iTunes Match: $24.99/Year, Matches Ripped Tunes, Offers Them In The Cloud

Piracy Laundry.... right there.

So 25 bucks a year to legitimize several years' worth of downloaded music? Sign me up

Available in beta now in the U.S. only and requires iOS 4.3.1 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM model), iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac or PC with iTunes 10.3. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer in the iTunes Store. Download iTunes 10.3 free.

Requires iOS 5 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac computer with OS X Lion or a PC with Windows Vista or Windows 7 (Outlook 2007 or 2010 recommended). Limit 25,000 songs. iTunes purchases do not count against limit.

Unmatched content will be uploaded; upload time varies depending on amounts uploaded.

Upload time varies depending on amounts uploaded.

Unmatched content will not be upgraded.

Cap.

I honestly call this DOA because we have to pay a $25 a year label tax. Compared to Google Music same 20k worth of songs is 100% free. Apple we have to pay $25 a year to have access to the same songs we already paid for.

I disagree. This will be huge, no one else can come close and for $25.00 per year it is kinda like an tax paid to the labels. Let's face it only about 1 in 40 songs on the typical iTunes library was paid for.

Cap.

I honestly call this DOA because we have to pay a $25 a year label tax. Compared to Google Music same 20k worth of songs is 100% free. Apple we have to pay $25 a year to have access to the same songs we already paid for.

Uh, you have remembered that Google Music is only free WHILE IN BETA right? Oh, and I've got no problem with the charge for iTunes Match as:

a) a lot of content uploaded WILL be pirated and they're effectively licencing it all when you do upload.

b) iTunes content ripped at lower bitrates effectively gets a free upgrade without having to spend the time re-ripping

c) most importantly, I don't have to spend WEEKS (and I'm lucky, unlimited uploads, most would have to batch this over months) uploading my data and clogging my internet connection in the process. That's easily worth $25.

Im sorry, but that just seems like an incredible offer. Hesitation over my mostly non-iTunes ripped music was the biggest concern I had in the "iCloud". This is awesome.

1. If I sign up and it matches my ripped music, does it then let me download the matched version from iCloud to keep forever?

2. What happens when I stop paying for this service? Do I keep the downloaded music from iCloud or does it revert to my old copies of music?

Thanks!

1) You HAVE TO download it and it is DRM-free, so I assume the logical answer is "YES".
2) You will be cancelling the matching service but already have a copy of the DRM-free file, so the logical answer is "YES, you get to keep the "upgraded version".

Disclaimer: I'm just answering based on how it sounds like it will work...

I'm assuming here that the catch is that iTunes Match will be the only way to activate iTunes over iCloud. Without iTunes Match iCloud won't let you sync your music via the cloud, so you have to do it manually; not a big deal sure, but it's the hook they're hoping to keep you paying with.

So the point is that you pay the yearly fee (even just for a year), and instead of uploading all your songs to iCloud, they try to match as many of them to existing copies that they have. When you sync another device it'll just pull the iTunes copies of the music detected on your other machines. Presumably you'll also be able to sync your source machine as well so any poor copies of the music can be replaced with the iTunes copies, though I'm curious to know what it'll do with tracks you have that are already "better" (since it can be subjective, and higher bit-rate might not mean a better copy), maybe it'll give you the option to replace it as you like?

Only songs that aren't found on iTunes will be uploaded to iCloud as a result.


This can be seen in several ways; they're giving a way to minimise the amount of stuff you have to upload to iCloud, making for faster syncing and less space used-up on your iCloud account and you're getting (probably) better copies of music that you've ripped from CD's or… elsewhere.


All in all it seems like win-win to me. I don't actually have any devices to sync with, but I'll happily buy a year's worth just to update poor copies of music that I have that I imported ages ago, or bought back in the iTunes music store's infancy.


I hope though that it will allow streaming for songs that either aren't synced yet, or that you simply can't fit, as my computer has way more music than even a high-end iPad could hold, so what would happen then? I'd hope I could set aside 10gb for music on my iPad, and iTunes would only locally store the ones I listen to most, and stream any others that don't fit, or something like that anyway.

Piracy Laundry.... right there.

First person to accurately explain how the matching service works wins a prize of immeasurable value. ;)