchased music is a reasonable anti-piracy measure, and Amazon and others contending that it's anticompetitive by "forcing" users to re-purchase legitimate music through iTunes.
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post #49 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:35pm
No online iTunes, bummer!!! But the rest is great!!
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post #50 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:36pm
The snyc everything you have purchased to all authorized devices (up to 10) without needing to sync from one device to another is pretty cool - buy a track on iTunes - and moments later it is available on your computer - iPhone and iPad - etc. Of course I have a lot more on my computer than will fit on the iPhone (unless Apple is planning to release an iPhone with a ton more on board memory - or an SD card slot).

The extra $24.99 comes in if you want to both upgrade your existing collection to higher quality and upload any tracks that you have not purchased from the iTunes store in the first place.

As might have been hinted at here I wonder what happens when you stop paying that annual fee? do you lose access to all those tracks? what about the original lower quality track you had to begin with?

$24.99 a year is pretty cheap compared to what I pay for MobileMe today - so if I get to keep using everything that is MobileMe today (improved, enhanced, etc) and get upgraded music etc for $24.99 a year instead of $100+ that is an improvement.

I suppose they will have some sort of prefs of settings for whether or when to sync tracks or albums.

Now if they could just figure out a way to let me shuffle by album on my iPhone that would be cool.
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post #51 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:37pm
What is there to stop someone from renaming the same track 20,000 times with the names of all the music you would ever like to own... and getting all the real versions from Apple for a mere $24.99?

Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that LOL.
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post #52 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by noirdesir View Post

And off-site backup for your files. How much would it cost you to pay Mozy, Backblaze, Carbonite to backup your media files?

Yes, that's true. But I already have backups of backups and even more backups on DVDs, external discs (multiple), for anything that I've payed for or which I want to keep indefinitely. And the iTunes match service isn't going to backup the gigabytes of video, movies, documents, and photos that I already have, so my music is only a small fraction of what I need for day-to-day storage.
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post #53 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwydion View Post

http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/

Ha - they even put a Google/Amazon comparison!
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post #54 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:40pm
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.

Imagine the trove of data they will get from these matchers. I have been resisting the whole genius thing because I'd rather not disclose all of this.

I take it metadata will not be required for identifying the song, probably from the tune itself.

BTW you'll love your DROBO
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post #55 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wattsup View Post

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.

USB will be much slower if your iPhone and computer aren't in the same building.
JLL

95% percent of the boat is owned by Microsoft, but the 5% Apple controls happens to be the rudder!
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JLL

95% percent of the boat is owned by Microsoft, but the 5% Apple controls happens to be the rudder!
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post #56 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:43pm
Quote:
Unmatched content will be uploaded; upload time varies depending on amounts uploaded.

http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/

Interesting
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post #57 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:43pm
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

The $150 million they gave to labels for licenses will be more than recouped by signing up 6 milling iMatchers. And Apple keeps the data on you!
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post #58 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:44pm


This chart is a little shady...
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post #59 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Downpour View Post

What is there to stop someone from renaming the same track 20,000 times with the names of all the music you would ever like to own... and getting all the real versions from Apple for a mere $24.99?

Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that LOL.

Good idea. Off to edit tags.

The Android way: Our problems become your problems.

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post #60 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Downpour View Post

What is there to stop someone from renaming the same track 20,000 times with the names of all the music you would ever like to own... and getting all the real versions from Apple for a mere $24.99?

Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that LOL.

Hmm... very interesting...
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post #61 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Downpour View Post

What is there to stop someone from renaming the same track 20,000 times with the names of all the music you would ever like to own... and getting all the real versions from Apple for a mere $24.99?

Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that LOL.

Perhaps you were being facetious, but this is probably driven by the song data, not the metadata.
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post #62 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JLL View Post

USB will be much slower if your iPhone and computer aren't in the same building.

Well, that depends upon how long your USB cable is.
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post #63 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:47pm
This just seems totally insane to me. What's to stop someone from taking their pirated music collection (which may be low bitrate MP3s without artwork and maybe corrupt) and song matching, and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files?

For that matter, what's to stop someone from simply meta-tagging dummy files and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files that match?

After all the downloading is done and the library has been "legitimized", then unsubscribing from the yearly plan?

What am I missing here?
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post #64 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:48pm
would love it if apple could sell apple lossless or AIFF.
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post #65 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:49pm
I don't see the real benefit of this. I actually like to keep all my data in my own device and not a cloud that anyone will have access to it, by everyone I mean the government and of course, hackers who may also work for the government.
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post #66 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Downpour View Post

What is there to stop someone from renaming the same track 20,000 times with the names of all the music you would ever like to own... and getting all the real versions from Apple for a mere $24.99?

Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that LOL.

They can use not only metadata to match but audio match like many taggers do to match against musicbrainz
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post #67 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macslut View Post

This just seems totally insane to me. What's to stop someone from taking their pirated music collection (which may be low bitrate MP3s without artwork and maybe corrupt) and song matching, and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files?

For that matter, what's to stop someone from simply meta-tagging dummy files and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files that match?

After all the downloading is done and the library has been "legitimized", then unsubscribing from the yearly plan?

What am I missing here?

Could use technology like Shazam
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post #68 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:50pm
The labels know this will be used to upgrade questionable song files, and they're obviously okay with it, so any of you folks still waxing so moral about "the music stealing" should think about that.

The labels probably know they'll never see any revenue from a consumer's old library of crappy 10-yr old napster downloads, so they're offering amnesty. Rather, Apple bought amnesty for their users to smooth out the performance of Apple's product.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwydion View Post

Or you can match it, download it and copy it, it has become "legit"

Exactly, I understood the subscription NOT to be "access to your matched content," but "access to the matching process."

So if one does have a few songs in their library from CD's they've lost, let's say, then one could sign up for one year of Match, and upgrade all their old mp3's to a "full legit itunes copy."

Is that right? Or are you paying for "access to the matched content?"
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post #69 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulAlford View Post

If you've got a serious hi-fi system you'll not play from the cloud on that. All my music is ripped to AIFF and I stream that through a DAC direct from my iMac. iCloud will be my on-the-go source.

Why AIFF? Is there a problem with Apple Lossless?
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post #70 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macslut View Post

This just seems totally insane to me. What's to stop someone from taking their pirated music collection (which may be low bitrate MP3s without artwork and maybe corrupt) and song matching, and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files?

For that matter, what's to stop someone from simply meta-tagging dummy files and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files that match?

After all the downloading is done and the library has been "legitimized", then unsubscribing from the yearly plan?

What am I missing here?

I'd imagine won't continue to sync, and MIGHT erase data on a slave (iTunes Match destination) device once subscriptions expires.

I wonder if your metadata from the original iTunes match source will be be preserved on destination clients.
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post #71 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macslut View Post

After all the downloading is done and the library has been "legitimized", then unsubscribing from the yearly plan?

That's a good question. Perhaps they think enough new songs come out every year that people will want to stick with it?

Another thing I noticed is that any previous purchases from iTunes can now be redownloaded over and over. That is new, people have complained for years that they can't redownload songs.
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post #72 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SDW2001 View Post

I get that I can play my music on any device with this service. But I have a little trouble swallowing that I have to pay $24.99 a year to listen to music I've already purchased. Also, I also have a lot of music that is not on the iTunes store (I'm a musician...I've got everything from pop, to drum and bugle corps). I guess that's where the local storage comes in?

He said right on stage, that the music that isn't matched is uploaded. So all the stuff that is on iTunes will be matched and become legit (whether it originally was or not), all the rest gets uploaded and available to stream. If you ever quit the service, everything evaporates except what you stored locally.
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post #73 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by fritz88 View Post

Its a shame they dont have higher quality than 256 kbps. Thats to low quality if you have a serious hifi system...

Isn't that bit rate for synced devices in which you would most likely be away from your home audio system when you want to listen.
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post #74 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macslut View Post

This just seems totally insane to me. What's to stop someone from taking their pirated music collection (which may be low bitrate MP3s without artwork and maybe corrupt) and song matching, and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files?

For that matter, what's to stop someone from simply meta-tagging dummy files and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files that match?

After all the downloading is done and the library has been "legitimized", then unsubscribing from the yearly plan?

What am I missing here?

Yes, it appears that if you have pirated copies that are relatively clean and complete then you'll be able to match and download new AAC versions from iTunes. However, I'm pretty sure it won't just match via metadata (title, artist, album, song length, etc.), it will likely scan the songs looking for a match to the actual content of the song. How close it will need to match is anyone's guess, I'd suspect that they would scan a random segment of the song, look at the length of the song (and maybe scan a very short section at the beginning and end), and then look at some of the metadata.
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post #75 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by graf View Post

Why AIFF? Is there a problem with Apple Lossless?

I've been looking into this lately. Recently talked to a high end audio guy about this. Apple Lossless and AIFF are equal in quality, thought AIFF is more prevalent and though there is no "standard" codec for audiophiles, I'm told. It was recommended that I rip in AIFF, though neither is wrong.

For those of you who haven't heard the difference between standard bitrates through typical DA converters (esp the crappy one in the Airport express) and the same track in a lossless codec through a NICE outboard DAC ($300-$2000, external equipment), check it out and ENJOY.
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post #76 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macslut View Post

This just seems totally insane to me. What's to stop someone from taking their pirated music collection (which may be low bitrate MP3s without artwork and maybe corrupt) and song matching, and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files?

For that matter, what's to stop someone from simply meta-tagging dummy files and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files that match?

After all the downloading is done and the library has been "legitimized", then unsubscribing from the yearly plan?

What am I missing here?

I am guessing, but I would imagine that you were not the first to think of that. I am sure they have a system in place to prevent that.
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post #77 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by techno View Post

Isn't that bit rate for synced devices in which you would most likely be away from your home audio system when you want to listen.

I believe it could be useful for AppleTV.

The Android way: Our problems become your problems.

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The Android way: Our problems become your problems.

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post #78 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macslut View Post

This just seems totally insane to me. What's to stop someone from taking their pirated music collection (which may be low bitrate MP3s without artwork and maybe corrupt) and song matching, and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files?

For that matter, what's to stop someone from simply meta-tagging dummy files and then downloading the 256kbps AAC files that match?

After all the downloading is done and the library has been "legitimized", then unsubscribing from the yearly plan?

What am I missing here?

A moral compass?
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post #79 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Farnaki View Post

Apple Support Note here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4597

Thanks for that.

I wonder if, once you have your iTunes Library all matched in the cloud, you can sync a non-IOS iPod to the cloud version. This would be handy for me, because I have my main iTunes library of over 10,000 songs ripped as Apple Lossless. Even a 160GB iPod Classic doesn't hold everything, so I have been converting the Lossless tracks to 256kbs and syncing a playlist of the smaller format to my Classic. I would love for iTunes to just sync my iPod to the matched cloud version and then I could stop with the two version nonsense.
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post #80 of 173
6/6/11 at 12:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by techno View Post

I am guessing, but I would imagine that you were not the first to think of that. I am sure they have a system in place to prevent that.

There are other incentives to maintain the match subscription, though, like the ability to bring in content purchased elsewhere (amazon), or maybe the odd cd.
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