Problems persist with Apple's international launch of iTunes Match
Just as happened with the U.S. launch of iTunes Match, Apple has temporarily halted new signups for its cloud-based music service due to strong demand after its international debut.
International rollout of iTunes Match began on Thursday to countries outside of the U.S. and Brazil. But a day later, users who attempted to sign up for the service were met with a prompt notifying them that "iTunes Match is temporarily not accepting new subscribers. Check back later."
iTunes Match first launched in the U.S. a month ago with the release of iTunes 10.5.1. For $24.99 per year, customers can match their personal digital music collection, regardless of where the tracks were downloaded from, against Apple's vast iTunes Music Store catalog, and re-download those songs on any device.
This week, the iTunes Match service was extended to Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K.
Even before Friday's temporary stoppage of new signups, Apple had other problems with the international debut of iTunes Match. Apple prematurely launched iTunes Match on Wednesday, but the sign-up page was removed and refunds were promised to users before the page was reinstated on Thursday.
Screenshot of French iTunes Match landing page
Would-be subscribers during the day-early launch experienced problems during the sign-up process, and some of those who managed to get through found that they couldn't access the iTunes Match service. Some users expressed their frustrations on the Apple Support Communities website, where it was then explained that the launch was accidental.
Apple also made an effort to squash bugs related to iTunes Match with the release of iTunes 10.5.2 on Monday. That software update is said to include "several improvements" for the subscription service.
International rollout of iTunes Match began on Thursday to countries outside of the U.S. and Brazil. But a day later, users who attempted to sign up for the service were met with a prompt notifying them that "iTunes Match is temporarily not accepting new subscribers. Check back later."
iTunes Match first launched in the U.S. a month ago with the release of iTunes 10.5.1. For $24.99 per year, customers can match their personal digital music collection, regardless of where the tracks were downloaded from, against Apple's vast iTunes Music Store catalog, and re-download those songs on any device.
This week, the iTunes Match service was extended to Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K.
Even before Friday's temporary stoppage of new signups, Apple had other problems with the international debut of iTunes Match. Apple prematurely launched iTunes Match on Wednesday, but the sign-up page was removed and refunds were promised to users before the page was reinstated on Thursday.
Screenshot of French iTunes Match landing page
Would-be subscribers during the day-early launch experienced problems during the sign-up process, and some of those who managed to get through found that they couldn't access the iTunes Match service. Some users expressed their frustrations on the Apple Support Communities website, where it was then explained that the launch was accidental.
Apple also made an effort to squash bugs related to iTunes Match with the release of iTunes 10.5.2 on Monday. That software update is said to include "several improvements" for the subscription service.
Comments
"iTunes Match is temporarily not accepting new subscribers. Check back later."
That certainly is terse.
Anything wrong with saying "Please"?
For the price I think that this is a great deal. Saves the cost of maintaining HDs for back up. TV movies are now available for rental. I will explore that once all my music has uploaded.
If anyone gets the 5002 error just remove and add your credit card.
TV movies are now available for rental. I will explore that once all my music has uploaded.
Can you double check that please? On my ATV2 I see my past TV series purchased and it let me stream them from the cloud but I havent seen rentals.
Now if they could allow movies from the cloud that would rock. Sometimes I rent while the buy price is just 1$ or 2$ more. I dont want to buy because I dont want to have to manage the files.
Just as happened with the U.S. launch of iTunes Match, Apple has temporarily halted new signups for its cloud-based music service due to strong demand after its international debut.
I
We're assuming this is due to demands
Apple has temporarily halted new signups for its cloud-based music service due to strong demand after its international debut.
Due to strong demand ..okay whatever makes you feel better
Problems persist with Apple's international launch of iTunes Match.
I hate to harp on poor writing skills, but I really think that characterising the situation as a giant "problem" that's "persisting" is inaccurate at best.
It describes a situation where there is some kind of baffling, capital "P" problem that has resisted multiple efforts to stamp it out or fix it. All that's really happening here is a few temporary glitches in process and an overflow of capacity on a very short time scale. It would probably be over the top to even describe these as "teething pains."
There's nothing to indicate that there is any real problem with the service as conceived nor anything that needs "fixing." Even if there was, presumably we should let them try a few of these "fixes" before we start throwing around words like "persist." How can a problem persist if it isn't really definable as a problem and they haven't even had a single day to try to fix it or applied any patches?
I think they got it all wrong. Only Samsung, Google, HTC, Amazon make crappy software. We ALL know that Apple software is flawless.
A glitch?
I think they got it all wrong. Only Samsung, Google, HTC, Amazon make crappy software. We ALL know that Apple software is flawless.
What's that word for when you veil your true intentions by expressing the polar opposite of what you actually believe?
I accuse you of doing that. Heaven's sake.
As an Aussie that signed up to iTunes Match on Thursday before it was a link on the Australian iTunes Store by getting bounced back from the US store to a premature Australian landing page, I was waiting for an email from apple advising me of a refund. But no, Friday morning the iTunes Match link on the Australian store went live, and by Friday afternoon 10000+ songs matched and only 1234 songs had to be uploaded. Great job Apple. I'm one very satisfied customer in the land of Oz. Steve was right, "It just works". Thanks mate.
The match server is pretty good and updating older music to 256AAC is nice, but wait until you find that you playlists do not work as expected anymore.
I mostly like Match, but the downgrade in playlist functionality is a total screw up on Apple's part. I wish they would fix it.
I hate to harp on poor writing skills, but I really think that characterising the situation as a giant "problem" that's "persisting" is inaccurate at best.
It describes a situation where there is some kind of baffling, capital "P" problem that has resisted multiple efforts to stamp it out or fix it. All that's really happening here is a few temporary glitches in process and an overflow of capacity on a very short time scale. It would probably be over the top to even describe these as "teething pains."
There's nothing to indicate that there is any real problem with the service as conceived nor anything that needs "fixing." Even if there was, presumably we should let them try a few of these "fixes" before we start throwing around words like "persist." How can a problem persist if it isn't really definable as a problem and they haven't even had a single day to try to fix it or applied any patches?
Well it's plain the problems have persisted into at least the second hour. How can you not see that?
Can you double check that please? On my ATV2 I see my past TV series purchased and it let me stream them from the cloud but I havent seen rentals.
Now if they could allow movies from the cloud that would rock. Sometimes I rent while the buy price is just 1$ or 2$ more. I dont want to buy because I dont want to have to manage the files.
I don't see rentals of TV shows either, just purchases of TV shows. I'm running the latest version, updated today.
iTunes Match shows and works great.
Anyone?
I think they got it all wrong. Only Samsung, Google, HTC, Amazon make crappy software. We ALL know that Apple software is flawless.
I think you'll find Apple buy all their server side systems from 3rd party vendors such as IBM. So they have the same problems everyone else does.
On the client side, where they write their own stuff, it really does work great.
I was able to sign up from Canada last night, glad I did because I love it!
If anyone gets the 5002 error just remove and add your credit card.
Thank you! I'm in, finally!
Surely Apple, of all companies, should be able to tell us to reenter credit card information instead of displaying "error 5002, try again later"?
What's that word for when you veil your true intentions by expressing the polar opposite of what you actually believe?
Malicious Sarcasm