Considering itunes match ???

REF Itunes match - I am considering using itunes match solely to upgrade the quality of music - as I have 64gb iphone and ipad storage is not an issue - is it worth it, for a one off fee, subscribing and then not continuing next year or will I be opening up a big bag of hurt ???

Keep in mind that upgrading tracks is really only a secondary feature of iTunes Match. Nor is the matching algorythm 100% accurate, so you won't get everything matched that you think you will.

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IOS 7, iTunes Match, and downloads to Music -- beware of your first use

I'll explain the situation in a moment. My question for the community is if someone saw a way to avoid this from happening.
I just encountered a perfect storm when I upgraded to ios 7. So far it has cost me $230 in excess data charges.
I am an iTunes Match subscriber.
Before the upgrade to ios 7, ios 6 had an option in Settings -> Music to tell it not to use cellular data. I had cellular data for Music disabled, so many times I'd download a playlist from Match down to my phone and would start this process at home on wifi, leave, and then it would complete later that day when I hit another wifi network.
When I upgraded to ios7, there were some changes in how to control access to cellular data:
(1) Apple removed that control from the Settings -> Music UI
(2) Apple added a menu option called Settings -> iTunes and App Store. In that UI< you have the option of turning iTunes Match on or off, and at the bottom you also have the option enabling cellular data. Just below that, it says "Use cellular data network for automatic downloads and iTunes Match." One of the first things I did after the upgrade, while still on wifi, was turn cellular data off in this UI.
(3) Apple added a UI called Settings -> Cellular, and in there is a UI called "Use Cellular Data For:", and it gives you a list of apps where you can turn cellular on/off for each one individually. Right after the upgrade to ios 7, that list was very short. It didn't have Music or iTunes Match listed, only Mail, Passbook, and a few basic apps.
So after my upgrade, the only place that appeared to control downloads from iTunes Match was the menu in #2, which I had already used to disable cellular data for.
Since I had deleted all my music to make room for the upgrade, I picked a playlist that morning and told my phone to download it. It was about 1GB of music. Then I got on my bike and rode to work woth my phone buried in my bike bag. When I arrived at work, I had a series of text messages from my carrier that I had exceeded my data plan and was now getting charged .25/MB. I was at the very end of a billing month and at the start of my ride only had about 100MB left on my data plan.
So what happened?
Well, as it turns out, the menu for Use Cellular Data For: in #3 above only lists apps once they've used cellular data (except maybe the obvious ones like Mail, Passbook, etc.). And for some bizarre reason, that download wasn't considered "iTunes Match" by ios 7, it was considered a download by the Music app in ios 7. So once I got to work and dug into this, I then found that Music was now listed in the Use Cellular Data For: dialog. So what happened was that I left the house, left wifi, and the phone kept downloading that big playlist on cellular and somewhere, probably right as I was screaming down the hill from my house, the Music app showed up on Use Cellular Data For:. I did some tests with other apps and they only appear on that list AFTER you've used cellular data for them.
Learning this with any other app, or at the beginning of a billing month, would not have been an issue, but my perfect storm of being almost tapped out on my data plan when I left my home wifi network killed me.
I have already contacted my carrier about this, although it's not their fault. I personally think it's Apple's fault for (a) creating a misleading UI for #2 above, and (b) for not listing "Music" in the list of apps in the Use Cellular Data For: dialog immediately after the upgrade.
Anyone else had this problem? If not, and you are an iTunes Match user who has just upgrade to ios 7, you can easily avoid this by downloading one song from cellular to get the Music app to appear in the Use Cellular Data For: list

I am also having problems with smart playlists on OS7 iphone 4s with mountain Lion on my mac
I have two smart playlists, one for music not played in 6 months, the other for zero plays, the other criteria for the lists are media type 'music' and track time ' less than 15 minutes.
These two playlists have 619 items and 108 items respectively in my mac but on the phone it shows 2962 items (for both lists) and a cloud symbol next to the track - although scrolling down, there are some tracks that do not have the cloud symbol - these look like the original 619 and 108 in the lists
Other smart playlists are fine and appear to be not affected

ITunes match for a large number of devices, 4 people, and as a backup solution.

I am interested in using iTunes match for two central reasons:
1. Backing up my music library. Is iTunes Match an solution for this? Or not really? I get the fact that my purchases are protected, but what about the music I uploaded from purchased CD's.
Question: Can I consider iTunes Match at $24.99/year the cost of backing up 60GB of music to the cloud?
2. Sharing my music library across a number of devices. We are a family of 4 with farily extensive MAC, iPhone, iPad usage, including ...
1 iMac (Music server), 3 Power books (Indivudal work machines), 2 iPads, Apple TV, and 4 iPhones. We have 4 Mobile me accounts, moving to ICloud.
The problem I have is that I can never effectively coordinate the music library across the devices. 80GB of iTunes library is too much to load across all the devices and I never seem to have the song I'm looking for at the time I desire it on a particular device, other then the family iMAC server which has the whole library on it.
Question: Seems like iTunes Match is an ideal solution, but can it handle the diverse spectrum and number of devices I have? Ideally I want to thnk of iTunes Matchas, 1 central library avaialble on all devices, all the time.
Thank you in advance for any opinions.
MikeK

mek wrote:
Question: Seems like iTunes Match is an ideal solution, but can it handle the diverse spectrum and number of devices I have? Ideally I want to thnk of iTunes Matchas, 1 central library avaialble on all devices, all the time.
Think of iTunes Match as a central library from which "satellite" libraries can pull any time they have an Internet connection.
Functionally, if all those devices are in your house, iTunes Match doesn't give you much that Home Sharing doesn't already offer. With Home Sharing all your Macs can easily "fill in the gaps" from the "master" library. Of course, that requires that the machine with the "master" library is always online and iTunes is always running on it, which might not be the case. AppleTVs and iPads sync to that "master" library and so what is on them is configured from the master library computer, not the device itself.
What iTunes Match offers you is:
1. Your "canonical" library lives "in the cloud" and so you don't have to have a home server up and running iTunes at all times.
2. Your "canonical" library lives "in the cloud" and so you can update from it any time you have an internet connection, not just when you are at home.
3. The workflow for updating from the canonical library is much better than the clunky "Home Sharing" interface.
4. Any "matched" songs (I found that in my library only about 65% were successfully matched; I'm not sure why) will be available at 256kbps AAC, which might be higher quality than what you have in your library currently (especially if you have imperfections like CD skipping, etc, in the tracks). Of course, anything iTunes can't match to its own library will remain just as imperfect as ever.
The downside (versus Home Sharing) is:
1. Everything needs to get copied onto a device from the Internet, which is likely to take much longer than just Home Sharing over your home wireless network.
Seems like a pretty good system. I've signed up for it and am happy with what I've seen so far.

ITunes Match on Multiple Computers

Hi. I'm considering iTunes Match. I currently have three computers in my house: pro, macbook, and mini. All three have the 'home share' option enabled, in iTunes. But in order to play music from the main computer (pro) on the shared network, the pro had to be on with itunes open. To avoid having to do that, I imported my entire library (about 6K songs) from the pro into the mini and macbook. But now my mini won't backup to the time capsule because it says the TC disc is full (another topic, i know). and the hard drive on the macbook is maxed out - as that computer is parsed for my two daughters to use, and they're accumulating data (plus sharing the imported music). It's kind of a mess.
so as a way to hopeuflly free up some space on all the machines, I was considering iTunes Match. My questions:
1) If I'm reading correctly, I can play any song in my library on any computer or device - from the cloud?
2) Once I have Match, I can delete all the libraries from the computers, except for the main one on the pro (and i could move that library to an external hard drive if i wanted to free up that space as well), and remove the itunes playlist sync from all the devices?
3) To play music via Match, and considering I've removed all the music from the computer or device's hard drive. I have to be connected to the internet (wifi, data, etc.)?
4) Can I create playlists that live on my HD? Or do all playlists also live on the cloud?
Thanks so much for your consideration.

Hi,
1. Yes, if you deleted the tracks from the cloud, they would no longer be available in Match on your IOS devices. However, you will still have the tracks on your first computer BUT the Icloud Status would be "Removed".
2. Yes you can turn off match then delete the tracks from the computer. This should not affect music in Match and I believe the message about removing tracks refers to devices that you sync with that computer. If in future you wish to stream music on your works computer, you can re-activate match.
PS You should as a matter of course back up your music on an external drive!
Jim

Use one account for apps and other for itunes match

Hello everybody
My question today is quite simple. I use one account for apps and tv shows, but inwant to use a different itunes account for purchasing itunes match. How can I use them both on my devices? Will it be asking for my user-pass each time i play a song? What other thing should i consider?
Thank you in advance

I would strongly recommend you not do this. You will regret it.
I have played with this issue a lot. You have to remain signed into match in order for it to show up on your phone. If you sign out to purchase an app or redownload one from your appstore id you use then match will be removed from your phone and when you go into your music app the icloud will not be there. You then have to go sign back out of the store id you used for your app purchase and then sign back into match and everything will have to go though the download to your device process again. This really is not what you want to do.
Sign up to match with the apple id that you know you will use the most or has the most purchased items and use that for all purchases, i.e. books, apps, movies, and music. You don't want to go though the other process.
Plus apple will start not letting you sign into match because you signed out and back in, in to short a period of time.
all store purchases on an iphone are linked to the store id. if you sign out of your match id on the appstore and sign into another account to purchase an app then itunes match will sign out in the music app. You can't have two store id's signed into your iphone at the same time. They are all linked together.

ITunes Match Unable To Get Past "Waiting for Apple to deliver your iTunes Match results..."

Been trying for days but it just gets to "Waiting for Apple to deliver your iTunes Match results..." and then stops and allows me to press the Start button again to start the match process. Sometimes I get error -3231.
I've called Apple and they want $19 to solve the issue even though I paid the $25 for Match.
I've turned iTunes Match off. Turned Genius off. Logged out of my iTunes account. Quit iTunes. Restarted. Logged back into iTunes account. Turn Genius on. Turn iTunes Match back on and let it go through the process again with no success.
My library has a couple hundred songs less than the 25,000 max but it is pretty large. Had the same issue when I tried with a smaller library some time ago. I've created a new library and have the same issue.

Hi,
You should consider rebooting your internet router
Then try holding option key whilst turning off match. Close iTunes and then reopen. Turn on iTunes Match and select add this computer.
Jim

Why does iTunes match start over and over and over throughout a day?

iTunes Match not only restarts and re-does its magic from the ground up after "completing" its tasks Every Single Time I Open iTunes, but when it chooses to start it all over again, it redirects the dominant window to itself. In other words, when iTunes Match decides to start up YET AGAIN, it pulls me from whatever view of iTunes I may be looking at and features itself, announcing to me and the world that it has opted to begin analyzing my library yet one more time. Oh yes, iTunes Match, good for you, and thanks - however, I cannot get back to whatever view or organization I was just working in (say under the heading "Songs") because my iTunes program isn't equipped to get me back to where it just Yanked Me From For No Good Reason.
I am a lifelong Mac user and Mac afficionado who is trying to keep the faith using a Late 2010 15" MacBook Pro, but ever since I decided to go all-in on the service formerly known as MobileMe it seems my Mac experience has been degrading progressively. iTunes Match, with it's constant re-starts, interrupted playback, inexplicably greyed-out and unplayable tracks and flat-out crashes, is nothing like what my Mac experience used to be. It's disappointing, and it's no advertisement for iTunes Radio.
Currently considering whether to re-up iTunes Match or simply use a hard drive and forget about it for good.

Hi Jim, thanks for the response. In answer to your questions,
- I do not sign out of Match prior to closing iTunes
- The Match process seems to be ongoing at intervals throughout the given day and while it's not in the "background" as I wish it was, I try not to pay attention to what it's doing. Therefore I would need to guess that there are many, many times I close iTunes when the "current" Match process is underway and not complete.
- Yes, thanks for asking about the "Waiting" tracks. Yes, there are many and they remain as "Waiting" even after Match tells me its work here is through.
- My internet connection varies, currently 7.59 down / 22.81 up.

Issues with iTunes Match on iPhone

I am having some frustrating issues with iTunes Match and my iPhone 4 iOS 5.
1) When using cellular data (3G), the songs simply do not play from the music app. It works fine when connected to wifi.
Under settings, cellular data has been enabled for use in the music app.
2) iTunes match constantly switches off spontaneously on iPhone. I need to go back to the settings to enable it every single time I use the app.
I feel that iTunes Match was a total waste of money, considering the only reason I invested in it was to have my library accessible from my iPhone.
Any help would be much appreciated!

iTunes match doesn't work like that and if you don't like it then your best option is to turn it off and go back to syncing. However if you make sure that your device has a good Wi-Fi connection, re-downloading all your content shouldn't really be a big issue.

HT4914 I have an iTunes library of some 18k tracks. If I subscribe to iTunes Match, can I delete my library from the pc hard drive and then download my entire collection back at the higher bit rate of 256?

I would like to improve the quality of my iTunes library, most of which were ripped at the old 'higher quality' setting and not lossless.
I would consider subscribing to the iTunes Match programme if I would later be able to download my music back on to my PC at the improved higher bit rate stated.
Is there a problem with this?

In iPhoto, Select All the Photos you want to move... Then goto > File > Export >
Choose the settings as seen here
Click Export and select your External Drive
Best to create a Folder to put them in... and away you go...

How can I add audio files manually to my iphone when iTunes match is turned on?

I use iTunes match, and after resolving the debacle after updating to iOS 6 listed here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/19623582#19623582 it seems to be working fine. My problem is as follows:
I have a series of audio files (lecture recordings) that have been uploaded to iTunes match (and so appear on my phone), but of which I also still have the actual files on my computer harddrive. These specific files will neither stream nor download from iTunes match on my phone (and did not before the update to iOS6 either). They play fine, however, on iTunes on my computer. Before the update I was able to get around this problem by manually dragging the files from my computer harddrive to the connected iPhone within iTunes. I no longer have the option of doing this - any attempted dragging of files onto the iPhone results in them simply 'bouncing back.' This is true not just of these files, but also of all other music files, including those which are listed in iTunes as being 'ineligible' for iTunes Match, and so are not represented on the iPhone at all.
Thank you for any help!

iTune Match is now considered a streaming service, with the optional download option. You cannot use iTunes to transfer songs anymore and need to use it exclusively on the device.
You also cannot download single files anymore, only albums and artist is supported.
The only workaround I've found was to click the cloud button for the album, and cancel all songs I don't want before they download.

Is there any way to use Itunes match on my Iphone without downloading music?

I recently just purchashed Itunes match because I thought it would be a great thing to use on my Iphone considering I have a 16G Iphone 5s and around 47G of music.
All was fine until my phone notified me that I was low on memory. I didn't realise that everytime you played a song through Itunes match, it would automatically download it onto your device (even if you were skipping the song on shuffle).
I was just wondering if there was any way that could be turned off so that there would be no music downloaded on my phone. I thought the main reason for Itunes match was so your music wasn't taking up space on your devices. If this is the case, the fact that a song is downloaded automatically every time you listen to it makes no sense at all.
If there is no way to fix this, there should be. This is ridiculous Apple, and I wouldn't have subscribed to the service if I knew I would have to download every song anyway. (Especially because it's a huge pain to go through and delete the songs off your phone)

briellemary wrote:
I was just wondering if there was any way that could be turned off so that there would be no music downloaded on my phone.
Not at this time.

ITunes Radio not working properly after signing up for iTunes Match

I've been a user of iTunes Radio for some time now, and I've enjoyed it with minimal technical issues - until I signed up for iTunes Match. I'm not sure if it's simply coincidence, or if my subscription is causing issues.
The problem is that when I click on a station, whether it be a Featured Station or one of My Stations, it acts like it will play, but the time bar never comes up below the song title. Instead of showing the status bar when a song is playing, indicating the time lapsed/remaining, it shows a solid blue bar all the way across with no time.
I use Radio on my MacBook Pro (2009) and I also AirPlay my music to two Bose SoundTouch 20 speaker systems. I'm on the latest version of iTunes, my Bose systems are updated with the latest software, and I've never had an issue with this before. I can play songs I own or ones that I want to preview in the iTunes Store just fine through all of my speaker systems. What's interesting is that my NPR station in Radio works fine, though that one doesn't allow for AirPlay.
I'm also having identical issues from my iPhone 5s. Though I can only play to one AirPlay device at a time from my iPhone, the symptoms are otherwise the same. Downloaded songs play fine; iTunes Radio freaks out and gives the "Station Temporarily Unavailable" message. Except it's not temporary, unless you consider two months of this irritation temporary...
Here's what I've tried so far:
Logging out of iTunes, restarting and logging back in.
Resetting my Bose AirPlay speakers.
Turning off the Bose SoundTouch App and Music Server App on my computer.
Disconnecting my Bose AirPlay speakers from power altogether.
Restarting computer and resetting iTunes Cache and Warnings.
None of those attempts at fixing this issue has resolved anything. I'm at a bit of a loss for help here, and I really don't want to start uninstalling and reinstalling programs if it can be avoided. If there's a way to unsubscribe from iTunes Match, I'd want to try that first as that seemed to be when things started becoming non-responsive. If Apple provides a way to fix iTunes or the iTunes Match service without charging me a $29 support fee, I think that would be great, but I haven't seen one.
Anyone encounter this before? Anyone at Apple listening? I'd greatly appreciate any help.

Try it in Cellular as a quick test. Mi had lots of troubles and isolated the issue to Cox communications. May be an ISP issue.

ITunes Match and 3rd Party Apps - iPad/iPhone

With the myriad of apps out there that integrate with iTunes, why is it that nearly none of them offer support for iTunes Match? (And, a seemingly cool one that claims to offer support -- "BeatBlaster" -- http://www.beatblaster.com/ -- that has all the features I'm looking for, isn't available in the App Store in the US). I'm really surprised at the lack of information on this topic on the web... A Google search for it only pulls up articles that are 2-3 years old. The best information I could find was that the API toolset made available to developers is either really limited, or it's just not available at all... and that's in an article from 2011. Are you telling me that Apple is STILL -- 3+ years later -- limiting access to developer tools for iTunes Match integration (or just has never created any)? I understand that I'm asking about something that could be considered "outside" of Apple (3rd Party apps), but I'm just really looking for someone that might be in the know on this stuff... And, I'm hoping that that person can clue the rest of us in on "what's up".
Bottom line, I'm looking for a clock radio app that supports iTunes Match... I've got our Master Bedroom and Bath rigged up with in-ceiling speakers, attached to a bluetooth receiver, with a wall-mounted iPad serving as the "jukebox". When my dang iPad doesn't drop the WiFi connection, it's pretty slick. I'd just like to have a single app that a) offers a large, well-visible clock, b) allows me to browse my iTunes Match library of songs and play them as I'd like, and c) have a "play my iTunes music as an alarm" option. I know... directly d/l-ing songs to the iPad is an option, but it defeats the whole purpose of iTunes Match, which I subscribe to because my music library is WAY too big to fit on the iPad (or my iPhone).
Anyway, any information or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Vernholio wrote:
With the myriad of apps out there that integrate with iTunes, why is it that nearly none of them offer support for iTunes Match?
You'll have to ask the software makers this question. It is up to the 3rd party vendors, not Apple, to provide the features you are asking for.

For iTunes Match, how come some songs "match" on an album and other songs on the same album "upload" without matching?

For iTunes Match, how come some songs "match" on an album and other songs on the same album "upload" without matching? All songs are available on iTunes. I don't get it! Any way to manually match songs that iTunes apparently can't match? I have hundreds in this unmatched state.

gsl wrote:
Shazam has NO problem determining what these songs are. Maybe Apple needs to consider licensing their technology as it seems MUCH more accurate than what they are doing.
You aren't comparing like with like.
The main task that Shazam has is to identify the name or a track and the artist. I believe that it suggests the album as well, but if it gets that wrong then it doesn't really matter too much.
With iTunes Match, getting the album (i.e. identifying which version it is) is much more important. If it gets that wrong then it breaks up the flow of an album. This makes the task that match has very much harder.
In fact, there is a strong argument to say that currently the problem iTunes has is that it is matching too many songs, resulting in matches from different albums.
I'm sure that match is not struggling to identify whether it has a song or not, but whether it has the correct version of a song. When you introduce different masterings into the process then, depending on the thresholds set, it is probably correct in concluding that it hasn't got a particular version, even if you think it has.
The solution would appear to me to be a tweaking of the matching thresholds along with the ability to force an upload, but we just don't know what restrictions they have (remember that if Shazam gets it wrong the it doesn't present you with a copy of a new track that you didn't have previously). It is almost certainly not just a case of improving their technology.

Unable to get iTunes match setup to complete

I recently subscribed to iTunes Match but have been unable to successfully complete the setup process. I have read many other posts regarding initial matching troublingshooting and tried the following:
-Sign in and out of iTunes Store
-Disable and re-enable iTunes Match
-Disable Genius
-Delete any songs that made it to iCloud and start over with zero songs in iCloud
-Creating new blank iTunes library and match, then import songs and match again
I've spent a week trying all of these things, and am pretty convinced the service won't work for me and will seek a refund from Apple, but thought as a last ditch attempt I'd see if anyone had any recommendations I hadn't considered before I try the Google Play cloud music service.
When I start iTunes Match it takes a few hours to gather information about my library, a few minutes on subsequent attempts, but never a few seconds.
The matching step never truly completes. It most frequently freezes at about 16,000/18,000 songs matched causing me to start everything over (including all the nonsense signing in and out, etc. noted above). Occasionally it will appear as if it finished, the progress bar complete, saying all 18,000 songs matched and begin uploading unmatched songs. I've only reached this step about three times in probably 50 attempts at iTunes Match this week. On each of those occasions, the process completely freezes during upload after 100 songs or so. I only have about 2000 songs to upload so thought by 'rinsing and repeating' I'd eventually get there, but since the entire process only makes it to the upload step about 5% of the time, instead of 20 attempts it seems like it's going to take a few hundred, which I don't have the patience for. Also important to note that even after it makes it to the final upload step and successfully uploads ~100 songs before freezing, when I start over again, it always has to re-match 2,000-3,000 songs, so Step 2 takes a couple hours before uploads begin again.
iTunes has matched those 2,000-3,000 songs in my library dozens of times now, and never remembers, I'm not adding anything new to my library. I also have received the following error a number of times, probably about 5% of the time:
We could not complete your iTunes Store request. An unknown error occurred (-9838).
There was an error in the iTunes Store. Please try again later.
Appreciate any suggestions before I throw in the towel. The idea of iTunes Match is great, but as I've been searching for troubleshooting help it's become clear a LOT of people have similar problems and the quality of the service is quite poor.

No! Don't plug in your iPod yet!
Oh good grief, I hope you didn't delete your music, KC! Are you sure it's not still there on your hard drive? Search for files named "mp3" or "m4p".
Anyway - here is a post by Buegie on getting songs off your iPod, if the music is truly gone from your PC.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1999043&#1999043
After you get iTunes and the iPod updater re-installed
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/

Considering itunes match ???

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