Apple's iTunes Match service is flanked by the aforementioned iTunes Radio, which is a Pandora-style music streaming service that creates personalized Internet radio stations.
It's 2015. I would have thought iTunes Radio would be available to Canada by now. Sad.
What a superficially written article, as if the only difference between iTunes Match and the Google hard drive in the sky is the # of the sounds u can play.
I've never understood the 25k limitation. I'd gladly pay $50/year to match 50k songs but Apple doesn't give me that option.
I wonder whether it might have been to discourage pirating in some form in the early days. Not quite sure how, but some bright spark might enlighten us.
Why on earth would anyone need more than 25000 matched songs? Every song, movie or TV show I ever bought on the iTunes Store can be streamed or redownload on any of my devices at no charge.
I have a collection of roughly 1500 CDs of which I have ripped 900. I am going to rip the remaining 600 and then I will have about 27000 songs. So I guess I am the "who on earth"
? I agree. Like the old saying goes, “There is no free lunch”. In my opinion, this is a ‘bait and switch’ situation designed to either disrupt the stronghold iTunes has on the market, or get as many people on board before they announce the “new” terms of service at some future point that include a fee, or any number of other ploys. All my gut tells me is that, ‘somethings up’ when Google does this. Really, this should come as no surprise to anyone. And like another member said… what is your privacy worth? Caveat Emptor.
That must be CDs from the last 10 years because that is an average of 18 songs each. Most before this era had 12 at most but usually more like10 songs.
Speaking for just me, it works great on my iPhone6
Thanks but it doesn't really help answering my entire question. There is a lot of third party crap out there but little of it integrates into the Apple eco system. That was the real question. iTunes Match is part of every facet of it, so $25 a years seems pretty amazing to me.
Does the Google Play music service "match" your uploaded songs and replace them with the iTunes available version? This is a nice feature as a lot of my older songs were ripped at lower qualities. I'm not an iTunes Match subscriber but I've always considered this an interesting feature. If Google doesn't offer this then that may explain why they can offer it for free because I suspect the artists of the upgraded song files get a few partial pennies for that.
I did iTunes Match for a year but gave it up when my library exceeded the 25K limit.
After that - it's dead useless. You can't manage what's there, as you can with other Apple services. It's all-or-nothing.
And for the same $25/year Amazon will provide storage for 250,000 songs -- that is TEN TIMES Apple's limit. And you can buy more if you want. Cant't do that with Apple.
What Apple has now is just an embarrassment. If I worked in that area I would be ashamed - it's that bad.
(p.s. I didn't subscribe to Amazon's plan, but might do so. But 250,000 is what it offers for the same $25/year that Apple charges for a tenth that many)
Why on earth would anyone need more than 25000 matched songs? Every song, movie or TV show I ever bought on the iTunes Store can be streamed or redownload on any of my devices at no charge.
2273 albums, 32K "songs". Few of them "match" since they weren't bought from iTunes - maybe a thousand tunes or so. Lots of classical (not all the classical is ripped yet BTW)
Your library may vary but iTunes Match is a joke for me.
I don't know. I think this is getting crazy. Call me a "light" user... after 10 years of iTunes, I still only have only 3,000 songs in my library, well below the iTunes Match limit that I'm paying for. That said, iTunes Match has given me plenty of grief... (a) songs disappearing because they are no longer available from iTunes as a purchase, (b) constantly having to sign in again in the iTunes app, (c) streaming not working at all for days from my mobile devices. While I do appreciate the convenience of it, it has not been without its problems for me, unfortunately. That said, I'll live with it since I tend to stream radio stations more than listen to my own library anyway. Now if Apple would only get their act together and give us iTunes Radio in Canada, I would be delighted!
? I agree. Like the old saying goes, “There is no free lunch”. In my opinion, this is a ‘bait and switch’ situation designed to either disrupt the stronghold iTunes has on the market, or get as many people on board before they announce the “new” terms of service at some future point that include a fee, or any number of other ploys. All my gut tells me is that, ‘somethings up’ when Google does this. Really, this should come as no surprise to anyone. And like another member said… what is your privacy worth? Caveat Emptor.
Yup, they did that with Google Apps – the online suite of Gmail, Docs, Calendar etc. geared towards business – offering a "free" version, and then a couple of years ago they took that away. This would have resulted in some existing users "upgrading" to the paid version (yet getting nothing extra), taking on new paid users, or leading to users switching providers entirely (which is the group that I fall into). I have two dozen domains set up with Google Apps for email, but have starting using a new provider now for all new domains. Google won't be getting a dime of mine.
Comments
It's 2015. I would have thought iTunes Radio would be available to Canada by now. Sad.
I've never understood the 25k limitation. I'd gladly pay $50/year to match 50k songs but Apple doesn't give me that option.
I wonder whether it might have been to discourage pirating in some form in the early days. Not quite sure how, but some bright spark might enlighten us.
Why on earth would anyone need more than 25000 matched songs? Every song, movie or TV show I ever bought on the iTunes Store can be streamed or redownload on any of my devices at no charge.
I have a collection of roughly 1500 CDs of which I have ripped 900. I am going to rip the remaining 600 and then I will have about 27000 songs. So I guess I am the "who on earth"
Look, just become the 51st State and be done with all these delays on Apple products and services. 8-)
'Soul' comes to mind, no musical pun intended.
King of “free," but at what cost?
? I agree. Like the old saying goes, “There is no free lunch”. In my opinion, this is a ‘bait and switch’ situation designed to either disrupt the stronghold iTunes has on the market, or get as many people on board before they announce the “new” terms of service at some future point that include a fee, or any number of other ploys. All my gut tells me is that, ‘somethings up’ when Google does this. Really, this should come as no surprise to anyone. And like another member said… what is your privacy worth? Caveat Emptor.
Thanks but it doesn't really help answering my entire question. There is a lot of third party crap out there but little of it integrates into the Apple eco system. That was the real question. iTunes Match is part of every facet of it, so $25 a years seems pretty amazing to me.
I did iTunes Match for a year but gave it up when my library exceeded the 25K limit.
After that - it's dead useless. You can't manage what's there, as you can with other Apple services. It's all-or-nothing.
And for the same $25/year Amazon will provide storage for 250,000 songs -- that is TEN TIMES Apple's limit. And you can buy more if you want. Cant't do that with Apple.
What Apple has now is just an embarrassment. If I worked in that area I would be ashamed - it's that bad.
(p.s. I didn't subscribe to Amazon's plan, but might do so. But 250,000 is what it offers for the same $25/year that Apple charges for a tenth that many)
Why on earth would anyone need more than 25000 matched songs? Every song, movie or TV show I ever bought on the iTunes Store can be streamed or redownload on any of my devices at no charge.
2273 albums, 32K "songs". Few of them "match" since they weren't bought from iTunes - maybe a thousand tunes or so. Lots of classical (not all the classical is ripped yet BTW)
Your library may vary but iTunes Match is a joke for me.
I don't know. I think this is getting crazy. Call me a "light" user... after 10 years of iTunes, I still only have only 3,000 songs in my library, well below the iTunes Match limit that I'm paying for. That said, iTunes Match has given me plenty of grief... (a) songs disappearing because they are no longer available from iTunes as a purchase, (b) constantly having to sign in again in the iTunes app, (c) streaming not working at all for days from my mobile devices. While I do appreciate the convenience of it, it has not been without its problems for me, unfortunately. That said, I'll live with it since I tend to stream radio stations more than listen to my own library anyway. Now if Apple would only get their act together and give us iTunes Radio in Canada, I would be delighted!
? I agree. Like the old saying goes, “There is no free lunch”. In my opinion, this is a ‘bait and switch’ situation designed to either disrupt the stronghold iTunes has on the market, or get as many people on board before they announce the “new” terms of service at some future point that include a fee, or any number of other ploys. All my gut tells me is that, ‘somethings up’ when Google does this. Really, this should come as no surprise to anyone. And like another member said… what is your privacy worth? Caveat Emptor.
Yup, they did that with Google Apps – the online suite of Gmail, Docs, Calendar etc. geared towards business – offering a "free" version, and then a couple of years ago they took that away. This would have resulted in some existing users "upgrading" to the paid version (yet getting nothing extra), taking on new paid users, or leading to users switching providers entirely (which is the group that I fall into). I have two dozen domains set up with Google Apps for email, but have starting using a new provider now for all new domains. Google won't be getting a dime of mine.