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Squirrelly
join:2000-10-24
Harrisburg, PA

Squirrelly

Member

iTunes Match

So how well does iTunes Match work? I would say most (90%) of my stuff is tagged correctly but I know some is not and I have some Live stuff also. I would like to use it but kinda afraid it might mess things up.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

I use it all the time. Initially, the "matching" part was pretty hit and miss, but it's gotten significantly better in the last year or two.

It will not retag anything you currently have, so there's not really any concern about your library getting messed up. The tags also don't have to be 100% correct for something to get matched either; iTunes uses multiple criteria to figure out which songs you have. For things not in the iTunes Store, it will upload your copy, so the Live stuff will work just fine, too.

On iOS, it requires a bit more micromanagement depending on your use case. For example, if I know I'm going to be on a plane for 6 hours, I'll set a bunch of albums or playlists to download to my iPhone the night before. Then when I get on the plane, there's a "Show All Music" option that I turn off - that lets you see music that's only on your phone. When I get off the plane, I go into Settings > Usage and delete all Music to free up some space.

Squirrelly
join:2000-10-24
Harrisburg, PA

Squirrelly

Member

You say it doesn't retag the music, I thought it did? So if I do this it will automatically match what I have if it can find it and it then downloads the new song in the higher bit rate. Does it download it automatically or do I have to do it? I have over 25,000 songs so I know I need to make a new library for this to work.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

Where does it say it retags the music? That's never been a feature of iTunes Match, AFAIK.

It does not automatically download anything if you currently have a copy of that song on your device. So if you turn on iTunes Match on your computer first, then let it go through the matching process, nothing will download. If you have lower quality songs that get matched on your computer, you'll keep the lower quality version.

Now on other devices that do not have local copies of those songs, it will download the highest quality version available (256Kbps for matched songs, whatever you uploaded for unmatched songs).

Back on your computer, you can also force-download the 256Kbps version of local songs that were matched by deleting your local copy and then selecting download.

Not sure if it helps you, but songs that you've purchased through the iTunes Music Store don't count toward the 25,000 limit

Squirrelly
join:2000-10-24
Harrisburg, PA

Squirrelly

Member

Thanks. Think I will try it. I thought it retagged the songs so that's why I never tried it.