Apple explains iTunes Match with video, FAQ

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Apple has posted several resources, including an instructional video and answers to frequently asked questions, on its website to clarify its iTunes Match music service.



The Cupertino, Calif., company added the information to the iTunes Match section of its website, as noted by MacNN on Monday.



The new video demonstrates how the $24.99 a year service works by way of a walkthrough showing how to activate the service on iTunes, wait for iTunes Match to match songs, and then turn on the service on an iOS device or an Apple TV.



"With iCloud and iTunes Match, your music is always where you want, when you want it," the video noted.



Apple's FAQ clarified that iTunes Match requires iTunes 10.5.1 on a PC or a Mac, iOS 5.0.1 on an iPhone 3GS or later, a third- or fourth-generation iPod touch or an iPad. The service can read AAC, MP3, WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless and other music formats. Up to 10 devices, including computer, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV, can be synced with iTunes Match.







The FAQ also addresses whether iTunes Match will stream music. According to Apple, computers will be able to stream songs stored in iCloud. iOS devices will begin playing tracks while they download, and the Apple TV will only stream songs. Testing during the beta phase of iTunes Match had appeared to suggest that the service would support streaming to iOS devices, but Apple quickly clarified that songs would need to be downloaded to mobile devices from iCloud.



Apple has also cleared up confusion on whether upgraded songs will be preserved if a user allows the iTunes Match subscription to lapse after a year.



"Any songs you?ve upgraded or downloaded again are completely safe. The only thing you lose is the central storage ? iCloud will no longer stream or download matched or uploaded songs to your devices," the FAQ read.



After a slight delay, iTunes Match launched in the U.S. in November. The service began rolling out internationally earlier this month and is currently available in 17 countries.



Though analysts don't expect Apple to make much money off iTunes Match, they do see it as an important part of the company's strategy. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes Apple will roughly break even on the service while further tying customers to its iTunes ecosystem and iOS devices.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 21
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Apple should have video tutorials on everything they make or provide. They sell to the masses now.
  • Reply 2 of 21
    aizmovaizmov Posts: 989member
    No streaming to iOS devices? \
  • Reply 3 of 21
    chris_cachris_ca Posts: 2,543member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Aizmov View Post


    No streaming to iOS devices? \



    It is indeed still unclear.



    From the website;

    "Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream it to any of your devices."

    However, the songs are still downloaded to the device and added to the Music app.



    Also, "You can store up to 25,000 songs in iCloud (more if songs are purchased from the iTunes Store), "



    But so far, iTunes Match does not work if there are more than 25,000 songs in the library, even if there are only a few hundred non-iTunes purchases.
  • Reply 4 of 21
    "Apple explains iTunes Match with video, FAQ"



    I read that like "iTunes Match with Video"



    I was excited and quickly let down. Oh well. That being said, I think iTunes Match is pretty clear. I've had no issues with it.
  • Reply 5 of 21
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Chris_CA View Post


    It is indeed still unclear.



    From the website;

    "Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream it to any of your devices."

    However, the songs are still downloaded to the device and added to the Music app.



    Also, "You can store up to 25,000 songs in iCloud (more if songs are purchased from the iTunes Store), "



    But so far, iTunes Match does not work if there are more than 25,000 songs in the library, even if there are only a few hundred non-iTunes purchases.



    Clearly says computers and Apple TVs are streaming, iOS is download only..
  • Reply 6 of 21
    chris_cachris_ca Posts: 2,543member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wurm5150 View Post


    Clearly says computers and Apple TVs are streaming, iOS is download only..



    It is not that clear, especially when the rest of the text is included.

    "iOS devices will start playing tracks from iCloud as they download and will store them so that you can listen to them later even if you don’t have a network connection."



    However, it does clearly state, "Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream it to any of your devices".
  • Reply 7 of 21
    if it's not ios streaming then that's a damn disappointment.



    I am also wondering, what about podcasts, itunes u, and, more importantly (to me) audiobooks? I really don't have much space on my 64gb ipad after tons of apps (and that's after having deleted most bulky games), (no music at all), audiobooks, photos and a few vids and I d love to be able to stream my audiobooks instead of wasting so much space just to carry them along. Ipad is great, but ipad's storage capacity is really very low based on what you want an ipad to do, and to store.



    I am starting to get rather underwhelmed by apple lately, ever since the os x lion fiasco that is...well, I might be exaggerating here with the word fiasco, but I firmly believe that most here who are willing to admit it, will say that lion is just another snow leopard, a very marginally better update...imho of course.
  • Reply 8 of 21
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by myapplelove View Post


    if it's not ios streaming then that's a damn disappointment.



    I am also wondering, what about podcasts, itunes u, and, more importantly (to me) audiobooks? I really don't have much space on my 64gb ipad after tons of apps (and that's after having deleted most bulky games), (no music at all), audiobooks, photos and a few vids and I d love to be able to stream my audiobooks instead of wasting so much space just to carry them along. Ipad is great, but ipad's storage capacity is really very low based on what you want an ipad to do, and to store.



    I am starting to get rather underwhelmed by apple lately, ever since the os x lion fiasco that is...well, I might be exaggerating here with the word fiasco, but I firmly believe that most here who are willing to admit it, will say that lion is just another snow leopard, a very marginally better update...imho of course.



    It's not an important distinction. iOS begins to play the track before it is completely downloaded and begins to download the next track in the list before the current one ends. That's streaming to most people. The key difference is that the song is stored on your iOS device until you manually delete it. There's good reason for this. First of all, if you played it once, odds are you will play again. And if you are on 3G, downloading the track once makes a big difference to your usage rates. Macs and Apple TVs don't have this problem and usually have most wider broadband bandwidth anyway.



    Audiobooks can't stream from iTunes Match, which is unfortunate. I suspect the issue is licensing, not technical. Book publishers probably are a different breed to deal with than music companies and it took long enough just to get the music licensing thing down.



    My complaint is that there is no quick way I can think of to get a clear picture of just what tracks are actually on the phone without turning off a switch under iTunes Match in the settings menu. So if you want to do housecleaning of your songs on the device, it's not that easy. Also, iTunes Match on the original iPad is almost unusable, especially if you have a large iTunes library (mine is 19,000 tracks). My iPhone 4 with more memory handles iTunes Match much better. But the Music app on the iPad is terrible anyway (UI and stability problems) and I hope that iOS 5.1 does something to fix it.
  • Reply 9 of 21
    I'd be a happy camper if iTunes Match would add the missing metadata. That's as important as having a better sounding matched audio file.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by myapplelove View Post


    I am starting to get rather underwhelmed by apple lately, ever since the os x lion fiasco that is...well, I might be exaggerating here with the word fiasco, but I firmly believe that most here who are willing to admit it, will say that lion is just another snow leopard, a very marginally better update...imho of course.



    By that token you could argue that SL is just another Leopard, but is certainly not. Lion is a more robust OS than SL (albeit evolutionary), and for US$30 you get a lot of bang for your money, heck, for me it's well worth it just because of Mission Control, swipe to navigate spaces, Filevault 2 and TM.
  • Reply 10 of 21
    Count me in if they make it match Videos too. I have a fairly large collection of VHS, DVD, and BR disks, iTunes Match will be worth it in my case even if it costs $100.
  • Reply 11 of 21
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    So what is the story with my music that I purchased via iTunes that has DRM. Are these files upgraded to DRM-free or are they still DRM-linked?
  • Reply 12 of 21
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave K. View Post


    So what is the story with my music that I purchased via iTunes that has DRM. Are these files upgraded to DRM-free or are they still DRM-linked?



    From the page this story is about:



  • Reply 13 of 21
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    From the page this story is about:







    That is only referring to MP3 files that are lower quality. That makes no mention of original DRM'd music files.
  • Reply 14 of 21
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave K. View Post


    That is only referring to MP3 files that are lower quality. That makes no mention of original DRM'd music files.



    ? Did you read the sentence?
  • Reply 15 of 21
    If Apple would add a music subscription option, iTunes Match would be Spotify on steroids.



    I can play any song on any device, dump about 10 GB off my primary MacBook, AND my playlists will sync across devices? I would pay $10-$12 a month for that.
  • Reply 16 of 21
    Personally I'm waiting for them to fix that cover art bug on iTunes Match. For someone as pedantic as I am with the covers it is fricking annoying to have a whole bunch of blank covers there now.

    Next thing to fix after that will be the uploaded tracks. Most people seem to average about a 50-70% match rate, with the rest being uploads. This is the same regardless of whether your library is full of Britney Spears greatest hits or Kalahari Bushmen Hunting songs.



    Still, it is a great start and I look forward to the service improving with time.
  • Reply 17 of 21
    Still some misleading stuff. There's a limit of ten devices, but computers are limited to five. They should include that info, just saying "10 devices" makes it sound like you can run it on ten computers.
  • Reply 18 of 21
    It's free, and it streams music to any of your IOs devices. It doesn't download any data, it's pure streaming, so it doesn't take up room on your device either.



    The only drawback is you have to have your computer running at home in order to access your music. Besides that it works flawlessly. I've been using it for 6 months now and have had zero problems. Best IOs program out there if you're a music fan.
  • Reply 19 of 21
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Aizmov View Post


    No streaming to iOS devices? \



    Makes sense. Phones etc aren't always on wifi and more and more added users are on limited 3g plans
  • Reply 20 of 21
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sevenfeet View Post


    Audiobooks can't stream from iTunes Match, which is unfortunate. I suspect the issue is licensing, not technical.





    That is always the issue when it is content that someone else created.
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