iTunes Match

[David M]

iTunes match will store up to 25,000 of your songs in the cloud for $25. It is available for Windows based computers as well.

You might say: So what, I can store my music for free on my computer.

The advantage is that it will convert the music you have, pirated or not and regardless of what bit rate it was recorded at. It will "convert" your music library over to 256Kbps. If you have music not listed on iTunes Match it will go find it. It of course will also find the correct metadata.

I think it is a great way of organizing whatever mess you music library might be in....especially for people with huge libraries. I know my library could be in much better order.

I have about 50,000 songs in my music library. What I am going to do is to make a copy of my music library, whittle it down to a little less than 25,000 of my favorite songs and then load iTunes Match. I will report back on how well it works. It of course is going to take quite some time to delete 25,000 songs.

Yeah I know I just got done listing a bunch of advantages to cloud computing, but this clearly has some advantages, such as making all you music available to all of your devices.

Apple - iTunes - Match

[Force Flow]

Originally Posted by David M It will "convert" your music library over to 256Kbps. If you have music not listed on iTunes Match it will go find it.

If you have file encoded at less than 256Kbps, you're not gaining anything. An MP3 encoded at 128Kbps is still going to sound like 128Kbps...maybe a little worse after being converted a second time. It's a lossy format, after all.

As for apple and the cloud, their track record isn't that great. I'd half expect a collection to go *poof* without warning and Apple to just shrug their shoulders and say "oh well".

[David M]

Originally Posted by Force Flow If you have file encoded at less than 256Kbps, you're not gaining anything. An MP3 encoded at 128Kbps is still going to sound like 128Kbps...maybe a little worse after being converted a second time. It's a lossy format, after all.

You are correct about the bitrate, music recorded at a certain bitrate will not upscale to better sound from the original recording. But you don't upload your music library to Apple. iTunes takes note of what songs you have in your library and then Apple lets you use THEIR copy of that song from the cloud or lets you download their copy of that song to your computer. Or you can do both. That is one of the good things about it, if you only have a copy of a song recorded at 128 Kbps, they will "send" you their copy at 256Kbps or let you listen to their copy at 256 Kbps over the web.

Originally Posted by Force Flow As for apple and the cloud, their track record isn't that great. I'd half expect a collection to go *poof* without warning and Apple to just shrug their shoulders and say "oh well".

You keep your original music library on your computer. Your iTunes library does not get uploaded to Apple. The only thing that gets uploaded is a list of the music that you have in iTunes.

Source...
http://www.macworld.com/article/1636...d_to_know.html
http://www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-match/

[David M]

So there is a way around it.

Getting around Match's 25,000 track limit.....
Dealing with iTunes Match's 25,000 Track Limit | Macworld

So what I plan on doing now is to keep my original music library, which I don't even keep in iTunes. Then I will let Apple clean up a copy of the library that I have in iTunes.

50,000 songs is about 250 Gigs of drive space, So storing two music libraries for a total 500 Gigs is not too much for a 1TB drive.

[Force Flow]

Originally Posted by David M iTunes takes note of what songs you have in your library and then Apple lets you use THEIR copy of that song from the cloud or lets you download their copy of that song to your computer.

Gotcha. That makes more sense.