Apple rolls out iTunes Match in the UK
Apple has introuduced its iTunes Match music service in the UK and around the world.
Initially only available in the US, iTunes Match scans users' music libraries and matches and replaces up to 25,000 songs stored on their computer, including CD rips (copies) as well illegally-downloaded material.
If the initial scan finds songs it does not recognise on the user's hard drive, they are uploaded to Apple's servers.
Users can then download or stream the songs held 'in the cloud' to other computers logged on to their iTunes acounts, as well as to iPhones, iPads and other iOS device.
There is a £21.99 annual charge for the service, and songs are streamed at 256kbps in AAC, regardless of the original bit-rate at which they were stored.
Yesterday there were problems with the service. When we tried to log on last night, a message appeared saying that "no new subscriptions were currently available".
However, by this morning the problem appeared to have been fixed.
To subscribe to iTunes match, you need to have iOS 5 on you iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. Use of the service is limited to a maximum of ten devices and 25,000 songs.
Follow whathifi.com on Twitter
Comments
I think it is great, there are some areas that it needs to work on. Such as if you open an iTunes library from two different Macs on the same network (using NAS for instance) it seems to get a bit confused and I need to turn on Match again when going back to the other machine. Also I cant see a way of working out what songs I have downloaded from Match onto my iPhone, I have a 90GB itunes library and a 16GB phone....... this will be filled up soon, how can I quickly view downloaded tracks to cull them? Other than that, Match and Spotify have now done away with my need (or desire) for my iPod Classic which held my whole library.
Most of the music in my itunes library on my Mac has been ripped from CDs as Apple Lossless files: if I use icloud does it mean they will be replaced on my computer by lower res 256k versions?
This all sounds great - what happens to the other 2000 songs in my 27000 song library?
Can I be selective?
I've just activated iTunes Match on my iPhone, and any songs stored on iCloud are downloaded via wi-fi as you play them. Just to elaborate: you can stream from iTunes Match to a Mac or PC without downloading the track/album, but on iPods/iPhones/iPod Touch the song will automatically download while playing, so you can't just stream it. Flicking left on the track title will reveal a red 'delete' button if you later want to remove it from your iDevice.
And obviously you can only stream music to an Apple TV2 from iTunes Match as it has no hard drive.
You can also stream your TV programs on your ATV 2 now, and if your phone lets you you can download any of your purchased TV programs ( you can use your phone as a wifi hot spot and download to touch or ipad ) which is all another bonus for people on the move or have time to kill at work.
Thanks Andy - can you stream music to your iphone without downloading it?
duncansbby, I can stream music held in iCloud to my MacBook Pro via wi-fi without having to download it first - in fact, I'm doing so right now. So I don't have to download all the songs to my hard drive if I don't want to.
As far as I can tell it doesn't stream music to your device, it downloads it (this seems to be a popular misconception, although i may be wrong) You only get 256 if your music is matched, otherwise it uploads your own copy.
When you first switch on match it usually, but not always, clears out your old library. Then every piece of music on your itunes is available, and then you download what you want to your device. ( and delete later by swiping if space becomes an issue). Wasn't too sure to begin with but liking it now.
I use spotify and download any albums you can't get from spotify from iTunes, so won't come in handy for me. The only disappointment is there not more businesses like apple it's genius!
does this work in best pratcice? no!
where do I need music the most...on my commute to work, does it stream well? hell no, 3g and 4g, horrible.
thoughts?