iTunes Match Expands To Latin America, Netherlands, Baltics 47
Sir Mal Fet writes "iTunes Match, Apple's service that allows re-downloading all your music, ripped CDs, and other music files across all your libraries using the iCloud service, has been made available in most of Latin America, the Netherlands, and the Baltic states. " Here's one user's review of the service. Is it worth the $25/year? Do you use the service?"
Speed? (Score:2)
Can /. give me a real world speed report?
On a relatively modern linux desktop at home, google music manager uploads about 100 songs per day at 128 K limited upload (a fraction of my upload pipe, and I like to keep it that way).
Thats 128 kilobits per sec / 8 bytes per bit * 1024 bytes per kilobyte * 60 secs per minute * 60 mins per hour * 24 hours per day / 100 songs per day = 13.5 megabytes per mp3 file. Wait a second, somethings not right there. Hmm. I should be uploading more like 1000 songs per day at
Re:Speed? (Score:5, Informative)
With iTunes Match, if a song in your library matches a song that Apple already has in it's library, it doesn't upload it all. It registers that you own the song and will download a 256Kbps DRM free version to your other computers/devices -- whether or not you bought the song from Apple.
Re: (Score:2)
Which is why I wonder how they could possibly have gotten approval from the labels to do that. They have shut down similar services in the past that provided less service.
Re: (Score:3)
Leverage. You don't just say no to your biggest retailer [arstechnica.com]. It also makes business sense because the labels get some of that iTunes Match money, all without any effort from their part. Just goes to show what we could have had by now if someone had stood up to these guys before Apple came along.
Re: (Score:1)
In other words, there's some side benefit to allowing Apple to create a monopoly in that particular market. I wonder what would have happened if instead we told Apple to stop abusing their monopoly and actually allow owners of competing products to buy from the ITMS early on.
Re: (Score:3)
That's not a monopoly. Monopoly = 1 seller, many buyers. Owners of an iPod could buy music from anywhere + the iTunes store, owners of other devices could buy music from anywhere except the iTunes store (for DRM'ed music, other players could play non-DRM AAC files.) It's more like an exclusivity agreement.
Re: (Score:3)
Actually, owners of other devices can buy music on iTunes too, all without DRM. Video is another matter, but Apple has considerably less clout with the film companies.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple's paying the labels for it. They paid a good chunk ($250M?) for the priviledge of setting up iTunes Match, and an unspecified sum every year in licensing fees. That's all it takes. The other lockers (Amazon, Googke, etc)? They're not paying a thing. Legal right or wrong, if you pay up, they leave you alone.
And while it could lead to
Re: (Score:2)
$250m for all you can pirate music doesn't seem like a very good deal for the recording industry. You may very well be right, but it just surprises me that they would allow it after all the fight they've had over such things previously.
Re: (Score:2)
The labels have lost that revenue anyway, convincing people to "legitimize" pirate content is an uphill struggle (most people can't afford to anyway.) At least this way they get some revenue out of it. And they can still come after you for that content since there's no record of it being officially bought. So they lose nothing but gain revenue.
Payment is per user.... (Score:2)
$250m for all you can pirate music doesn't seem like a very good deal for the recording industry.
That was just a guess on the OP's part.
In reality since everyone is paying $25/year for the service, you know the music companies are getting some cut.
Even though it seems like a small amount it's a lot of money they were not seeing previously. And most people will be buying tracks anyway.
What I'm curious about is if indie labels get anything from this if iTunes ends up Matching something they own.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Apple doesn't have to take over the web to "take over the world". They invented the iPhone. Now you carry iTunes AND the web with you in your pocket.
Re:Convenience vs Cost (Score:5, Interesting)
I find it useful, because it basically keeps my phone and my laptop (my main pc) in sync without me ever having to do anything. (such as plug the phone into the laptop and take the sync manually)
Most on /. won't like the idea of living in Apple's ecosystem, but if you're using an iPhone anyway it's convenient.
Re: (Score:3)
They basically are charging you for the ability to redownload music and the convenience to autodownload all your files onto all your devices (rather then having to manually transfer it).
No, that's basically a description of the free google music system. It works pretty well if you have the patience to upload (it has a cap of 20000 songs and I've calculated that would take me something like 6 months to upload at my current measured real world upload rate)
I thought the advantage of paying for itunes match was you get to automagically upgrade your cruddy 128K rips to 384K or lossless or whatever.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought the advantage of paying for itunes match was you get to automagically upgrade your cruddy 128K rips to 384K or lossless or whatever.
I actually had one record that was ripped at 56 Kbit/second. Had to manually convert it to 128 KBit/sec because iTunes match doesn't touch anything at less than 100 KBit, but then it was matched and replaced with 256KBit/sec.
It also matched many songs that come straight from LPs. But that is a bit hit and miss; I think the song length must be right, and a separated them by hand. If you are lazy and just record one LP side as one 20 minute song, you obviously won't get any match.
Re: (Score:2)
It also matched many songs that come straight from LPs. But that is a bit hit and miss; I think the song length must be right, and a separated them by hand. If you are lazy and just record one LP side as one 20 minute song, you obviously won't get any match.
Song matching definitely isn't perfect. I have one album for which one half of the files matched and the others didn't. But overall only 15% of my library didn't match which is pretty good considering a big part of that is local bands and demo's that wouldn't be on iTunes anyway (also AC/DC apparently isn't sold through iTunes at least in my part of the world.)
Re: (Score:2)
limited it to 128K. If I calculate the numbers its only using about 20K which is weird.
I have I2P and freenet and VOIP and a ton of other things trying to share the same bandwidth.
Re: (Score:2)
No, that's basically a description of the free google music system. It works pretty well if you have the patience to upload (it has a cap of 20000 songs and I've calculated that would take me something like 6 months to upload at my current measured real world upload rate)
I had similar concerns, but it's not that bad if you do it right. I had about 15,000 tracks to sync (I have diverse musical tastes, and yes, I have actually listened to all of it) and it took me a few nights at max upload and a week or so of minimum during the day while I was using the computer for other things.
Unless you're actively using your internet connection 24 hours a day, or have a lame-ass bandwidth cap, you might as well max out your upload when you're not actively using the internet connection.
Re: (Score:2)
No there's other services. I also have access to my entire music library from my iPad, because it downloads songs directly from Apple if you want to hear it, rather than just the songs that I could fit on the iPad manually. And I have also "upgraded" a lot of my music from crappy mp3's (with bitrates like 128kbit and below) to shiny new 256 AAC files through Match. Overall I'm pretty happy with the service though I'm waiting to see how often I end up downloading songs to my devices over the course of year
Re: (Score:1)
People talk shit about Steam a lot, but you can always redownload your games and content at 0 charge. The lack of this is one of the things that prevented me from getting an iPod/iPhone and using iTunes at all.
Re: (Score:3)
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store [apple.com]
"To download previously purchased apps, books, music or TV Shows to your computer
Open iTunes 10.4 or later on your computer. (You can download the latest version of iTunes here.)
If you're not already signed in, click Sign In and enter your Apple ID and password.
After you've signed in, click Purchased on the right side in the iTunes Store under the QUICK LINKS the section.
From your Purchased page, click the tab for the content type yo
Re: (Score:2)
Oh my. I seem to recall a time when this wasn't possible. You think it would have been done with a little more fanfare.
It is a bit convoluted, though. It'd just be easier to list everything in the library and grey out what you don't actually have downloaded like Steam does. Nice that you can actually redownload with iTunes now - I'll have to reconsider my purchasing decisions, then.
It was always possible (Score:2)
Oh my. I seem to recall a time when this wasn't possible.
Even in very early days of iTunes you were allowed to re-download everything once or twice a year. It was a more manual process then though (I think you had to call).
Re: (Score:2)
It is a bit convoluted, though. It'd just be easier to list everything in the library and grey out what you don't actually have downloaded like Steam does.
That's the way iTunes Match does it too. To be honest iTunes itself is showing its age (11 years old now), I think Apple has a hard time rebuilding it each to keep up with the times.
Re: (Score:2)
Didn't MP3.com get sued to pulp over this? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I think they've been selling files without DRM for a while now. Old files that were bought in the DRM era still have it, but I think you can do things to the DRM-free ones like convert them to MP3 now without having to burn them to a CD and then re-import.
Maybe there was some agreement made with the record companies at the time they changed up the DRM policies that is in play here.
Re: (Score:3)
They stopped selling DRM'ed files a while ago now. If you still have DRM'ed files you can upgrade them through iTunes to non-DRM files for a small fee per song (something like 10 cents, I forget the exact amount) or if you have match you can delete the song and redownload the non-DRM version after it matches.
Re: (Score:2)
No, Apple just waited until the time was right. The music industry is slowly realizing that they have to update their business model, and Apple being a major distribution channel is helping them realize that quickly.
The labels must be kicking themselves for not realizing this sooner, but at the same time they can say they had a choice back then and don't now.
And who knows, Apple may have been trying to do this for a while, and finally succeeded, and we only know about the success.
Re: (Score:2)
Big problem is that the music industry has long relied on media upgrades to bring in big income. LPs -> cassette tapes (once more popular than LPs) -> CDs -> digital files. It was generally easier to buy new, get better features, rather than upgrade on your own...
Unfortunately for them this can't really go any further... High quality 256k AAC from very high quality masters is about as far as normal humans can use. And I doubt there's going to be some new kind of physical media that is inherentl
Spotify is totally different (Score:3)
Spotify lets you listen to any music they have in their library, from anywhere. It all goes away when you stop paying for Spotify.
iTunes match lets you listen to any of YOUR music, anywhere. That includes rips of CD's no longer sold, live recordings, etc. If you stop paying for iTunes match you still get to keep everything you downloaded (which you should have anyway since you uploaded it to begin with).
Nice but with teething issues (Score:5, Informative)
So overall, a good job and I'm satisfied it saved me a ton of time upgrading my own rips. However that's the good - time for the bad.
Artwork. Artwork has been a mess. When I initially matched, I noticed a lot of my tracks had poor quality artwork (not due to match, they always had them). I went through and fixed them all - a few moments later, Match came back and blatted everything - right back to poor quality artwork again. Making it accept the newer high quality has been very hit and miss, usually involving deleting the track frmo my library and Match then re-importing - even then it doesn't always work.
That's artwork everywhere. Now to specific problems with the iPhone. I turned off Match due to a bad wi-fi area I was in - I had a connection, but couldn't get anywhere. As soon as I turned Match off, all artwork was wiped from my phone. Turning Match back on again appears to have randomly reinstated some artwork and not others.
Sorting. I had some hassle again and turned Match off on the iPhone. I then put it back on again, and suddenly the sort order of my artists was massively out - I have artists starting with K appearing under the 'I' section. It's not random, the artists are actually sorted in alphabetic order, however if you use your thumb to scroll down directly to letter 'M', for example, the first artist listed is James Newton Howard. Hmm....
The other thing is that I'm not sure I'll stay subscribed next year. As a labour-saving initial hit, the price was worth it for me. Now my files are matched anyway, I'm not sure it's worth it for me any more -I'm just as happy with the wireless syncing.
Cheers,
Ian
Re: (Score:2)
So, you're going to bugreport.apple.com and writing bugs about the artwork problems, right? You only need a free "online only" account. While there is also "provide iTunes feedback" in iTunes, sending a bug report via bugreport.apple.com will go more directly into the bug system and I think makes feedback (was it fixed/dup/etc.)/more questions easier or even possible at all.
It sounds like you have some pretty specific good details about the problems that could help solve them in the future.
Yeah, products
Didn't see the point ... (Score:2)
When they announced this, I didn't really see the point.
I'm not buying new music from my iPhone (because I don't have one) and expecting it to show up on my computer ... I'm not buying songs on my computer either. Pretty much all of my music is ripped straight from CDs I've bought, and my music library is currently > 70GB.
So, if I need to update my iPods or my iPad, I just plug them into my computer. My iPod classic holds the entire library anyway, and m
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't signed up for it myself, either. It seems like you're missing something, however. If your CD-ripped music is ripped in a lower quality, it will "automagically" be upgraded, if it matches the iTunes library. Yes, you'll have to then download it (which some could argue is just as bad as having to manually upload everything to the other services, but it seems slightly different to me, since you already have all of your local music to use in the meantime, as you upgrade to the higher-quality versio
Re: (Score:2)
I think it's worth it (Score:1)
I subscribed, and I was glad I did when I was able to upgrade a bunch of my MP3s to iTunes Store AAC files, with whatever quality improvement there is in going from an amateur's MP3 encoding to a studio's AAC release. Mostly, I find that the music sounds a little louder, which could be the result of other factors like the store using a newer remastering, for example.
It's nice having my entire music collection on my iPad, but I actually have so much music (about 100GB), apparently, that I often crash iTunes
Re: (Score:2)
[...sounds a little louder....]
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war [wikipedia.org]
Consider that what iTunes store has is the most recent remasterings, and not the old ones from your old CDs.
Most of my music was ripped by me from CDs I bought in the '80s when CDs were new tech. A lot of horribly crappy quality CDs were turned out then, and which thus fail to "iMatch" for me now... :(
Can't disable iTunes Match (Score:2)
The "iTunes Match" option NEVER disappears from the menu bar at the left.
Even after you've disabled the iTunes store under "parental controls", it's still there. Even after you click "No Thanks" it's still there, asking you to subscribe for $25/year. (this is itunes 10.5.1.42 on windows).
Either shoddy programming, or an insidious attempt to get more money out of you despite the parental controls.
Works for me (Score:5, Interesting)
Second, I have way more music than fits on my iPhone. Having the stuff in the cloud solves that problem very nicely.
Third, it just works the way it should - stuff I buy or "acquire" on one device is automagically available on all of my other devices. Makes the notion of doing syncs - wirelessly or not - seem quaint.
I'd say it's worth it (Score:2)
As an insurance policy, I think £21 is pretty good value.
Interesting experience (Score:2)
Yesterday, I had something funny happen with iTunes match. I was streaming Weezer's "Perfect Situation," off of their "Make Believe" album. I heard a chorus at the end of the song that I'd never heard before. I then hopped over to my computer with the actual rip of the CD that I made, and low and behold, the chorus at the end of "Perfect Situation" wasn't there!
iTunes match also can't handle pausing while streaming. Often I have to restart the song if I pause it while streaming.
I also found streaming from i