Apple's iTunes Match Service Released Along With iTunes 10.5.1

[Akshay Masand]

The much anticipated iTunes Match Service has finally been released alongside a public roll out for iTunes 10.5.1. The updated version of iTunes should appear in Software Update and it is now also available for download from Apple’s site.

Apple made the following announcement on their iTunes page, which confirmed the availability of iTunes Match (see below). For those of you who don’t already know, iTunes Match syncs your music that is already available on iTunes to iCloud as well as completing data for songs that are not fully optimized for iTunes for an annual fee of $24.99.



The iTunes Match service has finally arrived after Apple missed their end of October deadline and wiped iTunes Match developer libraries several times. This past weekend, Apple wiped the libraries one last time and rolled out iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3. It looks like beta 3 and this past library wipe helped Apple finalize the release of the service.



Source: Apple

[zinjen]

What bothers me about this is we cannot download "iTunes Higher Quality Version" to our PC or MAC. This is where it will lose out on additional sales IMO. Also I've heard a lot of folks using the BETA only matching 20-30% of their tracks. What about mix tapes?.. Yikes

[TheOrioles33]

What bothers me about this is we cannot download "iTunes Higher Quality Version" to our PC or MAC. This is where it will lose out on additional sales IMO. Also I've heard a lot of folks using the BETA only matching 20-30% of their tracks. What about mix tapes?.. Yikes

Thats my problem. iTunes only matched 2,000 of my 8,000 songs. I saw it uploading music that I know is in the iTunes store. I also dont like the fact that there is no intervention. It just automtically uploads your entire library if it cant find a match. What if I dont want my entire library upload? AND after its finished I see incomplete albums uploaded. So for now I'm not using it until I can figure out whats going on.

[z3r01]

patiently waiting to get out of work to give this a GO

[ady199]

Is this just for America or has it gone live in the UK????

[Aenima133]

Is it really that bad? I'm just nervous about it keeping my tags and everything. I spent a lot of time and effort to get everything exactly like i wanted it, and i don't want this mucking it all up. But then again, even if it does work fine, i don't want to pay $25 for it to only match 20% of my songs either. This seems kinda flawed.

[thevmax]

I wouldn't be surprised if they planned all of this. It's another money maker for Apple ... that's for sure! AND I don't want anything to do with it! Oh gee only another $25! HA! HA! FAIL!

[mmaboi21]

is this just for america or has it gone live in the uk????

usa.

[alirz]

is it true that enabling itunes match on the iphone/ipod disables itunes music syncing? if so, then what the hell, am i supposed to listen to my music only from the cloud hogging up my data? Plus what about those times when im in the under ground subway and there is no access to the cellular network?

[kddo14]

so does the $25 give me infinite extra space to store my songs that don't exist in the itunes store within? or are the songs that can't be matched with itunes store songs uploaded to my 5gb free icloud account? Because if so I'll end up paying for both the match service and a bunch of extra storage, because i know i certainly have a lot of music that isn't in the store...

[Tully Mars]

Is there any risk in updating if I'm waiting for a jailbreak for my iphone 4s (5.0) or ipad 2 (5.0)? Wouldn't think so, but just wanted to make sure.

[kraziebone]

Apple has pulled 10.5.1 and doesn't allow new sign ups for now. Guess we will have to wait a little longer

[Aenima133]

so does the $25 give me infinite extra space to store my songs that don't exist in the itunes store within? or are the songs that can't be matched with itunes store songs uploaded to my 5gb free icloud account? Because if so I'll end up paying for both the match service and a bunch of extra storage, because i know i certainly have a lot of music that isn't in the store...

No. It is not included in that 5GB. That's a separate thing.

[GrandMstrBud]

I'm on 5.0 with an Iphone 4 with sprint and have itunes match enabled and it's not showing up on my phone.

[Simon]

Apple has pulled 10.5.1 and doesn't allow new sign ups for now. Guess we will have to wait a little longer

I still see it as a download on Apple's site.

[TheOrioles33]

is it true that enabling itunes match on the iphone/ipod disables itunes music syncing? if so, then what the hell, am i supposed to listen to my music only from the cloud hogging up my data? Plus what about those times when im in the under ground subway and there is no access to the cellular network?

That's another thing I am not fond of. If your using the cloud you can not have music on your device. Doesn't make sense.

I wouldn't be surprised if they planned all of this. It's another money maker for Apple ... that's for sure! AND I don't want anything to do with it! Oh gee only another $25! HA! HA! FAIL!

Fail? The service just started today. Grow up!

[BenderRodriguez]

patiently waiting to get out of work to give this a GO

Is this just for America or has it gone live in the UK????

I found it on a website yesterday

That's another thing I am not fond of. If your using the cloud you can not have music on your device. Doesn't make sense.

Okay wow yes u can still have music on your device otherwise theres no point to the 64gig other than video

[GrandMstrBud]

They should have really tested this a lot more. I matched my home library up and I'm at work and I get 1 song that I never even had and it doesn't even have the iTunes match on my 64bit machine. Plus my iPhone 4 with 5.0 does not pull in the songs either.

Okay the 64bit version doesn't show because it's still 10.5. Guess I'll have to wait until they release the 64bit version to download

[davidkraft86]

What bothers me about this is we cannot download "iTunes Higher Quality Version" to our PC or MAC. This is where it will lose out on additional sales IMO. Also I've heard a lot of folks using the BETA only matching 20-30% of their tracks. What about mix tapes?.. Yikes

Actually, you can download the higher quality just by deleting the file from the hard drive after matching and then redownloading it, it still keeps the song in match and will let you redownload the higher quality.

And as for the capacity question, you can upload up to 20,000 songs. Thought I will warn if you have explicit songs, sometimes it does match to the edited version, at least I had that issue in the beta.

[nashlib]

i have been using this for the past 1 month or so - and this is really really awesome - it is like carrying the entire muss library in the palm of my hand - and this is NOT fan boy talk !!!