heyjp

iTunes Match works on individual songs only. It does not "see" purchased albums. If you cannot rip one song off a 10 song album, it will "match" the 9 songs that are ripped and ignore the unripped. You will need to either use the other responder's suggestion and clean/polish your CD and try to rip the remaining songs, or plunk down and spend $0.99 to buy the song that won't rip.<br /> <br /> I have had an additionally frustrating experience where all 10 songs ripped, but iTunes only recognizes 9 of them and for some reason treats the 10th as unknown and uploads it. I noticed the song durations (time) were a second or two different. <br /> <br /> But this latter situation definitely shows that iTunes does not assume that if you have 9/10 songs from one CD, you deserve the 10th. ;-)<br /> <br /> Jim

Well, I don't know that anyone NEEDS it. I've lived a good life for 55.5 years without it. ;-)<br /> <br /> I think it is an ambitious new schema that will allow MANY people that otherwise don't know how to create their own cloud, to have ubiquitous access to their music collections. For every 1 of us that stores all their music in AIFF, Apple Lossless, or FLAC there are 1000 (or 10,000?) that don't know nor care how to spell FLAK. ;-)<br /> <br /> Apple has just created another distribution option that is available to everyone with an iTunes library. Which is a LOT of people. It will evolve rapidly over the next few months and may become VERY valuable to "the rest of us". No harm in experiencing and learning from it.<br /> <br /> There are things it does for me right now with no negative impact. For example, I like that ALL my music is now available to my AppleTV ALWAYS, even when my master Mac is still in my briefcase. Also, my wife has access to the entire library on AppleTV when my master library is at work.<br /> <br /> Also, now I can get that MacBook Air that I can carry EVERYWHERE but won't fit my entire library on it... yet still have access to any part of it at any time.<br /> <br /> Jim

DJ,<br /> <br /> On your secondary devices, the format that is downloaded is whatever is represented in the iCloud.<br /> <br /> Matched: You will get the 256Kbps store version that iTunes stores in iCloud.<br /> Uploaded: You will get whatever format (AAC, MP3, etc) in your library<br /> <br /> I have heard two stories: If your master version is very high bit rate, e.g. Apple Lossless at 500 or 600 kbps, I've heard that it will upload a max 256Kbps version, and I've heard people say that it uploads your original version.<br /> <br /> I have done this with my Apple Lossless Beatles... but I can't tell what is downloaded to my iPhone. The iPhone does not show bit-rates as best as I can tell.<br /> <br /> Jim<br />

DIW,<br /> <br /> As you noted, when you turn on Match on a secondary device, you are given the warning that all local music will be overwritten. From what I've heard, it doesn't do that. It keeps what you have, compares and synchs to your iCloud then allows you to download additional songs/artists/albums/playlists and delete any existing. I am going to carefully try this myself in the next day or two to see. So far I have turned on my Apple TV which does indeed have access to my entire 24,000 song collection in the iCloud. And, I've turned on a blank older iPhone 4 which also has access. I've been afraid to turn it on my iPhone 4s and iPad2 until I have all figured out. ;-)<br /> <br /> Jim

As I understand Match, and from my personal experience in just a couple of days, once you activate iTunes Match from your Master Library and it synchs everything to the iCloud... you can turn on Match on other computers or iOS devices and synch all or part of your library. <br /> <br /> For an example, let's say you have 100 playlists and 10,000 songs on your master library.<br /> <br /> When you turn Match On with any other device, you are immediately given a choice: "Show Only What's On this Device" or "Show All Available".<br /> <br /> If you "show all available, after a minute or two of "thinking", you will see all 10,000 songs and all 100 playlists on your iPhone or MacBook Air (or whatever). At that point you can either tap and play a song, an album, or a playlist. If you scroll to the bottom of any selected playlist, artist, or album.. you will see a "download all" button to download a copy of all songs for that entire playlist, artist, or album to your device. <br /> <br /> It appears to me that if you tap the left side (name) of any song, it will immediately begin playing that song. If you tap the right side (cloud with down arrow) of any song, it will begin playing it, but will keep the song on your device whether you listen to all of it or not.<br /> <br /> Your 10,000 songs might take up 50 GBytes on your master library. If you have a 16 GBYTE iPhone, they all can't possibly fit, but you have access to any of them. So you can download 10 playlists and 30 artists and at that point choose to see "only what's on your phone" or "all songs in your iCloud". You can delete a playlist and download a new one for the day, then delete and download a different set for tomorrow.<br /> <br /> Or if you have enough storage on your MacBook Air, you can choose to download and sync your entire library. As you buy new music on your master or on your Air, the new acquisitions are automatically downloaded to all devices that you set the "download new purchases" control for.<br /> <br /> There is a lot of capability (and a few bugs) in the iTunes Match system. Over the next few months, it will become a VERY interesting concept.<br /> <br /> Sure, the pure audiophile may not realize a perfect solution with the current version. But you don't HAVE to use it. Now or in the future. But, as it settles down, I think we will all find a way to exploit its functionality.<br /> <br /> Jim

Tim is correct. On your iOS devices you can choose to download and keep or simply stream and remove.<br /> <br /> On the AppleTV, it ONLY streams, since there is no persistent storage.<br /> <br /> I think this is a very interesting concept and service. It is barely version 1.0 right now and it will grow and improve in the future. There are some interesting possible future ramifications... If Apple ever moved to a new generation codec or a higher bit rate for AAC (e.g. 320 Kbps)... you're entire library would SUDDENLY be available some morning with an improved version of every song.<br /> <br /> Also, I think you'll see the matching get much smarter in the future too. Right now it appears to match each song individually. In the future it could look at the context. I have found several albums where 8 out of 9 songs are recognized as "purchased" and the remaining song "uploaded" since it miss-identified it for some reason.<br /> <br /> There are interesting questions. If a "remastered" version of an album is released, which are you matched with? Which do you WANT to be matched with? Many audiophiles might want the earlier, less tampered-with version. While others might consider the remastered a freebie bonus! <br /> <br /> Hard to satisfy us 'philes.<br /> <br /> Jim