HT204318: How to move your iTunes library to a new computer

Learn about How to move your iTunes library to a new computer
aeneasvb

Q: How to set up a new MBP with Apple Music and iCloud Music Library?

Hi,

 

I've recently had an accident with my old Mac and had to buy a new one. I'm taking this opportunity to do a clean install to make sure I don't bring any old malfunctions from my old computer.


I had a worry about my iTunes library. I currently use Apple Music and iCloud Music Library. Most of my songs are bought and some come form Apple Music. I'm not sure how I should proceed with my new iTunes library. Normally, I would just need to activate iCloud Music Library on my new Mac and all my music would appear but how will iTunes know what songs were originally mine since they will all be downloaded from the cloud? My worry is what happens when I decide to stop using that service. Apple says it will just remove all Apple Music  from my library so will that  be all my songs? I'm also wondering about having suddenly all my songs DRM protected...


if that's the case, would manually adding my songs to iTunes and then turning iCloud music library on and merging be a way around it? Would that not create duplicates?


I was wondering if any of you had the same issue and if anyone could help me with this one? And hope I was clear enough. A bit hard to explain.


Thanks for your help/opinion.


A.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, iOS 9.0.2, null

Posted on Oct 18, 2015 4:44 AM

Close

Q: How to set up a new MBP with Apple Music and iCloud Music Library?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by aeneasvb,

    aeneasvb aeneasvb Oct 18, 2015 5:10 AM in response to aeneasvb
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 18, 2015 5:10 AM in response to aeneasvb

    I realise that I forgot to mention that my original songs are mostly of high quality 320kbps. I'm guessing downloading them from the cloud will reduce the quality of my 'matched' songs to 256kbps, no?

  • by aeneasvb,Solvedanswer

    aeneasvb aeneasvb Oct 26, 2015 12:10 AM in response to aeneasvb
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 26, 2015 12:10 AM in response to aeneasvb

    So for those that may want to know:

     

    If you download songs directly from iCloud Music Library, they are DRM blocked and 256Kbps (so not the original files). To work around that, I've tried adding all my library manually from my old computer and turning on Apple Music and iCloud Music Library afterwards but that just doubles all my playlists and messed a bit around. In the end, I've just deleted all my songs and re-created my library by adding the songs from the original files and re-adding Apple Music tracks.

     

    It could be useful to have 1 playlist with all your songs from Apple Music so you know which one not to delete if you were to change computer.