How can I use Apple Music and iCloud music library without replacing my existing music library.

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Level 1

24 points

How can I use Apple Music and iCloud music library without replacing my existing music library.

Hi,

I recently subscribed to Apple music and enabled iCloud library on my iPhone X running iOS 14. When i enabled icloud syncing I got a pop up asking if I wanted to keep the music in my existing library. Despite choosing to keep the files, any music I already had which was available on Apple music was deleted and replaced with the Apple music equivalent. Same thing happened on my iPod touch.

How can I use iCloud library and Apple music without my lossless AIFF music from Beatport being replaced with the rubbish quality m4a Apple music versions?

The only solution i can think of is to strip the metadata from my music and name the tracks so they wont match apple music, but that's far from practical.

Posted on Sep 28, 2020 7:34 PM

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Answer 1

LACAllen

Level 8

43,584 points

Sep 29, 2020 10:32 AM in response to whstlblwr

whstlblwr wrote:

if I wanted to keep the music in my existing library. Despite choosing to keep the files, any music I already had which was available on Apple music was deleted and replaced with the Apple music equivalent. Same thing happened on my iPod touch.

Pretty sure that prompt is about song titles and not file versions.

Apple Music and iCloud Music Library has always replaced your files with their versions unless you have a song they don't have. So your solution, while not practical in your mind, is an option. Another is to not use the iCloud Music Library and stream only.

This of course means no access to your library, playlists etc.

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Answer 2

whstlblwr Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 14, 2020 6:14 AM in response to LACAllen

I found a much more elegant solution. Turn off iCloud music library, cancel Apple music subscription, re-sync iPod with iTunes to restore lossless music, subscribe to Amazon Music.

All my lossless music remains in the music app and now i can stream or download new music in the amazon app and the audio quality is indistinguishable from lossless with most of the songs i've heard so far. I have only done this on my iPod touch so far so all the tracks i've heard are saved in the app and not streamed due to no cellular. Not sure if the quality differs for streaming vs saved, but in any case the improvement in quality from saved iCloud library music is substantial.

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How can I use Apple Music and iCloud music library without replacing my existing music library.

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