Article: iTunes Match Review (Article Formerly Known As - iTunes Mismatch Review)

[Mark Powell]

It seems to be a locker service, little more. Nothing new about it either. Businesses and many individuals have been storing their data for 20 years or more on a specialist remote site. And being charged for it, just like this. With the decreasing cost of storage it is now 'old fashioned' among businesses and it use has declined.<br />

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It may have uses for keeping all your 'computer-type' devices loaded with the same stuff, but as I never see myself doing this I have not investigated it.<br />

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Do people here walk fish-eyed around the streets while twitching faintly to poor quality music? I don't.<br />

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With the tiny, and every lowering, cost of home storage it seems completely pointless, except as a way for Apple and its rivals to make money. Nothing wrong with that, but they won't make it off me, I am afraid.<br />

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Any why do these people call everything a 'Song'? I do not consider my Bernard Haitink, Amsterdam Philharmonic, Beethoven's ninth to be a 'Song'.

[almaatakz]

hmmmm... of limited, if any, use to me, too. Although it may be useful for some.<br />

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So, apple, where is the quality? Sicne apple went from 128kbps to 256kbps (how many years ago?) there were no real quality advancement steps taken. they have since dropepd the CD picture from itunes logo ('cd is so last century ...') but still, even several years later, did not match the very CD for quality/resolution. <br />

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I want lossless (16/44 or higher) tracks from itunes and happy to pay for it. I do not want icloud. not in its current form.

[tmornini]

I'll be the devil's advocate here.<br />

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I'm using Match, and so far, so good.<br />

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I use Time Machine for backup of my computers, and I also remote back up to BackBlaze from my Music server. I don't EVER want RIP all my music again. :-)<br />

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Since my definitive library on my music server. I matched from there first.<br />

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Then I deliberately trashed my iTunes folder on my laptop and matched. BOOM! A few minutes later I had a completely populated library (which no doubt has a few issues), INCLUDING my playlists. Very cool.<br />

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Then I set it up on the phone. Again, BOOM! everything is there. Nice.<br />

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No more syncing, ever. Good riddance!<br />

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Yes, it's true, my iPhone is 100% lossy though my library is 95% lossless.<br />

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The most negative thing I agree with you about, Chris, is that it's not matching my hires files. I'm willing to bet that this is more about a poorly discriminating filter than a policy by Apple. However Apple is doing it's signatures, it could certainly do it against the hires versions, as signature creation is done locally.<br />

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I'm pretty confident that I'll soon update my Match and fine that my hires music has been matched, or down sampled and uploaded, and is now available everywhere just like everything else.<br />

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Apple fanboy? You bet.

[SeeHear]

Chris,<br />

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Did I read correctly - you ripped an SACD sampler? How? I would love to be able to rip my SACDs.<br />

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Thanks,<br />

<br />

James<br />

[Akapod]

I certainly agree that mis-matching is a problem, but I think iTunes Matching has a role that even audiophiles may appreciate. <br />

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If Apple had pitched the product as something that would allow you to conveniently access 256 AAC files of most of your music on a mobile device for $2.08 a month, I think it would be better received. <br />

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When you think of the product as something for mobile devices, then the loss in quality of the music files is understandable. The biggest factor affection sound quality is going to the mobile device -- the files will be run through a very modest onboard DAC chip, and then amplified through the device's tiny amp.<br />

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(The only exception I can think of would be using an Apple TV which could then route the signal, via optical or HDMI, to an outboard DAC. But I think (and I may be wrong) that doesn't happen very often.)<br />

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For the sake of comparison, you could buy a 64 GB iPhone 4S for $399 (and a carrier plan) or a 32 GB iPhone 4S for $299 and four years of iTunes Matching for the same price. If you figure an average AAC file is about 8 MB, then 25,000 songs would mean 200 GB of storage. <br />

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(For more comparison, DropBox will offer you 100 GB of storage at $20 a month. So you could get five months of storage for $100, instead of four years, and you'd lose the iTunes interface).<br />

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So, roughly, 32 GB of onboard storage would cost you the same as as 200 GB of cloud storage, albeit in an inferior format. If that inferior format -- 256 kbps AAC -- is acceptable to you for mobile use, then this is a pretty good deal.<br />

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[arcman]

Hmm. I have not had any problems with iTunes match so far (17,000 tracks). I never expected hi-res files to be "streamed" or redownloaded into hi-res. My Hi-rez files (including entire Peter gabriel new blood deluxe) uploaded and is available on all my devices (at 256). When I rip a cd that has a track with another artist listed I do either of two things (depending on the amount of tracks). I reset all tracks as a composition or I move the guest artist to the song title (Title featuringXXZ). I do have a few duplicates due to changing a few titles.

[Dan Gravell]

I can't help but thing both HD and higher bitrate music will be new offerings on new 'plans'. It's just like the move from 8-track -> cassette -> CD... the music industry is very good at perpetuating this!<br />

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Worrying to hear about the mismatches... especially the AC/DC cover band one! I know this is subjective, but to the human ear how different do these tracks sound?

[glt]

I think is great. I signed up yesterday and it "matched" my lossless collection: 2000 tracks were matched, 1000 tracks were uploaded. Lets not forget that this is v1 and that copyright restrictions also applies (e.g. lack of true streaming may be a copyright restriction). But having my collection automatically and immediately available on up to 10 devices for $25 is a heck of a deal.

[jfkbike]

Seems perfect for what I intend to use it for. Like when I travel on business and the hotel has that cheap radio with a iPod dock, put my phone in and listen to any of the music (15,000+ songs) I have on my music server (all lossless and or hi-res) available to me, and the 256kb is plenty for this use. The matching worked well for me although I have not checked every song. If at higher resolution I think it would use too much bandwidth for some of the crapy wi-fi connections or 3G connections. I never buy music from iTunes, my tracks are all hi-res downloads or from CD's I own and have ripped. I guess MOG could work but have never tried it and would rather pay $25/year and have Apple's slick integration than pay $120 for something like MOG. When I want to quickly hear a song I do not have I'll use Pandora or similar. Also my understanding is that yes it is downloaded to your device but does not remain there for long and therefore the issue of consuming storage is mute. Is that incorrect?

[petewilson]

Alas, no magic. It's a dual-layer disk and so one simply rips the CD layer.<br />

The SACD layer remains impenetrable.

[timlmd]

Contrary to the statements in this article's final paragraph, iTunes Match does indeed stream music. Rather than clicking on the "Cloud" download button, just hit play like you would on locally stored music and after a 3 or 4 second buffering delay your music will start to play. No storage space consumed. <br />

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It also buffers the start of the next song in the album/playlist while playing the current song, so no additional delays occur. Gapless playback even seems to work well, although I heard one slight bobble during the Abbey Road side two medley.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Guys - iTunes Match and iCloud do not stream. Selecting a track from an iDevice will play the track as it's downloading but the track is then stored on the local device. A true streaming app plays the track and leaves no trace of the track after it's over. <br />

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[heyjp]

Tim is correct. On your iOS devices you can choose to download and keep or simply stream and remove.<br />

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On the AppleTV, it ONLY streams, since there is no persistent storage.<br />

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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 />

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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 />

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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 />

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Hard to satisfy us 'philes.<br />

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Jim

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Jim - Please attempt to stream a track to an iDevice and let me know if the track is stored on your device. This is not streaming. It's simply quick playback while downloading. <br />

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[blaine78]

to be honest, i really don't see the point of this cloud storage thing. just more electromagnetic radiation floating round. just yet another way to charge people for unnecessary products.

[timlmd]

I've streamed tracks to my iPad, my iPhone, and my Macbook Pro. Nothing is stored on any of the devices. It's real honest to goodness streaming! Really.<br />

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Edit: Whoops! Not true. I double checked and while the Mac is definitely streaming, it appears the iPad and iPhone are indeed downloading each song! (Sorry Chris, I should never have doubted you.)<br />

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This is exactly the opposite of what you'd want to happen. It should download to the device with the large hard drive, but stream to the ones with limited storage space. And if you can stream to one device, why not stream to them all?

[Mark Powell]

We used to call it 'Radio'<br />

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But now you have to<br />

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(1) Make up the programmes yourself.<br />

(2) Pay for it.<br />

[Dan Gravell]

<i>This is exactly the opposite of what you'd want to happen. It should download to the device with the large hard drive, but stream to the ones with limited storage space. And if you can stream to one device, why not stream to them all?</i><br />

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Here's a possible reason - the storage may be there on the portable devices to guard against times when you lose Internet connection when on the move. That said, I suppose you might lose connection on the MBP too when out and about!

[diw]

when installing iTunes Match on a particular iPhone or other iOS device, it states that this replaces the existing library on that device....while I think that having access to portable quality copies of your entire music library anywhere you have an internet connection is a good deal for $25...what about situations where you don't have internet access or more importantly, when you want to listen to the higher bit rate versions that you ripped or downloaded to your home library? How can those be synced to your device in the regular way and used alongside iTunes in the cloud?<br />

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For those interested I found that the uploading process, which applied to around 25% of the tracks in my library, very little of which has come from iTunes, took around two days for the 4500 tracks it couldn't match, which may be a consideration for some. It may be a consequence of the load on Apples servers in the first days of the introduction of the service<br />

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Increased use of the Cloud services in the future reminds me of the value of the unlimited data plans that some of us signed up for with our initial iPhone and iPad contracts, which ATT has had to grandfather in but takes any opportunity from payment delays, failed automatic credit card transfer etc to cancel. When they do this, you have to ring them up and argue for reinstatement of the option ( which, to date, they have always done, bless them ) otherwise it can't be renewed once relinquished

[HiFiInsider]

One thing I am unsure maybe you know the answer. If ALL my music is on say MacMini at home. I have a MacBook Air with NO music stored on it. Does iTunes Match stream the music to it like it does on other Macs at home or does it download a copy to the Air HD like it does on the iPhone?

[heyjp]

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 />

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For an example, let's say you have 100 playlists and 10,000 songs on your master library.<br />

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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 />

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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 />

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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 />

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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 />

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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 />

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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 />

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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 />

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Jim

[heyjp]

DIW,<br />

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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 />

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Jim

[HiFiInsider]

Jim,<br />

<br />

Thank you for the clarification. Are the downloaded tracks to other devices original format or converted to 256kbps files?

[heyjp]

DJ,<br />

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On your secondary devices, the format that is downloaded is whatever is represented in the iCloud.<br />

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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 />

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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 />

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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 />

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Jim<br />

[Mark Powell]

Left turned on, and Internet connected, my home machine is, by every accepted definition, a cloud already. It can download, or stream, my choice at the time, any of my music, in any format I wish, up to and including the original quality, to any mobile or portable device that I happen to choose, anywhere in the world. Streaming rather than downloading may, of course, force me at a given time to use a lower than original quality, but never lower than Apple provides.<br />

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Should I be willing to accept the format in which I originally stored it, I can turn the home computer off and just use the home NAS.<br />

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So with a bit of looking at the relevant operating system manuals, can you. You can even download or stream your friends music, if he has authorised you to.<br />

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We all, potentially have this ability. You only have to activate it. So why do any of us need this?