dgsmith2.89

Q: Apple Music incorrectly matches my music to their library and pushes wrong version

I really love Apple Music over Spotify but there is ONE HUGE ISSUE that has yet to be resolved to my knowledge. I have a ton of live recordings that I have purchased from concerts I attend.

 

When Apple Music "checks my music" to see if there is a match, it will see the artist and song name, consider it "matched" and then when I go to listen to it on my device, it pushes the completely wrong version of the song. This is extremely frustrating as if I want to use Apple Music, I am no longer able to manually add music from my iTunes library...it must go through iCloud Music Library. This will force me to switch back to Spotify so I can listen to my own personal library as well as streaming content...because as of now I cannot with Apple Music. Any workarounds found for this yet?

iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.1, null

Posted on Apr 12, 2016 8:37 AM

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Q: Apple Music incorrectly matches my music to their library and pushes wrong version

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  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Apr 12, 2016 8:39 AM in response to dgsmith2.89
    Level 9 (53,665 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 12, 2016 8:39 AM in response to dgsmith2.89

    My understanding is Apple music uses media labels to identify songs. Change the names of your tracks.  Add something like [Live at xyz]

  • by dgsmith2.89,

    dgsmith2.89 dgsmith2.89 Apr 12, 2016 11:26 AM in response to Limnos
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Apple Music
    Apr 12, 2016 11:26 AM in response to Limnos

    This would require me to go in and individually edit hundreds of track titles. In a Support Article I read through (iCloud Music Library: Understanding differences between Apple Music and iTunes Match - Apple Support), it states "It does this by matching against your song’s details (such as name, artist, album)"


    According to this statement, once it sees that the album is different, it should know that this is an incorrect "matching" and no longer flag my song and theirs as a "match". Tried calling Apple Care to see if they have any suggestions.

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Apr 12, 2016 12:04 PM in response to dgsmith2.89
    Level 9 (53,665 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 12, 2016 12:04 PM in response to dgsmith2.89

    Try changing the name of a few tracks.  If that does it then you know how it is done in reality versus what they say on their web page.  I just recall people complaining about Match mismatching items from one album with similar tracks from another album.  If it works then look into using a script to rename your tracks in bulk.  Or you can berate Apple for how it does things but I know which one will likely produce a quicker solution.

  • by swandy,

    swandy swandy Apr 12, 2016 3:52 PM in response to dgsmith2.89
    Level 4 (1,536 points)
    Apple Music
    Apr 12, 2016 3:52 PM in response to dgsmith2.89

    Unfortunately this is a well known and discussed problem with Apple Music. (And yes, the techs at Apple are well aware and trying to fix it. It has gotten better with each subsequent update BTW from what I have seen.)

    The logarithm that AM uses is based primarily on the ARTIST'S NAME and TRACK TITLE. You can try what Limnos suggested. I did that successfully with the albums that I had in my library from The Who (changed the artist name to The Whoo - which obviously AM did not recognize).

    But as I said, they seem to be getting better. After the last update I deleted several live albums by The Allman Brothers and Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield. (Meaning deleted from my iTunes library but did not delete the music files on my hard drive) and then added those albums back to my Library. When I then went and listened to the albums on my iPhone and iPad, many more of the tracks that were mis-matched earlier were now playing the correct live version. Again, not a perfect match as there were still some errors, but much better than when I initially set up my iCloud Music Library.

  • by dgsmith2.89,

    dgsmith2.89 dgsmith2.89 Jul 29, 2016 11:40 AM in response to swandy
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Apple Music
    Jul 29, 2016 11:40 AM in response to swandy

    Hey there Swandy. Quick question. Do you know if this has gotten any better? I have still not turned on iCloud Music Library on my iTunes/computer as I do not want to go through that entire process again. So basically, I am stuck in the position where I cannot put any of my iTunes music on my phone.

  • by swandy,

    swandy swandy Jul 29, 2016 7:58 PM in response to dgsmith2.89
    Level 4 (1,536 points)
    Apple Music
    Jul 29, 2016 7:58 PM in response to dgsmith2.89

    It is getting better. Some new albums that I added to my library through iTunes (not purchased from iTunes but added via iTunes on my iMac) seemed to play perfectly when I played them through my iCloud Music Library on other devices. But the older mis-matched tracks are the same. What was advised was to delete the albums NOT on the computer with the original files but on another iOS device and then re-add them to your  iCloud library on the computer where the files are residing. Have occasionally tried that with mixed results - but not in the past several months. At this point I will probably just wait for the iOS/MacOS updates to be released in the fall and try to do the entire library again.

    But as I said - definitely getting better - just don't want to waste a lot of time re-doing the library again. But if I was starting fresh, I would probably have less reservations about it working better now.

  • by swandy,

    swandy swandy Aug 1, 2016 6:08 AM in response to dgsmith2.89
    Level 4 (1,536 points)
    Apple Music
    Aug 1, 2016 6:08 AM in response to dgsmith2.89

    Quick follow up. I recently added two live albums (one purchased from an artists website and one from another site) and after adding them to iTunes on my iMac I played them both through iCloud Music Library on my iPhone 6 and they both played the correct versions. So obviously progress is being made.

  • by dgsmith2.89,

    dgsmith2.89 dgsmith2.89 Aug 4, 2016 5:59 PM in response to swandy
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Apple Music
    Aug 4, 2016 5:59 PM in response to swandy

    Hey again swandy,

     

    OK, so I am confused on how to do this. Here is my process thus far...let me know if I am doing this right.

     

    I had previously turned iCloud Music Library (ICML) on when I first got Apple Music...so a lot of my live albums got mismatched. So then I turned off ICML and ended my Apple Music subscription for several months. Wanted to give it another try recently so reactivated my Apple Music subscription but did not turn on ICML.

    Fast forward to this evening. Wanted to try your advised method. Went to all my said live albums in iTunes and did Delete>Delete Songs>Keep Files. Did this for multiple albums to see if it would work. Checked Finder>Music>iTunes>iTunes Media>Music and they are all still in there...So that is good I think? Then turned ICML back on. That is where I am now. 90% of the albums in the iTunes program have the cloud with the x in it saying they are not in ICML. (Do I have to now add them all in manually now?) Some of the previously mentioned live albums then reappeared in iTunes, but I believe it was from the first time i "put them" in ICML initially, so I just right clicked and clicked "remove from ICML" since I am betting they are the wrong version anyways.

     

    What is next? Do I just drag the actual files from the folder in Finder back into the iTunes program now that ICML is turned back on? Do I have to, for some reason manually add all my studio albums back to ICML? Just a little lost here.

  • by swandy,Apple recommended

    swandy swandy Aug 4, 2016 7:00 PM in response to dgsmith2.89
    Level 4 (1,536 points)
    Apple Music
    Aug 4, 2016 7:00 PM in response to dgsmith2.89

    (1) No - you misunderstood the information I found in another thread. What they suggested - and seemed to work better for me on the few albums I tried it with - is on an iOS device (like an iPhone or iPad) remove the album from your iCloud Music Library NOT on the computer that you initially set up ICML. Then when you go to the computer where the original files are located, you tell the computer to Add the album back to your library. As I said, it worked on a few albums that I tried it on and were mismatched before.

    (2) When you turned off ICML it removed your tracks from ICML. When you turned it back on it "should" have re-added them back in automatically. If it didn't you can either (1) try going to FILE/LIBRARY/UPDATE ICLOUD MUSIC LIBRARY or (2) highlight and right click on the tracks with the little cloud/x symbol and select Add to iCloud Music Library. That should force iTunes to add them back.

  • by swandy,

    swandy swandy Aug 13, 2016 9:23 AM in response to dgsmith2.89
    Level 4 (1,536 points)
    Apple Music
    Aug 13, 2016 9:23 AM in response to dgsmith2.89

    Little follow up for people following this thread. I decided to try the advice I quoted above (deleting the mis-matched live tracks from my iPad and then re-add them from iTunes on my iMac) and **** if it looks like all the live tracks/albums that I previously heard the wrong versions when streaming to my iPhone and iPad were playing the correct versions.

    Now I don't know if this means that Apple solved this issue - and as I generally don't have any explicit tracks, I could not test those (and I did not bother with studio albums yet) - but it certainly seems like they are making progress.

    Though I will admit it is a pain to do the deletions because I have to make sure I don't accidentally delete albums I added from Apple Music itself, because those I will have to remember to re-add.

  • by dgsmith2.89,Apple recommended

    dgsmith2.89 dgsmith2.89 Aug 13, 2016 9:36 AM in response to swandy
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Apple Music
    Aug 13, 2016 9:36 AM in response to swandy

    Also to follow up...I did indeed turn iCloud Music Library back on to give it a go...I am having to add all my albums back to ICML manually and one at a time, but was EXTREMELY pleased to see, it is working almost perfectly for me. It is matching the studio albums and actually uploading the unique live albums for me to access on my devices.Thanks swandy for the advice and patience. Thanks Apple Dev team for fixing this. I must say, now that I have access to the streaming Apple Music content, plus my entire iTunes library all integrated into one app...I am a HUGE advocate of Apple Music!