iTunes Match explicit/clean music switch

I'm going to throw this out. Notice that we have a lot of people reporting that they are getting clean instead of explicit, but not the other way around . . .if it were a random glitch not tied to keeping explicit versions from getting out without some form of control over who gets them, wouldn't we see people complaining that they're getting an earful??? And wouldn't that be a bigger PR nightmare for Apple? This really has all the markings of something Apple is doing with intent, not a glitch.

I like that idea - I'll test that first. It's "Songs of the Deaf" from Queens of the Stone Age, btw.

And for those of us who don't have kids and wouldn't think this would be an issue, check out this from a "Yahoo Answers" page.

Explicit Songs on iTunes?

If you buy an explicit song, can you change it so in your library it doesn't show up explicit? My mom might look at my iTunes library and I don't want her to see. She doesn't like me listening to that kinda stuff.

Seriously . . .

We're counting on ya, robeet. See, thing is, while I have a few explicit discs, nothing's loaded into iTunes so I can't check it. I do have plenty by artist who self-destructed, like Chet Baker, Janis, Jimi, but that's another issue.

That is certainly a possibility. But I think what may be happening is when there is a "clean" and "explicit" version of an album on the store perhaps the "clean" version is getting matched to a CD rip just because it is first in the DB. I don't know... I'm just throwing that out there.

Also, the "explicit" tag is an embedded ID3 tag that isn't accessible through the iTunes tag editor. You'd need something like Subler or MetaX to edit that tag in song files. Which might be worth pursuing. Although I really don't know what effect editing an AAC file with Subler would have, since I've only used that app for video files.

Arrgh! So I changed my parental controls to Restrict Explicit content. Then restarted the app and confirmed that the Explicit tracks in the ITS were greyed out.

Then, I Matched "Six Shooter" from my QOTSA CD (that's got F-bombs galore in it, and the Clean version beeps them all out). Deleted the local file and played the iCloud version, and all the F-bombs are there. Now THAT's really bizarre given that I have the app locked down to restrict Explicit content.

I just wish I could replicate the issue - as an Operations guy, it's the first thing I try to do when trying to troubleshoot a problem. And we know this is a problem because a lot of people have reported it, but so far I can't replicate it.

OK, so there's an embedded "explicit" tag. Is that tag present on a CD version, or are you talking about a tag embedded only in iTunes purchase.? If it's on a CD, would it stay there through a rip? If it's not on a CD, would iTunes be looking for it and if it doesn't see it, offer up the "clean" if there is a clean to be had?

OK, so if what you have is seen as explicit by iTunes, it gives you the track, even if parental controls are enabled. But getting to what Michael said about an embedded tag, is it possible that if that tag is present on your CD, that the manner in which you ripped it to iTunes preserved the tag, while for other people it gets stripped out??

No, the tag would not be there on a CD rip. It would have to be entered using a specialized app like I mentioned above.

When an explicit track is purchased from iTunes, that tag is "enabled" probably during the encoding process.

This is very interesting. So if a person rips from a CD, they're missing a key piece of metadata that Apple uses to identify its explicit tracks. That's probably strike one, but it in and of itself, doesn't necessarily kill the proper match. Still sounds like the key is to get more information from people who are having the problem, specifically if it's tied primarily to material other than iTunes purchases.

Looks like someone would need a different tool that one of the two I mentioned above. Neither one of those is really appropriate. But, yes, perhaps if the CD rip is has the hidden "explicit" tag entered. That might help with the mis-matches.

You'd need something like Subler or MetaX to edit that tag in song files. Which might be worth pursuing. Although I really don't know what effect editing an AAC file with Subler would have, since I've only used that app for video files.

It sounds like what is needed is to identify a CD rip explicit/clean mistmatched track, something not purchased from the iTunes store, something where both a clean and explicit version are availble for sale, add the proper tag and see if that does the trick. Am I correct in my thinking here?

I'm a hair behind you (considering I'm bald, that's not surprising). So anybody have an idea of what would work to get that embedded? I really think this may answer a lot of questions if we can nail it down.

Anyone happen to know what that tag looks like? (EDIT: Jim beat me to it) I'll add it to my test file if I knew what it looked like - so far I don't see anything in my Matched files that are jumping out at me.