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Level 1

4 points

Apple Music substitute my local songs to Apple music format

I subscribed iTunes match for years and now start using Apple Music.

I added some new songs to my library and after I added them to the iCloud library, the status under iCloud Status column is now 'Apple Music' instead of 'Uploaded' or 'Matched' as used to. If I remove download and re-download it again, it came back with DRM protection!

How can I solve this? It seems I cannot listen to these songs if I unsubscribe Apple music...

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jun 30, 2015 11:24 PM

23 replies

Jul 2, 2015 1:12 AM in response to EricWuSH

This is a big problem, i'm a DJ and i use iTunes to organize my music, with new version of iTunes and Apple Music DRM track in place of iTunes match DRM free, my DJ application doesn't read my new track matched with Apple Music !!!

When i have seen that yesterday, i have downgraded iTunes to old version 12.1.2.27, restored "iTunes Library.itl" with Time Machine, iTunes don't match with Apple Music with that version.

This is temporary, in time to wait a fix by apple.

Jul 2, 2015 3:00 AM in response to victorappler

I still can’t get the "Apple Music” status on newly added songs (tried AIFF and m4a formats). Anyway, the criteria seems random. There’s a Verge post about Apple Music/iCloud/DRM issues:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/1/8877129/apple-music-icloud-problems

BTW, my iTunes Match subscription expired just a few days before the launch of Apple Music. Since I didn’t renew my subscription I thought that I would have to upload my entire library into iCloud again. To my surprise, after activating Apple Music I found my entire library already matched. This means that matched songs aren’t immediately erased on Apple’s servers.

In my case the iTunes Match subscription was suspended for just 8 days. It seems that Apple keeps the songs for a certain amount of time after the cancellation. In my case it’s a welcome feature; as a general iCloud behavior it could be a privacy concern, though.

EricWuSH Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 2, 2015 7:59 AM in response to LocutusEstBorg

I contacted Apple support today and want them to terminate my trial. They can only help me hide the Apple Music tab from iTunes and iOS devices, which can not solve this problem at all. I added an album today and only one song is matched and others are 'Apple Music'. Now I only want a clean iCloud library but it seem impossible.

EricWuSH Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 2, 2015 8:10 AM in response to Brskiz

I have used iTunes match for years and I understand Apple Music is a rental service. I simply want my iTunes library in the cloud so I can access it from my other devices. The problem is that Apple Music is now recognising my local DRM free songs from CDs as 'Apple Music' format which means the version in the cloud is with DRM protection. Unless I keep all the songs in my local storage, I will not have DRM free versions anymore. I have no intention to subscribe Apple Music which means after the trial these songs will be deleted from my cloud library. iTunes Match is not assuring all my music will remain DRM free in this situation.

I dragged a new album into iTunes today and only one song is showed as 'Matched', the others are 'Apple Music'

EricWuSH Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 2, 2015 9:43 AM in response to EricWuSH

The following link talks about this problem clearly and suggest its a bug.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2943703/how-itunes-match-and-apple-music-work-to gether.html#tk.rss_all

For me these kind of bugs are unacceptable as when you mess with my iTunes library, things will get personal. 😠

Jul 2, 2015 2:13 PM in response to EricWuSH

The article also says that it's normal that if you have Apple Music, but you don't have Itunes Match, your offline content will then have DRM.

I don't really see the justification for this. If I own the music, I have purchased it as a DRM free copy. Why should Apple then have the right to put DRM on it if I download it back again?

I've also seen a couple of reports claiming that Apple Music actually changed a file to a DRM file on someones PC after they listened to the file (when it was previously non DRM), not to mention the many reports stating that DRM is being imposed even when the person is subscribed to Itunes Match as well.

If these are true this is what is really disturbing - it's the feeling that if you have a large music collection, is Apple secretly changing some or all of your files to DRM files behind the scenes (whether it be a bug or intentional, the result is the same)?

Firstly, I would like to see a statement from Apple that under no circumstances will they replace an existing unprotected music file with a DRM one.

Secondly, I am hoping they will say that files that you have already purchased or uploaded from CD that you own should remain unprotected at all phases. Unfortunately the article you linked suggest that it's intentional that if you have only Apple Music and not Itunes match, any file you download will have DRM even if it was from your own music library originally.

Next, I do agree with some of the other comments on this forum that Apple should somehow provide an option to "unlink" a track on your local files from Apple Music such that your own copy is an upload. This can avoid all the situations where the wrong track is matched.

Finally, they should provide a way to completely erase a track from the cloud with all metadata and re-upload. I've seen various situations where tracks appeared wrongly on some devices, and even after attempting to completely delete from the cloud, changing metadata, and deleting all trace of it and re-importing from CD, it still somehow remembered the previous data and carried on displaying it wrong on the IOS device.