How much bandwidth does iTunes Match use?

Question

How much bandwidth does iTunes Match use?

I signed up for iTunes Match in the UK last night once it went live and it's apparantely whizzing away matching my songs (although it appear to be stuck on the last one). As, like most people in the UK, I'm on a very limited bandwidth broadband account, I'm worried about the possibility of it trying to upload and download several gigabytes of data in one go as it runs a serious risk of either maxing out our montly limit or pushing it close enough that I can't upload/download anything major for 30 days. I'm lucky enough to have a 100gb a month limit, but typical UK accounts kick in at 5gb as strict limits or 'fair use' hidden ones before speeds get dropped to dialup.

Does anyone know how much data gets uploaded/downloaded? Also, suggestion for the iTunes Match team. Give us an option for iTunes Match (and iTunes generally) to wait until user defined 'off-peak' hours to do any large transfers as accounts like mine are unrestricted between certain hours (usually when we're all asleep).

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 16, 2011 5:50 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

qwert qwe

Level 2

270 points

Dec 16, 2011 5:56 AM in response to Aaron Fothergill

It will upload the amount of data relating to your unmatched songs. You can build a Smart Playlist (iCloud Status is not Matched) to see how many songs (and how much data) that is for you.

You won't have a problem at 100GB allowance...

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Answer 2

Dec 16, 2011 6:11 AM in response to qwert qwe

If I restrict it to tracks I've not purchased and music only, that's about 15GB, which is a bit of a hit if it ends up uploading all that. (not to mention it would hose our upload capability while it's doing it). How much data does it use in the comparison process? Is it just checking song titles and info?

If I stop it during the matching process and resume later tonight when it's off-peak, are there likely to be any problems with the process?

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Answer 3

qwert qwe

Level 2

270 points

Dec 16, 2011 6:22 AM in response to Aaron Fothergill

But it will match most of the 15GB, so will upload much less.

It doesn't use much data during the comparision process. It takes a while but then transfers just a little info...

I think you can stop and resume and it carries on from where it was up to...

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Answer 4

Dec 16, 2011 9:16 AM in response to Aaron Fothergill

Aaron

I too have a 100GB limit (Zen) - but that's only for downloads, uploads don't count - you may want to check.

However of course when you download to your other devices that will count.

Regards,

Shawn

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Answer 5

Dec 16, 2011 9:20 AM in response to Shawn Grinter 2

It's Demon, so uploads count too. Main problem for us is that it takes up all our upload bandwidth when it's working so I've stopped it until later when I'll switch it on overnight.

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Answer 6

Dec 16, 2011 9:29 AM in response to Aaron Fothergill

Fair Do's -sounds like a plan. It will be real interesting to see how much of you stuff is Matched as that obviously will reduce your need for bandwidth.

Regards,

Shawn

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Answer 7

Dec 16, 2011 9:47 AM in response to Shawn Grinter 2

Interesting posts. It would be interesting to know what the data use is post matching, i.e. when streaming (or what ever it is apple call it). I listen via having my HDD plugged in all the time so I like the idea of this service, but music is playing almost all day so it would be cool to know how much data is actually being used. I'm only on a 20gb limit 😮

Cheers

Ben

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Answer 8

Dec 16, 2011 10:50 AM in response to benfromwalsall

Ben,

If the music is available via your HDD Match won't come into play and it will play as before, the "streaming" is only used when it's not locally available either from the current iTunes library or a cached download.

Regards,

Shawn

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Answer 9

Dec 16, 2011 1:48 PM in response to Aaron Fothergill

Why do you guys tolerate download limits?

Get on virgin media or someone else that offers unlimited downloads per month, vote with your cash and show these buggers that download caps are just not on.
In this day and age it seems obscene that companies think they can get away with download limits on broadband.

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Answer 10

Dec 16, 2011 3:40 PM in response to andrew297

Actually Virgin unlimited cost more or less the same and even with teenage kids I rarely use more than 50% of my tarrif, plus Zen tech support is superlative - it's not just about cost . Plus uploads in my case don't count towards the limit.

I'm not in a Virgin cable area so speed is pretty much fixed to what the copper can carry.

Regards,

Shawn

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Answer 11

Dec 16, 2011 3:45 PM in response to Shawn Grinter 2

Also, even on Virgin unlimited they have a capping policy for heavy users.

We're stuck with whatever we can get over a (not at all great) BT Line. Demon's business service for users on good exchanges is actually fully unlimited bandwidth, but as we're stuck with an old ADSL+ exchange we're limited by the BT Wholesale controls on the line.

Back to topic, it's something I hope Apple look into as outside of city centres rather a large percentage of their users aren't going to be able to use their services as they were intended. (Personally I'm hoping for Apple to launch their own ISP 😉 )

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Answer 12

Dec 17, 2011 5:27 AM in response to Shawn Grinter 2

Thanks Shawn, I understand, but it is confusing because there are so many conflicting opinions around this thing on the net. The way I originally read it was that my entire library would be available in the cloud either for streaming or download at the higher bit rate (so I could unplug the external, or just use for back-up). There are tons of demo clips and articles eluding to this, but an equal number that say it doesn't work this way. The confusion seems to surround macs and macs with external storage more than idevices, which I get, but it would be nice if my original hopes had been, or were, true.

Regards

Ben

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Answer 13

qwert qwe

Level 2

270 points

Dec 19, 2011 2:41 AM in response to andrew297

andrew297 wrote:

Why do you guys tolerate download limits?

I'm with Virgin and they have throttled my upload speed (of 4000 unmatched songs) to 256 kbits/s! So they're not as good as you think...

It's still not half way though the upload after 3 days!

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Answer 14

Jan 18, 2012 6:27 AM in response to Aaron Fothergill

I am also interested in the bandwidth usage post upload. Uploading is not an issue as I have unlimited bandwidth at home.

If I am on the road and listening to music - what will the usage be?

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Answer 15

Jan 18, 2012 7:13 AM in response to chris12987

chris12987 wrote:

I am also interested in the bandwidth usage post upload. Uploading is not an issue as I have unlimited bandwidth at home.

If I am on the road and listening to music - what will the usage be?

That depends on how much music you listen to.

You can see in iTunes how much memory albums take up, but as a guide a CD will be around 100MB, so 10 albums will use up approximately 1GB.

Of course differing lengths of CDs mean that this is only a very rough guide. Check for yourself by looking in iTunes at the music you are likely to listen to.

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