Does Apple Match work when song info has been changed?

Question

Level 1

4 points

Does Apple Match work when song info has been changed?

Many of my songs were recorded from LP albums, audio tapes, etc., at a low bit rate. I would like to use iTunes Match to upgrade them to a highher bitrate, so I don't have to re-record them all.

When I recorded them, I'm sure I did not use the exact same song titles, artist names, album names, etc., as whatever databases Apple uses. Also, even for songs that were recorded from CDs, I have since renamed some songs in my library (example: added "(live)" to song title to distinguish from other versions of the same song).

Will iTunes Match find the match for those songs? Does it match by title/artist/album or by musical content? Does it allow for "soft" or "fuzzy" match? For example, would iTunes Match find a match for "Simon & Garfunkle", "Bridge Over Troubled Water" if I recorded it from an LP and entered it as "Bridge Over Troubled Water (live) or "Simon and Garfunkle"?

If Apple matches strictly by title/name/album, will I or will I not get the updates at the higher bit rates?

Time Capsule-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.0.x), iTunes Match

Posted on Jan 12, 2013 9:22 AM

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Answer 1

ed2345

Level 9

62,474 points

Jan 12, 2013 2:26 PM in response to CaptainMux

Captain Mux,

iTunes Match uses a combination of the tag data, song length, and audio fingerprint to try to match the track to an existing song in the Store.

Because of the audio analysis, it may get around incorrect tags in some cases.

It is not 100% correct. Match users are full of stories where it mistakes Clean vs Explicit versions, live vs studio versions, Spanish vs English versions, or it just plain messes up.

As Apple recommends, make a local copy on an external disk drive so that you will have a valid copy of the original song.

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Answer 2

Warebear

Level 1

20 points

Sep 8, 2014 4:44 AM in response to CaptainMux

I know this is old, and not sure if you have this one solved, but I wanted to give my experience with adding unusual song named items. I have found that you can match and it will upload since it won't "match". But, if you go to the iTunes store and look at exactly how they do Artist, Album name, and track name, once you sync again it will match and also grab album artwork, etc.

I have had a few times where I put "This & That" and found that on the store it was "This and That". Once I changed the & to and, it worked just fine and everything synchronized. But I have found if you can do Artist Name, Album Name, and Track Name they tend to match the fastest.

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