orenfriedman
New member
My iTunes Match Experience
So I've been using iTunes Match for a week now, have about 10K songs on it. Here are my impressions, both good and bad: (1) Uploading/matching songs: When you sign up for the service it will scan your library and attempt to match songs you have with iTunes songs. The matching process takes a while, but nothing too bad. The matching accuracy is so-so. I'd say about 70% accurate (which is not bad). It means that occasionally it will partially match an album or fail to match songs that do exist on iTunes. Of the ~10K songs I matched so far, about 3/4 were matched. The remaining 1/3 were either not matched or were not in the iTunes store to begin with. Now the bad part - uploading unmatched songs takes FOREVER. My initial upload of unmatched songs (about 1,500 or so) took three days. I'm now updating my library in smaller chunks, but we're still talking about an incredibly long process. Of course this is still WAY better than my Google Music experience, where EVERYTHING must be uploaded, and the speed is even slower. (2) Errors: Occasionally you'll get errors related to iCloud or iTunes. First, some songs will simply not be added to the iTunes library. This has nothing to do with Match, and usually means a corrupt (but playable) MP3 file. I use mp3val to validate and fix these problems. Second, you may get an "error" message for specific songs on iCloud. Again, this usually means a corrupt file. Use mp3val to fix. Last, you will get some "ineligible" flagged songs. These are songs where the bit rate is < 96 OR ones where iTunes _thinks_ the bit rate is too low. Very easy to fix - create a smart play list looking for "iCloud ineligible". Then select the songs showing in the play list, and select "Advanced -> Create AAC". This will create and upload an AAC version of the song. (3) Playing songs (iPhone): Using iTunes Match on the iPhone is a breeze. You turn it on in the Music settings. Once turned on, you have access to all songs/artists/albums/lists - works flawlessly. You can choose to d/l entire albums/lists/artists, or play individual songs. When you start playing a song there's a 2-3 seconds delay, and then the song (a) plays and (b) is d/l to your phone. You can then replay music you had already played even if you don't have a connection - the songs play from the device. You can delete them from the device, in which case they'll stream again from iCloud. Two issues while playing music: * Large songs are only downloadable over a wifi network. This seems to be an extension of the iPhone's 20MB file limit over cellular data. * Of course, if you lose connectivity, streaming won't work (if you're going underground etc.). If you know you'll be in this situation, you can d/l the music in advance. So… is it worth it? Absolutely. For a paltry $27.99 CAD I have all of my music with me at all times, with zero maintenance after the initial push. It just works...
So I've been using iTunes Match for a week now, have about 10K songs on it. Here are my impressions, both good and bad: (1) Uploading/matching songs: When you sign up for the service it will scan your library and attempt to match songs you have with iTunes songs. The matching process takes a while, but nothing too bad. The matching accuracy is so-so. I'd say about 70% accurate (which is not bad). It means that occasionally it will partially match an album or fail to match songs that do exist on iTunes. Of the ~10K songs I matched so far, about 3/4 were matched. The remaining 1/3 were either not matched or were not in the iTunes store to begin with. Now the bad part - uploading unmatched songs takes FOREVER. My initial upload of unmatched songs (about 1,500 or so) took three days. I'm now updating my library in smaller chunks, but we're still talking about an incredibly long process. Of course this is still WAY better than my Google Music experience, where EVERYTHING must be uploaded, and the speed is even slower. (2) Errors: Occasionally you'll get errors related to iCloud or iTunes. First, some songs will simply not be added to the iTunes library. This has nothing to do with Match, and usually means a corrupt (but playable) MP3 file. I use mp3val to validate and fix these problems. Second, you may get an "error" message for specific songs on iCloud. Again, this usually means a corrupt file. Use mp3val to fix. Last, you will get some "ineligible" flagged songs. These are songs where the bit rate is < 96 OR ones where iTunes _thinks_ the bit rate is too low. Very easy to fix - create a smart play list looking for "iCloud ineligible". Then select the songs showing in the play list, and select "Advanced -> Create AAC". This will create and upload an AAC version of the song. (3) Playing songs (iPhone): Using iTunes Match on the iPhone is a breeze. You turn it on in the Music settings. Once turned on, you have access to all songs/artists/albums/lists - works flawlessly. You can choose to d/l entire albums/lists/artists, or play individual songs. When you start playing a song there's a 2-3 seconds delay, and then the song (a) plays and (b) is d/l to your phone. You can then replay music you had already played even if you don't have a connection - the songs play from the device. You can delete them from the device, in which case they'll stream again from iCloud. Two issues while playing music: * Large songs are only downloadable over a wifi network. This seems to be an extension of the iPhone's 20MB file limit over cellular data. * Of course, if you lose connectivity, streaming won't work (if you're going underground etc.). If you know you'll be in this situation, you can d/l the music in advance. So… is it worth it? Absolutely. For a paltry $27.99 CAD I have all of my music with me at all times, with zero maintenance after the initial push. It just works...