Apple’s iTunes Match section of iTunes currently states:
New iTunes Match subscriptions are currently unavailable.
Due to overwhelming demand, iTunes Match is not accepting new subscriptions at this time. Please check back in an hour.
With iTunes Match, even songs you’ve imported from CDs can be stored in iCloud. And you can play them on any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC — whenever you want and wherever you are, without syncing. iTunes Match is just $24.99 a year.
Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to iCloud for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 20 million songs in the iTunes Store, chances are, your music is already in iCloud. And for the few songs that aren’t, iTunes has to upload only what it can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream and store it to any of your devices. 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.
MacDailyNews Take: We started up an account right around 11am PT/2pm ET and two hours later, here’s where it stands:
Be prepared for some slow-goin’ while demand is so high.
Oh, the Humanity! Bandwith, we need more bandwith! I want to sign up for this today!
And then Apple introduces patented “subspace” connectivity, bypassing all WiFi and 4G services. Then the comparisons to the Star Trek communicator really begin.
SELL, SELL, SELL!
Only stock that has demand way above supply in eVERYTHING they do and you have BOZO’S (or should that be Bezos) like this shouting “sell”!
Sell to who? YOU? Not likely!!!!
I think Randian was being facetious . . . . You I’m not so sure.
No, he was being sarcastic. 😉
Signed up a little after noon PST. Only 1600 or so songs in my library, but I’m all synced up. It seemed to upload a bunch of stuff that is in the store, even a few things I purchased in iTunes seemed to upload, so I’m a little confused, but it seems to be working.
I still think that is the reason Siri isn’t available on the iPad 2,
Once the initial set ups are done, things should work smoothly
Siri isn’t on iPad2 because of iTunes Match? Huh?
5384 songs/audio files take awhile to upload.
They don’t get UPLOADED unless iTunes doesn’t have the track in its lib. It’s unlikely iTunes is missing all 5834.
Yeah, thanks. I know how it works. Been using it for awhile now. Look at the photo MDN posted. It clearly shows that 5384 files were being uploaded.
Just need some clarification:
You can play it back on any device anytime but it plays from iCloud. Is it streaming? if it is streaming then you can’t play it back anytime.
Or does it push the songs to all the devices even if there is not room enough to hold them all? Id so then is this “Match” service just a convenient copy service?
What dont I get?
Quite a lot, so it seems.
1. You CAN play it anytime you want. What’s the problem? Connection? Of course you got have a connection!! WiFi or 3G will work.
2. If you don’t want previous stuff to be overwritten on your device with the latest song you are trying to play then have a bigger memory in your device. Right now 64GB is available in the iPhone and iPad….not sure if the iPod goes to 64GB.
ANYTIME? How about on an Airplane @ 34,000 ft somewhere over North America … OOPS! NOT then.
How about while driving on I-275 south of I-94 on the western side of Metro Detroit with an AT&T 3G signal … OOPS! Not then either – as AT&T has little or no signal on I-275 south of I-94 in Metro Detroit.
iFan, stop trolling.
It’s called in-flight wifi. get with the times.
Citations:
http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/inflight_services/products/wi-fi.jsp
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/04/in-flight-wifi-coming-to-300-united-and-continental-aircraft-beg/
If you have an iPhone, then you do get cellular service in most places. If you do not, then don’t pay for iTunes match. Furthermore, you can always manually sync your favorite songs so that you have them no matter where you are.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to opine and remove all doubt. Moron.
@maclouie
“Is it streaming?”
No. If you select to play a song not on your device, it will start to download and immediately start to play, so it seems as if it is streaming. The iTunes Match website states “you can stream and store it on any of your devices” which is kind of confusing. If you play it, it plays and downloads at the same time. Or else you can just download the songs without playing them.
“then is this “Match” service just a convenient copy service?”
Think of it as an enhanced copy/storage service.
When I turned it on on my iphone it wiped all my playlists. It’s still uploading songs on my Mac. Will my playlists return when it’s all done? Anyone know?
Guess I better wait, I’m at 62268 songs and am not even done importing my records yet..
36940 and haven’t even touched my vinyl. I wonder how many of the people who are really excited for iTunes Match will run into this limit.
>30,000 tracks and I’ve only gotten through half my 3,000+ CD album collection. I’ve done all the singles, compilations, etc.
I’m concerned about my “British” though – I’ve a great deal of music that was UK-mastered and I really, really preferred the sound of those — the placement of the instruments in the mix, the sound of the vocals, etc. I wonder if the match is just going to be artiste & song and if I therefore stand to lose a great deal of the unique character of my collection. I wonder if there’ll be a way to exclude designated tracks from the match process.
I guess I’ll wait ’til some of that is answered…
VC – I think iTunes Match uses the existing tags to do its matching (am I wrong?). If that is the case, you could always alter the tags on the “British” tracks you want to preserve, and then they won’t get “Matched”, but instead uploaded from your computer.
This is assuming the limit gets raised, of course, so we music hoarders can actually get in the program.
@Galloway
“I think iTunes Match uses the existing tags to do its matching (am I wrong?”
iTunes Match does not use any tags to match. It “fingerprints” the songs alá Shazaam and Soundhound.
@Truth
” I’m at 62268 songs and am not even done importing my records yet..”
iTunes Match will match anything in your library that is in iTunes.
The 25000 song limit applies to songs that are not available in iTunes. Songs that are not matched are uploaded as the 25000 limit. Most of your music will be in iTunes and those will not apply to the 25000 song limit.
That’s not true, Chris. At least 90% of my library is available on iTunes, just ripped from my CD’s. But I’m still denied entry to iTunes Match.
Sucks that there is a 25,000 song limit. I’m currently just over 30,000 tracks so hopefully they will bump the ceiling soon to maybe 50,000
I’ve got lots of duplicated songs, lots that didn’t transfer, and lots of empty playlists. It’s only a total of a couple hundred songs, and it looks like about half didn’t sync.
I guess I could add that a bunch are listed as 0 bytes, and don’t play.
Same thing happened to me. I synced again, everything caught up, all is well.
Probably a lot of the issues stem from faulty/incomplete metadata…you know, that stuff that we usually ignore unless we have a good helping of OSD in our personalities. (Time to go organize my sock drawer by Pantone number)
Hmmm… I think this is no good for rural dwellers away from high-speed streaming then?
Guess I’ll have to wait for a while. Pity – just a few miles from the UK’s Number One university city, but might as well be on a beach somewhere…
No that’s a good idea actually! 😉
5384 items? Bunch of lightweights. I really don’t think I’ll bother with it, I’m just going to get a 3Tb external with remote app access, like the Seagate Go-Flex or Western Digital’s version, that way I’ve got my own cloud storage and no annual subscription.
Or any drive and a Pogo Plug should work, right? I also saw someone suggest MyTunesRSS, which creates a web page with links to your tracks that you can stream from anywhere.
There are options. Not as convenient, but options.
Only 3TB and you’re calling folks lightweights. Call when when you pass 50TB
4700 songs done. Just didn’t upload dj sets that were over a hour long
@Rorschach,
I am thinking the same as you are. I am planning on buying the Seagate Go-Flex and set up my own mini WiFi cloud storage. We don’t have ubiquitous WiFi hot spots in my parts of Western, MA. And I don’t pay for 3G/4G service.
So, using iTunes Match and iTunes in the cloud doesn’t work well for me.
Plus, I have a lot of music from sources I am positive iTunes won’t find match. I have music from electronic musical instrument manufacturers that I like to listen to that both iTunes and the new iTunes match won’t ever find.
My way, I have constant access to all of my music, movies and photos on my Mac! The added benefit…no yearly fee!
For all of you that are playing with the thought of making your own “iCloud” service… I have been using SubSonic for quite some time now. It offers on-the-fly transcoding of music to a WIDE variety of devices, such as any iOS-device, windows phone, browser and platform dependent clients for at least the Mac. It also supports streaming (and transcoding) video directly in a web browser. The server runs on almost any platform. Just wanted to let you know! 😉
Will it run on a G5 xserve?
so the cloud already handicaps music bitrate to 256 kbps. now the cloud can’t even handle the signups.
not impressed. i can sync on my own network with much less hassle.
Apple strikes ANOTHER HIT!
So of course the stock price is down again. Tardiness on Wall Street abounds. Just laugh at the foolish… 😆
Is it available here in Canada yet??? If so, how do I activate it or sign up once I am in the ITunes store???
and this is why when Apple releases something new i usually hang back for a while until the kinks are worked out.