iTunes Match

Now in UK (among others) after a false start.

In reference to www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/dec/16/apple-itunes-match-uk:

Apple has launched its music streaming and "cloud" storage service iTunes Match in the UK, allowing the technology giant and music industry to generate revenue from years of illicit downloads.

The ambitious upgrade to Apple's iTunes Music Store was introduced in the US in November, but was made available to UK users yesterday.

The service replicates all music stored on a user's computer � including illegally-downloaded material and tracks ripped from CDs � with better-quality alternatives from its own "cloud" for £21.99 a year.

lololol. I doubt very much itunes has a massive library of flac files.

Ah. Junior Troll is in the house.

Senior can't be far behind.

Better quality is not synonymous with Best quality.

English is a tricky language, but I'm sure you'll have got the hang of it when you've grown up.

Er, if I have flac, then 'better' is obviously going to be either flac or better. Hence: I doubt they have a library of flac files.

I think you are having trouble understanding my point billford. I can draw a picture for you if it'll help?

In reply to a post by 12eason:

Er, if I have flac, then 'better' is obviously going to be either flac or better. Hence: I doubt they have a library of flac files.

I think you are having trouble understanding my point billford. I can draw a picture for you if it'll help?

The phrase used was "....ripped from CDs � with better-quality alternatives from its own "cloud"..." so the comparison is with music ripped from CDs, which for iTunes is AAC.

The comparison is not with whatever you have your nursery rhymes stored as... like I said, English is tricky until you've had a lot of experience.

I have some shocking news for you billford: It is perfectly possible to rip a flac from a CD. I'm well aware that itunes uses AAC, which means that it will not be a better alternative.

In reply to a post by 12eason:

I have some shocking news for you billford: It is perfectly possible to rip a flac from a CD.

Yes, I know, but it may have escaped your limited attention that the article is about iTunes- the capabilities of other applications are not within its scope.

I'm well aware that itunes uses AAC, which means that it will not be a better alternative.

You really are displaying your limited abilities with a no doubt unfamiliar tongue... the point is that flac (or .wav or whatever) from the Cloud would be a better alternative to the format the user had locally in their iTunes library.

I'm glad we've got that cleared up, once again I am pleased to accept your apology.

Edited by billford (Fri 16-Dec-11 23:22:58)

It says nothing about using itunes to rip the CDs. It refers to ALL of the music on someone's computer, regardless or where it came from.

Your apology is accepted.

Amm here's a thought, don't subscribe.
I have all my music ripped as Apple Lossless, I don't buy aac or mp3's but I don't go around boasting about it.

Dude, get off my case. I do not intend to subscribe, but I don't see what that has to do with you??

When you put comments in an open forum it's 'got to do" with anyone who uses the forum.

In reply to a post by 12eason:

It says nothing about using itunes to rip the CDs. It refers to ALL of the music on someone's computer, regardless or where it came from.

It seems to imply that you will be able to stream "your" music, but Apple owns the licence?

A spokesman for PRS for Music, the UK trade body for songwriters and music publishers, said Apple had "done the right thing" by obtaining licences before launching the service.

No. iTunes Match is not a streaming service (like Spotify), you purchase the items and download them to your devices. Unlike a streaming service, you don't have to be online to listen to your music.

I'm not sure what licences are being talked about here, but they must be licences to sell the music to a third party.

Edit: Correction; that appears to be wrong. It is a streaming and a download service. But my point remains - you have actually purchased the music, not just the right to listen to it via a streaming service.

Edited by deleted (Sat 17-Dec-11 09:18:23)

In reply to a post by AEP:

No. iTunes Match is not a streaming service (like Spotify), you purchase the items

You mean you pay £21.99 a year, but then still have to purchase the items to download them? What's the £21.99 for then?

No. You pay £21.99 and then you can download (or stream) any music that you have previously purchased. So if you have ripped 24,999 tracks from CDs you can download (for that £21.99) high-quality versions of all of them as well as anything that you have purchased from iTunes. That's not a bad deal for £21.99.

(I say 24,999 because, I believe, there is a 25,000 limit on music that you have obtained from sources other than iTunes.)

Edit: And you can download that content to 10 devices - so not a bad deal really.

Edited by deleted (Sat 17-Dec-11 09:23:37)

The original article is misleading as it's indicating that iTunes Match will provide better quality than your music on your machine. The Apple page says "Even better, all the music iTunes matches plays back from iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality � even if your original copy was of lower quality." which is a fairer statement.

If my music is stored as AIFF or lossless files on my machine iTunes Match I doubt that Apple will provide a better quality file, which the original article is implying.

It's just the usual Apple hype m8 for the 'usual suspect' sheep that buy into it

That explains the problem I had signing on with my iTunes account yesterday. Good.

I think that was unrelated. The false start was earlier (Wednesday), but the login problem seemed generalised yesterday morning.