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iTunes Match explicit/clean music switch

Hey everyone,


First I guess that I should point out that I am using the current version of iTunes and iPhone software. Here's my problem.


I bought Drake's Take Care album (explicit and hardcopy) a few weeks ago and imported it into my iTunes library. In the computer that I imported it on, it plays the correct versions of the songs, but when I go to play the album on my iPhone 4s, it plays the clean versions. So somehow, iTunes Match put the clean version in the cloud, instead of matching it with the explicit.


Another oddity I found was with Mac Miller's Blue Slide Park (also explicit and hardcopy) that I imported into iTunes. When I play this album on my home computer it plays fine but once I play them on my iPhone, it plays completely different songs, except for a couple that play correctly. iTunes Match apparently did not match these songs correctly either.


As a side note, I imported Coldplay's new album into my iTunes library as well, and it matched correctly in iTunes Match.


I have tried turning on and off iTunes Match on my iPhone as the Apple Support lady said, but this did not solve the problem. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this? I've not noticed if any other music is incorrectly matched in my library or just these two albums.

Posted on Jan 11, 2012 2:09 PM

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205 replies

Jan 12, 2012 9:29 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

There is one potentail factor here I don't think we've really discussed before. Isn't there some sort of legal disclaimer one has to sign in order to download explicit tracks from the iTunes store? If that is the case, unless the Apple ID used to sign up to iTunes Match is somehow tied to a previously signed disclaimer, I have to wonder if sending clean copies isn't Apple's way of assuring its legal department that they're not giving explicit material to minors.


It would be one thing if the tracks were original iTunes purchases done under the same Apple ID, but something entirely different if they were ripped from a CD, which is the case here.


Thoughts?

Jan 12, 2012 9:45 AM in response to JiminMissouri

I was wondering the same and it might be worth investigating further. These don't seem to be one-off events, it seems to be very common but in my case I cannot replicate it. I have some Hip hop for example where it's definitely listed as "Explicit" and it's matching just fine so far (I know, I probably just jinxed myself now).


I'm guessing that there's a pattern, but hasn't been found yet. Maybe the Apple ID itself requires some kind of signoff as you are thinking.


Imo, anyone with this issue should 1) verify that Parental Controls aren't locked down and 2) should verify that they can actually see Explicit albums in the iTunes Store. For example, Beastie Boys "Cookypuss" is an old song I own and that I Matched. It's definitely listed as an Explicit track in the ITS.

Jan 12, 2012 9:50 AM in response to Community User

parental controls . . . something I never think about, but sure, I suppose that could be a factor. The only way we're going to figure this one out is to get more info. from the people who are having the problem. They might well have every right to the tracks, may have even purchased from iTunes, but under some ID that isn't relevant to their current library. We'll just have to start asking the right questions.

Jan 12, 2012 9:54 AM in response to Bryan Bassett

Yes, but one of the factors here may be that you were matching from a CD. Inconsistent results aside, that's different from situations where somebody may have purchased them from the iTunes store. We need to see if we can separate what happens to clean/explicit "purchased" vs "ripped" If the former works just fine, that helps narrow it down.

Jan 12, 2012 10:03 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

Well this is from wiki


If the song has an explicit label, it will be marked "explicit" next to the song title. If a song is marked "explicit" it is unavailable for purchase if "restrict explicit content" is checked under the parental controls preference. Often there will be a "clean" mark next to the title of some songs, meaning the lyrics have been censored, and is available to purchase on all accounts. Generally if a song is marked "clean" there is an explicit version available as well.

So for one thing, if the song title doesn't say "explicit" it could get matched as "clean" If somebody doing CD rips didn't have that in the title . . .


That's in addition to the question of whether parental controls are a factor in some cases.


While it does sound right now as though people are getting inconsistent results, I do wonder if legal's involved in this behind the scenes. Could well be what they want is for NO explicit tracks from rips to go through, but that some are getting through anyway. That could simply be a side effect of the overall mis-match problem we've seen on all content.

Jan 12, 2012 10:09 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

I just matched my (1991) CD copy of NWA's "Straight Outta Compton". I did get one Upload, but that's likely because there is a remaster from 2002. My metatags don't list it as "Explicit".


Then I deleted my local files and played the iCloud versions and, sure enough, all the profanity is there. I can't replicate the issue. 😟


EDIT: I found an album I own on CD with both an Explicit and Clean version in the ITS - going to test that next.

iTunes Match explicit/clean music switch

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