Apple raises iTunes Match/Apple Music upload limits above 25,000 songs [u]

AppleInsider

Some users are again claiming that Apple has raised the song upload/matching limit for iTunes Match and Apple Music libraries over 25,000, as promised in June by SVP for Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue.

Image Credit: vladobizik on MacRumors forums

Libraries that were previously held at 25,000 are now having additional songs matched and/or uploaded, according to various accounts recorded by MacRumors and Macworld's Kirk McElhearn. It's not clear what the new practical limit is, and official iTunes Match documentation still refers to a 25,000-song cap. Apple could conceivably be doing a slow rollout. In September, though, similar accounts of users topping 25,000 emerged, without the change reaching the general public. Cue initially stated that Apple was "working to get to 100k for iOS 9," which arrived mid-September. In October, he maintained that Apple was still working on the project, promising the improvement "before the end of the year." Update: The expansion of services has been confirmed and is rolling out to users now.

macapfel

And since the introduction of some new iTunes features, I ask myself what is the difference between iTunes Match (which I have and pay for) and iCloud Music Library. I also have Apple Music, and somehow have the impression iCloud Music Library and iTunes Match should be the same. But so far I don't want to cancel one of the two, as I have the impression, I might loosing something. This is not the 'just works' I know. It's still rather 'just confusing'.

spheric

Apple Music includes the whole catalog, not just your stuff, and whatever is downloaded onto devices for offline use is protected by DRM encoding and thus unplayable once you cancel the service.

spheric

Apple Music includes the whole catalog, not just your stuff, and whatever is downloaded onto devices for offline use is protected by DRM encoding and thus unplayable once you cancel the service.

rgh71

Spheric, that is not what is being asked.  I'm sorry but I don't know the answer.  Can someone help out macapfel?

noivad

I’ll be impressed when they offer lossless (ALAC) iCloud Music Libraries and music that doesn’t disappear, become corrupted or overwrites your good copies.

noivad

rgh71 said:

Spheric, that is not what is being asked.  I'm sorry but I don't know the answer.  Can someone help out macapfel?

He did answer. To rephrase his answer: Apple Music allows you to play things you haven’t purchased outright (Apple’s Entire catalog of music: every track from every artist). This is equivalent to a Netflix or Hulu but for music: you pay a monthly fee and can watch anything on the service. iCloud Music Library is essentially remote storage for music you own outright. It just makes the music you have purchased available on all devices connected to the account, and be played very conveniently—even playing while downloading. He also added that the music you have not purchased is protected by DRM, and would be inaccessible if you cancel the service, while the music you own is not protected by DRM and would be accessible from any device as long as you keep iCloudML. Unfortunately both of these services are limited to lossy, so people with good ears and good systems might be disappointed with the fidelity of some tracks. Not a big deal if you don’t own the music to me, but I wouldn’t purchase things that didn’t sound as good as what I could get on a CD (sometimes for less onDiscogs). But a majority of people wouldn’t hear the difference anyway.

slprescott

But the question was not about Apple Music (for which you gave a good explanation). The question was about the difference between:
  1. iTunes Match
  2. iCloud Music Library

MacPro

I always though I had a lot of music in my iTunes Match, I have boxes and boxes of CDs in the attic I ripped, plus LPs I digitized, well over 100 GBs ...  but when I just checked it isn't even 10,000 songs.  I guess I have no worries if the limit has been raised or not but I cannot even imagine the size of such a collection let alone the ability to listen to a fraction of it.

Like others the terminology of iTunes is confusing me these days too.  I see no 'iCloud Library' in iTunes, simply 'My Music', which is available to every Apple device I have including the Apple TV mk4.

brandendf

slprescott said:

But the question was not about Apple Music (for which you gave a good explanation). The question was about the difference between:
  1. iTunes Match
  2. iCloud Music Library

iTunes Match: Upload and "stream" the music files you have in your local iTunes.
iCloud Music Library is the new term for anything you have in Apple's cloud which includes iTunes Match AND Apple Music if you subscribe to either or both. If you don't subscribe to either of them, then your library isn't considered an iCloud Music Library and you're syncing music locally.

spheric

slprescott said:

But the question was not about Apple Music (for which you gave a good explanation). The question was about the difference between:
  1. iTunes Match
  2. iCloud Music Library

You're right. Good catch. 

MacPro

brandendf said:

slprescott said:

But the question was not about Apple Music (for which you gave a good explanation). The question was about the difference between:
  1. iTunes Match
  2. iCloud Music Library

iTunes Match: Upload and "stream" the music files you have in your local iTunes.
iCloud Music Library is the new term for anything you have in Apple's cloud which includes iTunes Match AND Apple Music if you subscribe to either or both. If you don't subscribe to either of them, then your library isn't considered an iCloud Music Library and you're syncing music locally.

"if you subscribe to either or both"

Thanks for that explanation.  Although I subscribe to one of them, iTunes match, and don't see it, so I suspect iCloud Library only appears of you subscribe to Apple Music.

Excuse bug in editing mode that made my reply appear in your text block.

brandendf

digitalclips said:

brandendf said:

slprescott said:

But the question was not about Apple Music (for which you gave a good explanation). The question was about the difference between:
  1. iTunes Match
  2. iCloud Music Library

iTunes Match: Upload and "stream" the music files you have in your local iTunes.
iCloud Music Library is the new term for anything you have in Apple's cloud which includes iTunes Match AND Apple Music if you subscribe to either or both. If you don't subscribe to either of them, then your library isn't considered an iCloud Music Library and you're syncing music locally.

"if you subscribe to either or both"

Thanks for that explanation.  Although I subscribe to one of them, iTunes match, and don't see it, so I suspect iCloud Library only appears of you subscribe to Apple Music.

Excuse bug in editing mode that made my reply appear in your text block.

iCloud Music Library became a catch-all for both. In your iTunes Match library in iTunes, is iCloud Music Library checked on in General > Preferences? (I'm using iTunes 12.3.1)

The explainer for iCloud Music Library in iTunes says, "Stores all your iTunes Match and Apple Music songs and playlists in iCloud so you can access everything across all your devices."

I know when Apple Music launched with the iOS 8.4 update, some iTunes Match users (including myself) didn't see their Match music show up on their device. The trick was to turn on iCloud Music Library.

tenchi211

So, in effect, if I subscribed to iTunes music ONLY, it would just make the music iTunes supplies available in the cloud to stream on any device, NOT the music I have in my personal iTunes library. So if I wanted both available to me I would have to pay for both iTunes Match, and iTunes music, correct?

brandendf

tenchi211 said:

So, in effect, if I subscribed to iTunes music ONLY, it would just make the music iTunes supplies available in the cloud to stream on any device, NOT the music I have in my personal iTunes library. So if I wanted both available to me I would have to pay for both iTunes Match, and iTunes music, correct?

No, you can still sync local files and subscribe to Apple Music (not Match, this is how my wife's phone is setup). One tip to doing this is to turn off iCloud Music Library on your device, sync your local files, and then turn ICML back on on the device. Weird way, but Apple's logic must be that since you subscribe to Apple Music, you wouldn't need to sync local files, you'd just search, add, and play them.

nolamacguy

noivad said:

rgh71 said:

Spheric, that is not what is being asked.  I'm sorry but I don't know the answer.  Can someone help out macapfel?

He did answer. To rephrase his answer: Apple Music allows you to play things you haven’t purchased outright (Apple’s Entire catalog of music: every track from every artist). This is equivalent to a Netflix or Hulu but for music: you pay a monthly fee and can watch anything on the service. iCloud Music Library is essentially remote storage for music you own outright. It just makes the music you have purchased available on all devices connected to the account, and be played very conveniently—even playing while downloading. He also added that the music you have not purchased is protected by DRM, and would be inaccessible if you cancel the service, while the music you own is not protected by DRM and would be accessible from any device as long as you keep iCloudML. Unfortunately both of these services are limited to lossy, so people with good ears and good systems might be disappointed with the fidelity of some tracks. Not a big deal if you don’t own the music to me, but I wouldn’t purchase things that didn’t sound as good as what I could get on a CD (sometimes for less onDiscogs). But a majority of people wouldn’t hear the difference anyway.

no, that doesn't answer the question -- what's the difference between iTunes Match and iCloud Music Library? I have both and I have no idea either. 

lkrupp

macapfel said:

And since the introduction of some new iTunes features, I ask myself what is the difference between iTunes Match (which I have and pay for) and iCloud Music Library. I also have Apple Music, and somehow have the impression iCloud Music Library and iTunes Match should be the same. But so far I don't want to cancel one of the two, as I have the impression, I might loosing something. This is not the 'just works' I know. It's still rather 'just confusing'.

The difference is that iTunes Match will upload tracks it cannot match. I run into this on a regular basis. I have a lot of classical music in my library that has not been re-released in digital format. I converted a lot of those tracks from vinyl records.  Apple Music does not upload music it doesn’t recognize. That’s the difference.

razormaid

slprescott said:

But the question was not about Apple Music (for which you gave a good explanation). The question was about the difference between:
  1. iTunes Match
  2. iCloud Music Library

Ok here's the official answer - the ONLY reason I know is because for weeks now I've been working with upper management trying to resolve an issue with iTunes Match. But the question should be what's the difference between iTunes Match and Apple Music, because iCloud Music Library is used for both services. 

So let's start with the difference between iTunes Match, Apple Music and why you need both (very frustrating I know)

iTunes Match = Stuff you own 
Apple Music = Stuff you don't own
iCloud Music Library = needed for both 

iTUNES MATCH:
When turned on, allows apple to "scan" your music library on your computer with iTunes open and store the music in iCloud Music Library. By doing that you can uninstall ALL music on your device freeing up space (in my case almost 20GB). iTunes Match chooses three options automatically for recreating your library and THIS is the biggest difference between Apple Music and iTunes Match. 

Stage 1: iTunes Match matches music on your computer with music available on iTunes store. This allows you more room for uploading music, because if 10,000 of your songs are available on iTunes Store then Apple makes an "alias" to that group of songs and doesn't require that you upload those 10,000 songs as part of your 25,000 song limit. 

Stage 2: "Match" then takes the music (or versions) not found in iTunes Store and manually uploads them to iCloud Music Library. In our case since we are a record company that does custom dance mixes only available to our members exclusively, even though we've remixed 27 different Depeche Mode songs who's titles are in the iTunes Store, none of ours will be found in the iTunes Store because we can't sell to the public. So iTunes Match uploads ours because Razormaid remixes are uniquely different.

Our complete library consists of 5,737 remixes of over 3,800 artists so that fees up 80GB on our devices. And it gets even better. Because our catalogue is setup with each individual release, as a playlist, because we  have 437 releases over the past 30+ years iTunes Match (via iCloud Mudic Library) uploads the playlists AND all the art work for each track including colored swirl vinyl and custom colored CD's as well as front and back jacket. All of this and I don't have to store a single song on my devices. I click iCloud music library "on" and instantly on all devices everything instantly magically appears. Totally cool!!!

Stage 3:  Here's the best part. As Apple allows 5 computers to use one Apple ID, if you have 5 different music libraries - one on each of the 5 computers... turning iTunes Match "on" on each computer iCloud music library expands to include ALL the music on all 5 computers, even when the computers are not turned on. 

*****
APPLE MUSIC (stuff you don't own)
Heres the problem with using Apple Music only and to explain this lets first look at iTunes Store itself first.

If the record labels do not have a licensing agreement for ALL the music in their catalogue to be sold on the iTunes Store (for instance EMI allowed apple to sell lots of stuff but held back the Beatles library because Yoko wouldn't sign off - I know her personally and that was why!) then those albums will not be available.

Ok so if that can happen on iTunes Store, to a record label's entire catalogue of record labels like CBS, Warner Bros, Polydor, etc... for music you can actually purchase, imagine record companies needing each signed recording to then be signed off on, by each artist for "streaming" and you see the up hill battle of "purchased (iTunes Store) vs "streaming" (Apple Music). Enter Adele. "You can sell my new album, but you can't stream it".  Oh you thought everything in the iTunes Store was available in Apple Music?  Not even.

In fact have you ever even tried to BUY something you heard in Apple Musi? To say "it's a challenge." would be an understatement.  Eventually if you're persistent enough it will toss you out and over into the iTunes Store app, but it's not easy to get there from here. That's because they don't want you to buy - they want you to stream. 

To make this easier to understand let's use classical music as the example. If you go to iTunes Store and type in Mozart Requiem you'll see 100's of different recordings available to PURCHASE, but enter that into Apple Music and maybe you'll see 6 different recordings. "What?  You mean not all music in iTunes Store is available to hear in Apple Music??"  No it's not!  And there in lies the problem. Again I'm using classical music to explain this because it suffers the most in the Appple Music conundrum. 

Because of this "mismatch" that's why you have to have both services. Apple Music for things you don't own (but limited to what the labels make available for streaming) and iTunes Match for all the things you own and have purchased from Apple too. 

Now... On to the answer to your question what's the difference between iCloud music library and iTunes Match?  See how that's not a question?  iCloud music library exists BECAUSE of iTunes Match but it also is needed for Apple Music too 

The confusion with iCloud Music Library is that although you must install it to run both services , it works two different ways depending which service you choose. If you choose both match and Apple Music best of both worlds. If you turn it off you loose it all.

This is because iCloud Music Library is an "either/or" service.

If you turn it OFF you can install your music and playlists found on your computer.

If you turn iCloud music library ON it wipes out your device!!!  (Don't worry you didn't loose your stuff forever only on your device. Turn iCloud music library back off and plug your device into the computer and VOILA it's all back.)

Apple Music doesn't install anything. It uses iCloud Music Library to store your "virtual stuff".  That would include custom radio stations you make. Playlists you make, etc. as soon as you stop Apple Music it all disappears. If you start Apple Music back up within 30 days it's all still there but on both Apple Music and iTunes Match after 30 days the HD is erased. 

I I hope this clears it up for you. If not write me directly. 
razrmaid@aol.com 

PS. The reason you can't find iCloud music library: in Itunes its an option to click on because it's a device settings option in music on your device
iPhone-> Settings-> Music -> iCloud music library

to get to it on your computer click 
Accounts-> iTunes Match-> "renew my membership"
thats where and how you activate and deactivate iCloud music library on the computer 

muppetry

@razormaid - thanks for that detailed explanation. I had not invested the time to figure out how these are all inter-related, and it has all seemed rather confusing.

spheric

Saved that text. Thanks, @razormaid ;

cdarlington1

 I have read that the difference is: if you delete a song locally off your hard drive and re-download it with iTunes match it will not have DRM. If you don't have match and delete a local file, yours, and re-downloaded it will have DRM.