iPodista
Level 3 (550 points)

Q: Many of my albums are listed in iTMS but match is uploading my local music

I've been an Apple user for over 15 years but for all its simplicity Match more or less stumps me so I am coming here hoping one less muddled can explain this.

 

I have a library of 21,000 and after its initial trawl iTunes Match seemed to indicate it had found about 4,000 matches. Even for my diverse eclectic taste I thought this a bit low. Shortly after I noticed that a number of albums I had bought from iTMS that were either still protected or were unprotected had been marked for upload. Then looking at my purchased collection form emusic and cd's i had converted many of these too were marked for upload despite any being available for download on iTMS.

 

It has so far taken a week to get my music uploaded as far as now having more than half of my library on iCloud servers and i've been through all the usual hang and drop nonsense getting that far with about 9000 more to be uploaded. Once I have finished my upload I was hoping to replace a number of cd's and iTMS sourced tracks from iCloud but this does not appear to be the case.

 

Is there any tip or solution to make iTunes Match associate these albums it is passing over or must i just lump it and accept my low quality copies are not going to be improved which is not what Apple was offering me when i signed up for the service. I am not that fussed about the emusic music as being in similar quality MP3 there may be little merit swopping for AAC copies but it is narking me that I have music iTMS sold me or did not allow me through iTunes Plus to upgrade from protected that are there on iTMS that I cannot take advantage of the upgrade offer.... ??? feel fre to answer or point me to other posts covering this issue.

 

Adrian

 

PS I too am suffering the now widespread Beatles 'She Came in through the Bathroom Window' iTunes Match that it seems unable to match!!!

Posted on Feb 25, 2012 5:33 AM

by Michael Allbritton,Solvedanswer
Michael Allbritton Michael Allbritton
Level 6 (16,832 points)
Photos for Mac
A:

iPodista wrote:

 

If nothing else how do identify those songs iCloud is going to rely on songs held by Apple already and for those songs that are of a higher quality or have removed protected status how are they downloaded?

The wording of your question is unclear, but I will try to address it.

 

Obviously, any tracks marked "purchased" are songs you have bought from the iTunes Store in the past. These do not count against the 25K track limit. They will include any DRM-protected and DRM-free tracks that have been bought from the store. The caveat is whether these songs are marked "purchased" or not is dependent on whether these same tracks are still available in your purchase history or not. So some purchased tracks may be "matched" instead.

 

Tracks marked "matched" are, obviously, matched to songs in the iTunes Store and will generally be 256 Kbps DRM-free tracks. If you have lower-quality tracks marked "matched" you can delete them, and download these higher-quality tracks to your iTunes library.

 

Tracks marked "uploaded" are the very same tracks that are in your iTunes library. The caveat to this is if the original file is lossless (ALAC, AIFF, WAV) it was transcoded to a temporary 256 Kbps AAC track that was then uploaded.

Posted on Feb 25, 2012 9:32 AM

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Q: Many of my albums are listed in iTMS but match is uploading my local music

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  • by Michael Allbritton,

    Michael Allbritton Michael Allbritton Feb 25, 2012 6:00 AM in response to iPodista
    Level 6 (16,832 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 25, 2012 6:00 AM in response to iPodista

    This topic has been covered in-depth on this forum, in many discussions. The long and short of it is just because an album you have in your iTunes library is available on the iTunes store does not mean it will "match."

     

    You may find these already existing threads informational:

    Here's A List of Apple iTunes Match Support Docs.

    Some User Tips (January 2012)

     

    The iTunes Match process uses waveform analysis to match songs. If the waveform of the song in your library is too different of if there is a newer mastering of the album available on the store (as is the case for the Beatles song) it won't match, but will instead upload. However, I agree with you that 4K out of 21k does seem like an extremely low match rate. If you have not already done so you should enable the iCloud Status column in the iTunes browser so you can see what the actual state of the songs is: pull down View > View Options. select "icloud status" and click OK. You can then sort on that column and see how many songs are actually "matched" verses "uploaded."

     

    And check out the "additional information" in this KB article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4914?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

  • by KeithJenner,

    KeithJenner KeithJenner Feb 25, 2012 7:45 AM in response to iPodista
    Level 4 (1,020 points)
    Feb 25, 2012 7:45 AM in response to iPodista

    Can I ask how you have concluded that it only matched 4,000 tracks. I suspect that it may well be more than that.

     

    If it is because match says that there are 17,000 items to upload then many of those will probably just be uploading artwork. Michaels tip will help tell if this is the case.

  • by iPodista,

    iPodista iPodista Feb 25, 2012 9:11 AM in response to iPodista
    Level 3 (550 points)
    Feb 25, 2012 9:11 AM in response to iPodista

    Thanks Michael and Keith.

     

    I had done a read around at many of the usual candidate mac support sites but nothing really un-muddles my mind about this. I have enabled iCloud Status in my playlists and I have set up a number of smart playlists to assess and monitor the process of the upload.

     

    I have 21555 'music' files of which 9246 songs listed as "matched"

    Of the 13083 songs currently not "matched' 1642 are listed as "purchased" 2053 are "Uploaded" 9341 are "waiting" 3 are "ineligible" 24 are "Duplicate" 5 are listed as "Error"

     

    In my iTunes Purchased smart playlist tells me

    of 1837 songs 20 are "matched" 1613  are "purchased" 163 are "waiting" or "uploaded" 35 are "inelegible"

     

    1561 Purchased AAC files 3 are "matched" 16 are "waiting" and the rest "purchased"

     

    257 Protected AAC include 16 "matched" 71 are "purchased" 5 are "uploaded" 134 "waiting" 30 are "inelegible"

     

    Of the 3135 eMusic songs

    2259 are "matched" 871 are "waiting"

     

    I have only so far seen 3 albums with the download icloud icon and the 3 are from the iTunes Store and they are all of the same quality and type as the copies I already have.

     

    If nothing else how do identify those songs iCloud is going to rely on songs held by Apple already and for those songs that are of a higher quality or have removed protected status how are they downloaded?

  • by Michael Allbritton,Solvedanswer

    Michael Allbritton Michael Allbritton Feb 25, 2012 9:32 AM in response to iPodista
    Level 6 (16,832 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 25, 2012 9:32 AM in response to iPodista

    iPodista wrote:

     

    If nothing else how do identify those songs iCloud is going to rely on songs held by Apple already and for those songs that are of a higher quality or have removed protected status how are they downloaded?

    The wording of your question is unclear, but I will try to address it.

     

    Obviously, any tracks marked "purchased" are songs you have bought from the iTunes Store in the past. These do not count against the 25K track limit. They will include any DRM-protected and DRM-free tracks that have been bought from the store. The caveat is whether these songs are marked "purchased" or not is dependent on whether these same tracks are still available in your purchase history or not. So some purchased tracks may be "matched" instead.

     

    Tracks marked "matched" are, obviously, matched to songs in the iTunes Store and will generally be 256 Kbps DRM-free tracks. If you have lower-quality tracks marked "matched" you can delete them, and download these higher-quality tracks to your iTunes library.

     

    Tracks marked "uploaded" are the very same tracks that are in your iTunes library. The caveat to this is if the original file is lossless (ALAC, AIFF, WAV) it was transcoded to a temporary 256 Kbps AAC track that was then uploaded.

  • by iPodista,

    iPodista iPodista Feb 25, 2012 12:22 PM in response to Michael Allbritton
    Level 3 (550 points)
    Feb 25, 2012 12:22 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

    Noting you mention waveform analysis, I just checked some of these matched files against what was listed in iTMS to see what had matched and I have found immediatly that a few albums by an obscure label from Colombia called Disco Fuentes were not in fact matched by the same album, but by songs from other albums. If I delete then download the files is my album art work and tag data preserved or is there any chance a whole album could end up becoming a conglomeration of the same songs but from different albums?

  • by KeithJenner,

    KeithJenner KeithJenner Feb 25, 2012 12:30 PM in response to iPodista
    Level 4 (1,020 points)
    Feb 25, 2012 12:30 PM in response to iPodista

    Your metadata is retained.

  • by Michael Allbritton,

    Michael Allbritton Michael Allbritton Feb 25, 2012 12:36 PM in response to iPodista
    Level 6 (16,832 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 25, 2012 12:36 PM in response to iPodista

    Keith has the correct answer about the metadata. But I'm curious how you "checked" the matched files. Did you delete the tracks from your library then download them? Or did you do something else?

     

    iPodista wrote:

     

    ... or is there any chance a whole album could end up becoming a conglomeration of the same songs but from different albums?

    It is certainly possible for a track on an album in your library to me matched to the same track from a different album in the store. For example a greatest hits collection. In my case, my purchased copy of Billy Joel's Greatest Hits "matched" all the tracks and when I downloaded the "matched" tracks some of them had album art from his various individual albums. So now this hits collection is a mix of "matched" and "purchased" tracks, all DRM-free AAC files. So it is possible.