Apple misses October deadline for launch of new iTunes Match service

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Advertised to launch in the U.S. by the end of October, Apple's iTunes Match service has now missed the company's self-imposed deadline.



As of Tuesday, the iTunes Store still lists iTunes Match among its "Quick Links" as a service that is "Coming Soon." But at the iPhone 4S media event last month, Apple officials said that the iTunes Match service would become available to the public by the end of October.



Developers have been beta testing the new iTunes Match service since late August, and account information has been reset a handful of times as Apple continues to iron out the kinks. The most recent reset occurred last Wednesday, prompting speculation that the launch of iTunes Match was imminent.



But Apple ended up missing its deadline as the month of October concluded Monday. People have tested the beta of iTunes Match have indicated that the service still has its share of problems, sometimes stalling while attempting to scan a user's music library, and other times not correctly matching local files that are available on the iTunes Store.



Whether the missed launch deadline is a result of those issues or something else is unknown, as Apple has not commented on the lack of public availability of iTunes Match. Developers testing iTunes Match must be running a beta build of iTunes, version 10.5.1, in order to have access to the service.



When it is eventually publicly available, iTunes Match will support music collections of up to 25,000 songs for $24.99 per year. The service will scan users' personal music libraries, including songs obtained from ripped CDs or other locations, and match them up with tracks sold on the iTunes Store.



iTunes Match subscribers will be able to re-download any of their matched songs on other enabled devices, including iPhones and iPads. Those downloads will be 256Kbps AAC files, even if the original user-owned files are of lower quality.







The service will also automatically upload any songs that are not available among the library of 18 million songs on the iTunes Store. That's a stark contrast from the method employed by new music streaming services from Google and Amazon, which bypass record industry licensing agreements by allowing users to upload their own music in a time and bandwidth consuming process.



The iTunes Match service is part of the larger iCloud umbrella that Apple has used to brand its cloud-based services. Another facet is iTunes in the Cloud, which lets users re-download songs, TV shows and applications purchased through iTunes or the App Store.



Other iCloud services -- including remote backup of iOS devices and syncing of calendars, contacts e-mail and more -- rolled out last month as part of the launch of iOS 5, Apple's mobile operating system update for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. But some users of MobileMe, the previous name of Apple's cloud-based services, experienced some issues with the iCloud transition, mostly as a result of having different Apple ID accounts tied to different services. For its part, Apple indicated in September that it is working to allow users the ability to merge multiple Apple IDs.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 98
    In before folks whining about Apple missing the deadline despite being the same folks who would have whined about Apple releasing a product with a bug that annoyed them.



    That said, I hope it comes out soon. I'm excited about this.
  • Reply 2 of 98
    conradjoeconradjoe Posts: 1,887member
    From everything I've seen, I can't imagine how Cook got a reputation for being able to execute well.
  • Reply 3 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post


    From everything I've seen, I can't imagine how Cook got a reputation for being able to execute well.



    Totally. Nothing ever got delayed under Steve Jobs.
  • Reply 4 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Xian Zhu Xuande View Post


    Totally. Nothing ever got delayed under Steve Jobs.



    Or due to his death ...
  • Reply 5 of 98
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Xian Zhu Xuande View Post


    Totally. Nothing ever got delayed under Steve Jobs.



    Including MobileMe which was launched too soon and was buggy. It's better to be late than lame.
  • Reply 6 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by joelsalt View Post


    Or due to his death ...



    That's an interesting thought. I wonder how much it could have impacted things, though. My best guess on this one is that they discovered some kind of nasty and delayed in order to address it. That's usually what happens, anyway. Hopefully it comes out today or tomorrow.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jd_in_sb View Post


    Including MobileMe which was launched too soon and buggy



    Shh. We don't talk about that.
  • Reply 7 of 98
    I'll give Apple all the time it needs to bring it out since they have had a few other things on their minds since Steve passed on. I would rather wait another month and not to have to sit through update after update downloads like other software because they rushed it. Steve would have done it this way and I'm glad that Apple is making sure it works before releasing it.



    My suggestion to all you "chopping at the bit". Relax.
  • Reply 8 of 98
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    1. it's been barely 12 hours since October ended.



    2. remember this is a company and you have to consider that when they say a month they can be thinking Fiscal rather than calendar. For all we know Fiscal October isn't over until this Saturday.
  • Reply 9 of 98
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by joelsalt View Post


    Or due to his death ...



    What's been delayed due to Jobs death. That you can prove was delayed due to it.



    As for this 'delay' I would think that folks would be more pissed that it is US only rather than screaming over what could prove to be just a day or two of extra waiting.
  • Reply 10 of 98
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,192member
    I wonder if this is somehow linked to the "legal issues" that prompted the removal of aMusic from the App Store.





    fwiw: Cook was superb at supply chain management etc., and does not seem to have been involved in management of R&D.
  • Reply 11 of 98
    Plenty of things were delayed when Steve Job's was alive include iPhone updates. Some of you have short memories. Don't forget the manufacturing issues Apple used to have, YES ON STEVE JOB's watch. They would have too much inventory of products they could not sell and not enough product for the products that were selling well. Mr. Cook changed all of that for Apple. Jobs did not miss many delays but he has stated products and services would launch and they did not. So I don't know where you are getting your distortion from.
  • Reply 12 of 98
    Real artists ship. A few more weeks won't make a difference. The times they are a changin' (since Steve is gone)
  • Reply 13 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jsandresen1 View Post


    Plenty of things were delayed when Steve Job's was alive include iPhone updates. Some of you have short memories. Don't forget the manufacturing issues Apple used to have, YES ON STEVE JOB's watch. They would have too much inventory of products they could not sell and not enough product for the products that were selling well. Mr. Cook changed all of that for Apple. Jobs did not miss many delays but he has stated products and services would launch and they did not. So I don't know where you are getting your distortion from.



    Someone might need to upgrade their sarcasm detector.
  • Reply 14 of 98
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,192member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by OriginalG View Post


    The times they are a changin' (since Steve is gone)



    I've no doubt things will slowly change at Apple (as they would even with Steve around), but I've the feeling Steve wasn't nearly as hands-on with so many aspects of the business since his liver transplant 2-1/2 years ago. The transition to 0% Steve has been on-going for close to 3 years already. If you couldn't attribute any delays to his absence 6 months ago, there's not much more reason to do so today, particularly in areas such as moving from beta (with design finalized) to the release.
  • Reply 15 of 98
    Yeah, it apparently takes less than a year for everyone to forget the white iPhone 4.
  • Reply 16 of 98
    I also am very anxious to get iTunes match. However, if given the choice between launching it with bugs and fixing them later or fixing the bugs and delaying, I will gladly wait.



    I have spent many hours on my iTunes library, tagging, getting artwork, re-ripping when I got additional storage, etc. And while I have multiple back-ups, it would be incredibly frustrating to have something happen that screwed it up.



    I think Apple understands that people have a relationship with their music. And doing it badly would piss people off a lot more that having to wait for it a few days.



    From what I hear, there are still some issues, so I will impatiently wait for it, but be glad that they are trying to make sure it works well when it is released.



    I do still have some questions though. Could anyone who has used the Beta clarify for me if you have the ability to exclude songs or albums? What I would like to have happen is that I choose which songs/albums are matched. For example, if I have albums that are not going to be in the iTunes store and I don't want to have them copied to the cloud, do I have control over that? I know that I can control what comes down to any device, but do I control what goes up?



    My second question is whether I can upload from any device. For example, I have an album that is on my MBP, but isn't on my iMac. Can I upload the majority of my music from my iMac, but that one album from my MBP? If anyone has more details about the interface, I would love to know a little more.
  • Reply 17 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post


    From everything I've seen, I can't imagine how Cook got a reputation for being able to execute well.



    Trust me its better thats its late it still has a few bugs no genius playlist support some issues with song limit as well.From what Ive heard
  • Reply 18 of 98
    Please excuse my ignorance on how iTunes Match works exactly.



    As I understand it, iTunes Match looks through your iTunes library and matches the songs you have with songs already in iCloud. So for example, your have Michael Jackson's "Beat It" in your library and iTunes Match make that available in iCloud for you.



    My question is: how does it prevent people from creating 'fake' audio tracks in their iTunes libraries by calling a bogus audio track "Beat It" (artist name: Michael Jackson) and tricking iTunes Match into thinking that you actually have and own "Beat It"??



    Did that even make sense??
  • Reply 19 of 98
    drdoppiodrdoppio Posts: 1,132member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Funky Chicken View Post


    Please excuse my ignorance on how iTunes Match works exactly.



    As I understand it, iTunes Match looks through your iTunes library and matches the songs you have with songs already in iCloud. So for example, your have Michael Jackson's "Beat It" in your library and iTunes Match make that available in iCloud for you.



    My question is: how does it prevent people from creating 'fake' audio tracks in their iTunes libraries by calling a bogus audio track "Beat It" (artist name: Michael Jackson) and tricking iTunes Match into thinking that you actually have and own "Beat It"??



    Did that even make sense??



    They use Shazam. Manually, hence the delay.
  • Reply 20 of 98
    ikolikol Posts: 369member
    Off

    With

    Their

    Heads!





    Cooks first test as bastard in chief.
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