Initiating iTunes Match....questions for iTM experts ;)

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Level 1

10 points

Initiating iTunes Match....questions for iTM experts ;)

I'm running iTunes 10.6.2, Mac OS X 10.7.4 -- I Have my OS on my iMac's SSD and the iTunes library on the 2TB hard disk.

A few questions for iTunes Match experts

1- I have nearly 25,000 songs in my library - all have been imported over the years via CD, some at 320Kbps MP3 and some at Apple Lossless abut 92% of the albums and songs are in iTunes, so does this mean that the limit of 25,000 still applies for match or if i were to go over to 25,100 would it not match those even fi theyre not needing to be uploaded, and can be matched?

2a - for the 320Kbps MP3 that are matched in iTunes - does that mean i will be able to download that exact copy of the 256Kbps AAC song and keep it on my back-up and play on any device Apple or not? Just live i have been with my 320Kbps MP3?

2b - Lets say one of my 320Kbps albums is NOT in iTunes ... will it just upload it at its current quality or will it upconvert it to 256Kbps AAC?

3 - I have no confidence in this service and it tangling things up in my music library; so does it rely on just one iTunes library? For example I was going to create a new iTunes library with my same Apple ID on my 2TB hard disk - put a few of my MP3 albums in there and initiate iTunes Match on those and then dump them into my Main library to see how it goes and then use itunes match on the rest of the main library or does it not allow you to scan through different libaries with the same apple id?

Thanks!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 3.4Ghz; SSD+2TB' 6970M 2GB; 16GB

Posted on Jun 20, 2012 8:53 PM

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Answer 1

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Community User

Jun 20, 2012 10:08 PM in response to Max Stanley

1- My understanding is that, once you get to 25k, no more Matches or Uploads. The only songs not affected by this are iTunes purchases.

2a- Yes. I actually use my downloaded Match files on several different players, not all Apple based. They are non-DRM'd AAC files.

2b- It will likely upload at its current quality (assuming MP3 or AAC). I write "likely" because there is a chance that, just because you don't see the album in your regional store doesn't mean it won't get Matched. I have a import CD rips where this has happened to me.

3- You should assume that worst and make a backup of your library before enabling Match (just in case). 🙂 You can use multiple libraries, on the same computer, with iTunes Match. Some people have a main library that's not scanned in Match, and a separate library that's just for Match. This also helps you if you have more than 25k songs in your main library as you can can create than smaller second library just for Matching.

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Answer 2

Max Stanley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 21, 2012 1:23 AM in response to Community User

Thank you for that. it sort of dumbed it down for me, yet was sensical.

I tried 3 seperate albums, it scanned my library, however I'm not seeing an option to download the higher quality - these are the MP3 albums i had.

*correction*

Looks like when I delete the album then i get the higher quality tracks, perfect. I'm liking the concept hopefully Apple can turn this into something more efficient it doenst need to be glitzy, but functional.

thanks again!

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Answer 3

Max Stanley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 21, 2012 1:42 AM in response to Max Stanley

just noticing a few things, some MP3s are being matched and some are not. even though these EXACT songs are in iTunes and the rest of the album though is being matched. So when I delete the album from iTunes and click download I get the MP3 quality of the track and NOT the higher quality 256Kbps AAC.

and not entirely sure how i can access these tracks from say a MacBook Air with the same Apple ID that has no tracks in them?

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Answer 4

Jun 21, 2012 10:26 AM in response to Max Stanley

Some MP3's will not get Matched, even if the song is in iTunes - this is (unfortunately) a very common problem and there's no noticable pattern. Apple a comparing waveforms so if you have a different mastering or if your CD rip added silence to the tracks, it's possibly that this could be the reason why it uploaded.

Btw, I would add the "iCloud Status" column in your grid, if you haven't already done that. It will list what got matched and what got uploaded.

As for the MBA, you have two options -- 1) Enable iTunes Match on that computer, and you can stream the songs through iCloud. Or 2) download the songs and copy them locally to the computer. The Matched ones are 256kps non-DRM'd AAC's so they'll play on any device that supports AAC.

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Answer 5

Max Stanley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 21, 2012 11:14 AM in response to Community User

Thank you, my MBA had no content in the library so after I enabled iTunes match i added a single track and it seemed to start pulling tracks through.

Yeah the only dissapointing element of this is the MP3 not matching the iTunes 256Kbps AAC tracks - that was the main reason for it as a majority of my tracks are Apple Lossless from the past 3 years but before that werent.

So far aside from those I like the service of being able to listen to my library at work on my MBA without having entire drive full of music on hand or an external drive with songs.

Just a little more fine tuning and I think it may be a greater service.

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