Monday November 14, 2011 Apple released its iTunes Match feature as part of the iTunes 10.5.1 software upgrade. iTunes Match, available for $24.99 per year, stores music in Apple's iCloud. Matching music is Apple's marketing mantra that's supposed to separate iTunes Match from the likes of Google Music and Amazon's Cloud Drive. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this service is all hat and no cattle. iTunes Match is very similar to the previous Dead On Arrival Cloud services that offer access to music one has already purchased. Is iTunes Match for audiophiles, music lovers, or anyone for that matter? Read more to find out.
In Part one
of this streaming service comparison I covered MOG extensively. Part II is all about Spotify and a comparison of both services. What service has a better catalog? What service has better sound quality? How do the desktop and mobile clients compare? As former boxing referee Mills Lane would say, "Let's get it on!" As fast as cloud based music storage services from Google, Amazon, and Apple became media darlings these services were yesterday's news. There is still value in each of these storage services but for music aficionados nothing comes close to music streaming services MOG and Spotify. The major difference between the storage and streaming services is access to content. The former allows access to music already owned by the user. The later allows access to a nearly unlimited music selection for a monthly fee. Many Computer Audiophile readers know that I consider the current crop of cloud storage services DOA
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The loudness wars and the push for convenience over quality have been going on for quite awhile. After Metallica's official Death Magnetic release was sonically usurped
by the sound quality of the downloadable Guitar Hero version many people thought things couldn't get any worse. I'm not saying things have stooped to an even lower sonic level, but the "compression kings" Rick Rubin (Producer), Vladimir Meller (mastering Engineer), and The Red Hot Chili Peppers are at it again. The Chili Pepper's newest album I'm With You is due out August 30, 2011. Listening to the first single The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie via the iTunes Store I noticed something that was a bit surprising but considering this production Trio's history of sonic destruction it did not shock me.
The current crop of popular cloud music storage and playback services are dead on arrival. DOA for audiophiles, music aficionados, and even the average "civilian" iPod user. As an audiophile it's hard to accept anything but lossless music. As a music aficionado who wants his favorite tunes anywhere, anytime, in almost any quality (if necessary) these services sound promising at first blush but are quickly identified as nonstarters upon further review. I'm not an average "civilian" iPod user but I am well versed in the habits of such users. These civilians have the lowest music quality expectations but often very high ease of use and functionality needs that are far from met by the current cloud offerings. The services from Google and Amazon, and likely Apple's iCloud, are easily outmatched by lesser known free and inexpensive paid services. The large press-darlings consume all the ink but sadly aren't even in the same league as the competition.
As the title says here's a how-to video with commentary explaining the process of converting high resolution FLAC files into AIFF files and adding them to iTunes. This is necessary because Apple's iTunes does not play FLAC files without third party applications. Some computer audiophiles can handle this activity in their sleep while others may not even download high resolution audio for fear of a FLAC attack. Only kidding no such thing exists, but the process is foreign to many Computer Audiophile readers. After watching this video all readers should be able to handle this conversion and library addition without any issues.
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