Apple Music changed metadata and artwork for media not purchased through Apple

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Level 1

33 points

Apple Music changed metadata and artwork for media not purchased through Apple

I regularly buy music from Apple Music even though I have a subscription and don't technically have to. This is because I prefer to own a copy of the music I like rather than just rent it. I use the subscription for finding new music.

I also have a good amount of music from DJs and Producers that I know which are not available in the Apple Music Store. This music is often remixes of other artists' music... so the metadata for those songs often lists those other artists rather than the DJ/Producer who remixed it (their attribution goes into the song title as "<name> Remix" or something like that).

Back before Apple Music was a thing (back in the "iTunes" days, and before streaming was the prevalent business model), Apple offered something called iTunes Match which would upload your manually-added music to the cloud so that you could access your entire library from anywhere. The idea was that, for any music in your library that was an obvious "match" for music they offered in iTunes, they wouldn't need to store that since it was already avail through their service. But for all other music not avail through their store, they would upload it so that you'd have access to it. This was perfect for me, and made complete sense technically (I work in tech), so of course I opted into this service, and am still using it today (being charged separately even though I'm also an Apple One Premier subscriber).

Today I noticed that some songs from DJ/Producer friends that I added to my Apple Music Library over 10 years ago now have new artwork, and are all being attributed to a particular album from a particular band (Toots & the Maytals). Everything (except for the song names) is now incorrect, and I can't even seem to edit the info on them now because they're "greyed out" / disabled from editing (see attached screenshot). I had custom artwork for each song in the screenshot that is now lost.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!?

Manually-added songs should NEVER be edited by Apple... under any circumstance... without first getting explicit approval for the specific edits it thinks would make sense. And even IF you did, FREAKING ADD artwork... not replace it!!! WTF!? MASSIVE VIOLATION of TRUST!

The song in the image below is actually a remix of Toots & the Maytals, and since this was the only song I was able to edit, I tried to revert it back, but the artwork you see is still the Artwork that Apple Music applied to it, replacing the artwork I had assigned.

I would REALLY appreciate someone from Apple reaching out to me regarding this matter. I realize that to get that kind of support, I would need to contact them (and I will), but I'm posting here because people also struggling with this need to know they're not alone.

Posted on Dec 16, 2023 11:58 AM

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Answer 1

scotangus Author

Level 1

33 points

Dec 16, 2023 1:52 PM in response to scotangus

REVISED UPDATE:

While on a call with Apple Music support, I uncovered that the files depicted above in screenshots are actually just copies that the system created. I also uncovered that, the only file that was duplicated was the one that was editable... all the other songs were simply added to my library on iCloud, but the files themselves weren't physically copied. The date/time stamp on the one file that was physically copied was November 22nd at 9pm. This is when something on the Apple Music / iTunes Match ecosystem was initiated, causing my problem. (screenshot below)

Here's the original file info:

I failed to mention that, the only way I became aware of this was because the song above—that had been in my library for over 10 years—was being surfaced in "Recently Added" with incorrect artwork while I was using Music on my phone.

Notice how in iTunes store, that song shows as purchased since there's a "PLAY" button instead of a price tag.

[having trouble getting this website to allow me to upload this last screenshot)

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Answer 2

scotangus Author

Level 1

33 points

Dec 16, 2023 1:22 PM in response to scotangus

UPDATE:

While on a call with Apple Music support, I uncovered that the files depicted above in screenshots are actually just copies that the system created. I also uncovered that, the only file that was duplicated was the one that was editable... all the other songs were simply added to my library on iCloud, but the files themselves weren't physically copied. The date/time stamp on the one file that was physically copied was November 22nd at 9pm. This is when something on the Apple Music / iTunes Match ecosystem was initiated, causing my problem. (screenshot below)

Here's the original file info:

I failed to mention that, the only way I became aware of this was because the song above—that had been in my library for over 10 years—was being surfaced in "Recently Added" with incorrect artwork while I was using Music on my phone.

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Answer 3

Dec 16, 2023 2:09 PM in response to scotangus

Hi,

Without commenting about your issue, I observe from images of Hard to Handle show two different file and status formats - one is Apple Music AAC file and the other is an uploaded MP3.

This indicates that you have two distinct files - one from your Apple Music subscription and the other is the uploaded version. Hence the difference in images.

I think you need to review your library as you appear have added music from aApple music rather than accessing music uploaded from your library. By the way, do you have backup of your original music?

Jim

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Answer 4

scotangus Author

Level 1

33 points

Dec 16, 2023 1:50 PM in response to scotangus

I'm trying to edit the post above one more time with additional helpful info/screenshots but the website keeps saying "try again later."

I guess I'll just add another post rather than trying to edit the one above. :eyeroll:

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Apple Music changed metadata and artwork for media not purchased through Apple

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