iTunes Match doesn't match every song on an album

If you purchased all these songs from ITunes then I would do the following:

Go to the ITunes store home page and select the Purchased link on the right in the Quick Links section. Select Music tab at the top and verify that ALL is selected on the top right. Select All Songs from the list on the left and then verify all the songs you are referring to are actually there. If they are, then I would delete all of them and redownload them from this location.

As far as i know all iTunes purchases should be designated as Purchased AAC Audio file if you downloaded them from iTunes.

Hope this helps since I don't have any other suggestions (all my issues were resolved with my previous suggestions.

Regards,

Steve

I have a similar problem. Sometimes, an entire album doesn't match even though I know it exists on iTunes. The Rolling Stones "Beggars Banquet", for example. Other times, it's one or two songs. "Midnight Rambler" off of "Let It Bleed" in keeping with The Rolling Stones theme.

The really interesting one is that I found albums where everything is listed as Matched even when I know that album does not exist on iTunes. For example, all the songs from AC/DC's "Back in Black" match for me when I know AC/DC is not in iTunes. Maybe Apple put a few non-iTunes songs up there for matching because the albums/songs are really popular.

I'm beginning to understand some things about how iTunes Match works, and I think I have the answer on why "Beggar's Banquet" doesn't match. Apparently, the album was originally mastered at the wrong speed, but was fixed in 2002. So, for any of us that bought the album in the late 80s or 90s, the track speeds are on average about five or six seconds longer. Since one of the key factors in matching a track appears to be length, no match.

Martini Man is right. I purchased "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" from iTunes and compared it my copy (ripped from my 1987 Abbey Road CD). I viewed the tracks side by side in Logic Pro, and they were just slightly out of sync, causing a flange effect when played back. This slight difference causes one track to be a few seconds longer by the end, and iTunes won't match it.

Here's another post about remastered albums:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3528316

This of course begged the obvious question: can you get a track to match by altering its length? The answer is yes. I used an MP3 file of a Christmas song that hadn't matched. My version clocked in at 4:27, while Amazon had the current version listed as 4:33. I used Audacity to add 6 seconds, uploaded it, and voila, iTunes matched it.

This works for me too. I've shortened a few tracks to match the length on the iTunes Store, and then they have matched! Someone needs to create a little app for this...

An interesting one I ran into was "Reckoning" by R.E.M. Like "Beggar's Banquet," I have a fairly early CD version that I ripped years ago. In the meantime, there's been a change in the transition point between "Camera" and "Don't Go Back To Rockville." (The false start that used to be part of "Rockville" but has been switched to the end of "Camera.)" Basically, if you shorten "Rockville" but extend "Camera" you'll get a match on both. The weird part is that "Camera" matched without me adding the snippet at the end, so it may be that matching is based more on the length than what's actually in the file.

I have similar issues with an album only matching partially, but found a (partially working) 'solution'. Perhaps its usefull...

The album is 'Synkronized' from 'Jamiriquai'. I ripped the album from a CD with iTunes a couple of years ago in 128kb AAC format. Only one song matched, 'Deeper Underground', the others didn't and were uploaded.

I converted the uploaded songs to 256kb AAC format, and removed them from the iTunes library. I also removed the 128kb versions from the library and from the cloud. Then I updated the matching, assuming this would sync the local library versus the cloud library status. Then I re-added the 256kb AAC versions and updated the matching. Now all except 3 songs where matched. Still not perfect but 8 out of 11 is still better than 1 out of 11.

Conclusion? The matching algorithme is fuzzy and probably works better with higher quality files.

It's a strange and frustrating thing. The reason I subsribed to Match is to be able to get the better versions of the songs. Of my 8000+ songs, only half is matched. Of this half 90% is in the iTunes store, some are even purchased and not matched back! If you think about it, it really crazy and disappointing. Makes me consider to claim a refund. Plus it takes Apple a lot more diskspace to store all those versions they have already. That's not really contributing to their business case I would presume.

Conclusion? The matching algorithme is fuzzy and probably works better with higher quality files.

I read the process you followed and unless you went back to the original CD and ripped a new 256kb AAC directly from it, you didn't make a "higher quality" file. In fact, if you started with a 128kb track and ripped it to 256, the resulting file would actually be poorer quality.

If that is what you did and you got better matches, is is more likely that the matching process simply worked better for you second time around. If your initial match session took place just a few days ago, I'd lean toward problems on Apple's end due to server overload having been the culprit. Hopefully things are going more smoothly now.

JiminMissouri wrote:

Conclusion? The matching algorithme is fuzzy and probably works better with higher quality files.

I read the process you followed and unless you went back to the original CD and ripped a new 256kb AAC directly from it, you didn't make a "higher quality" file. In fact, if you started with a 128kb track and ripped it to 256, the resulting file would actually be poorer quality.

If that is what you did and you got better matches, is is more likely that the matching process simply worked better for you second time around. If your initial match session took place just a few days ago, I'd lean toward problems on Apple's end due to server overload having been the culprit. Hopefully things are going more smoothly now.

No, I didn't go back to the original CD. I can see your point that I actually got lower quality song this way. The fact however is that I got better matches, but perhaps you're right and it's a matter of 'chance' that they now matched. At least this confirms that the matching process is fuzzy.

But, if you're right then the solution to get a 100% match would be to try and rematch the song over and over again until it matches. However, there is no re-match option in iTunes. Which would mean backing up the song, removing it from iTunes and from the cloud (therefore loosing the metadata) and re-add it again. Sounds like a dreadful process. Unless anyone has a better idea?

No, I didn't go back to the original CD. I can see your point that I actually got lower quality song this way. The fact however is that I got better matches, but perhaps you're right and it's a matter of 'chance' that they now matched. At least this confirms that the matching process is fuzzy.

I don't think anyone questions that the matching procees is not going to give you exactly the same results every time. Outside of Apple, no one knows exactly how matching is done, but it's generally accepted that some form of waveform matching is used for part of it. Whether they look at exactly the same segment of each song every time isn't known. What the allowable deviation from a "perfect match" is isn't known, etc. It is generally believed though that the better your original copy, the greater liklihood that it will match. Garbage in - garbage out as the saying goes.

But, if you're right then the solution to get a 100% match would be to try and rematch the song over and over again until it matches. However, there is no re-match option in iTunes. Which would mean backing up the song, removing it from iTunes and from the cloud (therefore loosing the metadata) and re-add it again. Sounds like a dreadful process. Unless anyone has a better idea?

If someone wanted to just spend all their waking hours trying to get re-matches simply by re-submitting I imagine they would have some success, but it would probably be a situation where diminishing returns made them give up pretty quickly. First, while it's been discussed on the board many times, no matter how certain a person is that their personal copy of a song is identical to what is for sale in the iTunes store, they could well be wrong and might never find any information that will tell them they're barking up the wrong tree. Second, if as I mentioned earlier, what they are submitting has been so compressed that the matching process can't recognize it, you could bang your head against the same wall time after time. Personally, that seems like an incredible waste of effort.

The "better idea" you are looking for, well the best I can suggest is that if you feel the percentage of matches you are getting is unacceptable, contact Apple and tell them. If part of your concern is that many albums have almost all but a few tracks match, tell them that too. I'm one who is willing to be patient. it's not that important to me whether a track or two doesn't match, but then I ripped all of my CDs directly into iTunes as 256 AAC, so I'm really not missing much there. On the flip side though, I'm happy to see so much of my vinyl matching. I didn't hold much hope than it would and I've been pleasantly surprised.

The "better idea" you are looking for, well the best I can suggest is that if you feel the percentage of matches you are getting is unacceptable, contact Apple and tell them. If part of your concern is that many albums have almost all but a few tracks match, tell them that too. I'm one who is willing to be patient. it's not that important to me whether a track or two doesn't match, but then I ripped all of my CDs directly into iTunes as 256 AAC, so I'm really not missing much there. On the flip side though, I'm happy to see so much of my vinyl matching. I didn't hold much hope than it would and I've been pleasantly surprised.

In the meantime I did tell them and with some result:

Andre, Apple's engineers are currently investigating for the issue about songs which are not matching. At this time, I don't have an estimate as to when the issue will be resolved. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

At least it looks like they confirm there is an issue and they are investigating it. And they gave me 5 store credits for my patience (or to keep me quit for a while...).

Regarding your last comment: for me it would not be an issue either if a few songs did not match. The thing is that almost 40% of my library (that's about 2800 songs) do not match. Of these 2800 songs, I think 80% should match, because the tags are correct, the quality is good, etc. For example: I have the original CD of Cake - Showroom of Compassion. Ripped it in iTunes on 256kb AAC. None of the songs match. And the album is available in the iTunes store. That just doesn't make sense, does it?

Again, you're right, I can be patient too, but I'll certainly keep telling them.

For example: I have the original CD of Cake - Showroom of Compassion. Ripped it in iTunes on 256kb AAC. None of the songs match. And the album is available in the iTunes store. That just doesn't make sense, does it?

I looked up that album and see what they were selling was released about a year ago and that they have a standard and a "deluxe" edition. I don't see any mention of them being remasters, which we know from other people's experiences, often keeps an original from qualifying for a match. If your CD was purchased around the same time, then yes, I would expect that it is the same as what they are selling and thus ripped the same way you describe, I can't come up with any plausible explanation for it not matching, other than that as we know, the Matching process has a lot of room for improvement.

OK, there is ONE possibility, but only the record producers or the artists could confirm it. Negotiations for rights to have something in Match could be separate from the original iTunes contract, but if so, then that's something Apple should spell out, along with the language that says "if it is for sale in the iTunes store." It's a long shot that this is what's going on though.

I have read a few posts that suggest others have gotten better matches by ripping an iTunes AAC, some that did it your way, others that went back to the source material. I've no idea why this works, but given it all seems to be getting reported now, I still wonder if re-submitting the original tracks the same way the new versions are getting submitted would get the same result. If Apple's servers were overloaded last week, which we know is the case, it is possible that matching simply wasn't not working and when it didn't the track got uploaded. Without having someone try their old tracks again, we really don't know if all that re-ripping is necessary. That said, for anyone who has poor quality MP3s, but still has the CD's, re-ripping to 256 AAC guarantees that uploaded and matched tracks will be of the same quality.

People have seen some uploaded tracks match after converting them to a different format. It's possible it has nothing to do with the conversion but just getting lucky doing it a second time, but if that was the case then people should be able to just try again and get a better result. I don't think I've seen anyone post that they've had an uploaded track match trying it again, so it seems more likely to be the conversion.

AndreNL wrote:

For example: I have the original CD of Cake - Showroom of Compassion. Ripped it in iTunes on 256kb AAC. None of the songs match. And the album is available in the iTunes store. That just doesn't make sense, does it?

That's weird, I have that one (with 11 tracks) and all matched.

AndreNL wrote:

For example: I have the original CD of Cake - Showroom of Compassion. Ripped it in iTunes on 256kb AAC. None of the songs match. And the album is available in the iTunes store. That just doesn't make sense, does it?

That's weird, I have that one (with 11 tracks) and all matched.

This is why I'm wondering if it has less to do with the file type used for the match and more on the date of the match session.

AndreNL and Mike Connelly, if you know the approximate date you ran Match on this album, as well as if it was during your first Match session, it might be revealing. I could be wrong here, but I'm guessing AndreNL did his fairly recently, like last week, and Mik Connelly did it some time back. Last week I'm willing to point the finger at server overload resulting in some glitch during match that defaulted a lot of albums to upload (kind of stupid, since all that would do is add to server overload, but still . . .)