Q: So many problems with iTunes Match...

I wasn't even asking for a refund, but the specialist to whom I spoke AGREED with me that language on the website appears to offer streaming without downloading (though he did say it wasn't the design of the product...yet). He was the one who brought up getting a refund to me.

Much to the chagrin of a few people on this message board who are defending Match as not being a streaming serivce, Apple acknowledged to me that it's messed up (considering also the jumbling of music libraries).

Don't you find it interesting that Apple is so easily considering giving refunds on this?

Clearly you do not understand the definition. Streaming, (of data), is nothing like what iMatch does. Spotify, Pandora even Rhapsody are streaming music. You choose a song or an album and you listen to it on your device or computer. When you have finished listening to the song via STREAMING it is not stored on your device nor do you have to delete it to free up space on your computer or device. That is streaming. iMatch is streaming/storage and that is, by definition, the difference.

Regardless of how you are defining "streaming", that IS the term Apple is using on their website. "Clearly" they acknowledge something is not right if they are giving refunds. "Clearly" it isn't performing well. "Clearly" a lot of people are upset. "Clearly" it messed up my music library.

Take it easy IndianaDan, I am "clearly" on your side. I was replying to the post lancerguy left for me defining streaming. I too have been misled and have experienced my playlists being messed up, albums with songs missing, songs that no longer play and album artwork that has been erased. I have requested a full refund of my $24.99 and to have my iTunes Match subscrition cancelled. I suggest you and all others who are dissatisfied do the same.

LOL, sorry. Nice use again of "clearly." My Match service was cancelled yesterday with refund issued, and I'm warning others of the experience before they make the same mistake.

The common person's definition of streaming is YouTube or Pandora-like...the content streams/plays and that's the end of the story.  In fact that's how iTunes Match works with my Apple TV2.  That's also how it worked with all devices in the early developer editions.

However with the exception of the Apple TV2 iTunes Match also adds the song to the user's device. 

So you're correct and that's a good way to look at it.  Some may consider this additional step a benefit (saving bandwidth, etc.), others may not.  In the end it would take at least a couple of additional steps to delete the song(s) to recover the storage space. 

FWIW I had a nightmare of a time getting iTunes Match up and running, but now that it is, it works exactly as advertised on my iMac, Macbook Air, iPhone 4 and iPad. 

My 11" Macbook air has a 128GB SSD and my iTunes library would take up over half of that...leaving me minimal space for everything else I have on it.  iTunes Match allows me to have my entire library without taking up any storage space and I am very satisfied with that.  As mentioned, I can delete any songs that I've streamed and don't want taking up space later if I choose.  That suits me fine. 

I don't know if it would be practical, but having the option to turn the storage element of iTunes Match off might appease those that don't want it.

Now I'm ******. Apple are giving refunds because users are complaining about the definititon of "streaming". A valid point IMO.

Yet, I'm unable to use iTunes Match AT ALL. iTunes locks up ALL THE TIME, my iPod Touch has needed a restore TWICE. And it's just as unusable on Apple TV 2, most songs just give a "content not availble" error, or a "Connecting to iCloud" message that never finishes.

And Apple won't give me a refund! ***???

IndianaDan wrote:

 

LOL, sorry. Nice use again of "clearly." My Match service was cancelled yesterday with refund issued, and I'm warning others of the experience before they make the same mistake.

While it's still not streaming, it has been reported that iOS devices do eventually delete songs that were played from the cloud and not explicitly downloaded when the device reaches a space threshold.  Apple hasn't documented it and all the details aren't really known.

So while I still wouldn't call it streaming, and Apple should update to add more user options including regular streaming, you can keep listening to music without worrying about running out of space.  It's basically more like a buffer/cache that keeps the data a LONG time and can use a lot of free space.  But for some users that may be good enough.

You might want to test it out before getting a refund based on that, could end up being fine for your use.

Mike Connelly wrote:

 

While it's still not streaming, it has been reported that iOS devices do eventually delete songs that were played from the cloud and not explicitly downloaded when the device reaches a space threshold.  Apple hasn't documented it and all the details aren't really known.

 

So while I still wouldn't call it streaming, and Apple should update to add more user options including regular streaming, you can keep listening to music without worrying about running out of space.  It's basically more like a buffer/cache that keeps the data a LONG time and can use a lot of free space.  But for some users that may be good enough.

 

You might want to test it out before getting a refund based on that, could end up being fine for your use.

Very good point.  Any idea how long a song remains cached...or does it clear depending on the device's remaining storage capacity?  TIA!

I don't think anyone knows but I've read speculation that it's based on space remaining, and songs deleted depends on things like how often played or how recently played.  Hopefully at some point Apple will document, otherwise I'm sure someone to take the time to analyze it.

Good to know...thanks for that.

Thanks Mike for pointinng this out.   A qucik search located a brand new MacWorld article that backs up this notion that there is some smarts to the downloads and when the device needs space it will start to delete some of the downloaded music.   Another 'just worrks' feature from Apple if this is true. 

http://www.macworld.com/article/163676/2011/11/secrets_of_itunes_match.html

I'd really like to know that if I fill up my iphone with music and then need to take a video that it will delete the music while I'm taking the video.    My only complaint with iTunes match on the device side has been the notion that you have to manage the storage.  Even with true streaming, there is some sort of cache in the background to allow for seemless skipping etc.  It seems that with Itunes Match perhaps some percentage of free space is for the downloads and it lets the user manage the space if they want or they can just forget it an IOS with some magically algortm will manage the space for us.

I guess I'll have to try to test this sometime  

Mike Connelly wrote:

 

While it's still not streaming, it has been reported that iOS devices do eventually delete songs that were played from the cloud and not explicitly downloaded when the device reaches a space threshold.  Apple hasn't documented it and all the details aren't really known.

 

So while I still wouldn't call it streaming, and Apple should update to add more user options including regular streaming, you can keep listening to music without worrying about running out of space.  It's basically more like a buffer/cache that keeps the data a LONG time and can use a lot of free space.  But for some users that may be good enough.

 

You might want to test it out before getting a refund based on that, could end up being fine for your use.

Exactly. ^

And the only difference between this and say, spotify or rhapsody, is that you OWN the music already on iTunes.  Therefore, while spotify can only temporarily keep the song on your computer in a format you can't easily gain access to, itunes can just leave the song on your device for future playback.  In fact, there are many programs you can use to pull the music stream from rhapsody, spotify, and all other streaming services.  What you find is that you were actually sent a low bitrate mp3 that you were immediately forced to delete because you were just "streaming" it as some would put it. 

Also, don't you guys forget I already posted a fix on jumbled artists/albums.  You need to use something to fix your tags (I use mediamonkey, **** of a lot quicker than using itunes for the whole deal).  Artist, ALBUM ARTIST, and Album all need to be set up correctly for it to organize right in match.  It's posted a few pages back.  I have 9,600 songs in match across 208 artists.  All are displayed correctly after fixing my tags up with mediamonkey. 

I've got no answer for the artwork, I never kept up with my artwork in the first place so I haven't noticed a difference.

Streaming is listening to something stored on a remote server, without permanently saving the file to your device. That is now the conventional, accepted definition of streaming.  Streaming is listening to Pandora, Slacker, etc. Streaming is what is happening with iTunes and the Apple TV. Yes, it might cache the content to reduce buffering, but if I disconnect the Apple TV from my WiFi, I doubt I could listen to that cached content.  On-demand services like Rdio and Rhapsody differentiate between streaming and downloading a local copy for use when you are offline.  My understanding of iCloud was always that it would NOT be a streaming service - that is why I was surprised when I saw the word "streaming" appear in more recent descriptions of the service.  I always thought it would be exactly what it is - a way to download content from a remote server.  I wasn't really thrilled with that concept, but I understood it.  What I really want is a combination of Rdio and iTunes match.  A subscription service so I can stream all of the content in iTunes, combined with content that I already own.