iTunes Match is now live, in the US at least. Apple's service that lets you sync tunes with iCloud so you can listen on any compatible device wherever you are, has launched later than promised, which makes us think us Brits might not see it until next year.
Cynical? Us?
If you haven't heard of iTunes Match, it's simple. It stores your music in the cloud instead of taking up valuable hard drive space. So sync your music collection, and you can listen on any iOS device or computer running iTunes wherever you are in the world. You can only upload up to 25,000 songs (though iTunes purchases don't count, so you can spend away), and for the privilege you have to pay $25 (about £15) a year.
It went live today in the US only, but Apple said at its iPhone 4S event last month it was working hard to bring the service to other countries before the end of the year. Though considering Match was promised for the US before the end of October, we don't think we'll be seeing it until 2012. Fingers crossed it does reach these shores before the year is over, we can't wait to listen to music on our iPhone without it taking up valuable app space.
Google's Music Store is rumoured to launch on Wednesday, apparently with the ability to share tunes with friends a la Spotify and Facebook. According to leaked screens, it also seems we'll be getting a free song every single day. Music to our ears.
Can Google Music Store challenge iTunes? And how long should Apple take to bring iTunes Match to these shores? Let us know below, or head over to our Facebook page and give us a tune.
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anonymous 14 November, 2011 20:03
Omnifone licensed scan and match for Sony's Music Unlimited service nearly a year ago. Its been live in the UK since December 2010 and in the US since February 2011.
Aaron Asare 15 November, 2011 00:07
Sony's Music Unlimited is a good service, in fact if it had an offline mode for both desktop and android I would switch from Spotify, however, its MusicSync function is terrible! It frequently incorrectly matches tracks so that you end up with hundred of tracks in your library that you shouldn't be in there and even more tracks missing that should be in there. Equally irritating is it adding all the tracks from a particular album but not as a complete album, so that you end up with an album minus all of the singles that were released then all of the singles added to your library individually; a similar problem occur when it adds a re-released album that had bonus tracks, in this instance it adds both the original and re-released versions but with the tracks randomly distributed between the two so neither is a complete album.
Hopefully Apple's service will allow you to check that it has correctly matched your tracks before they are imported to your cloud library, and then make corrections if they are not, so that it doesn't suffer from these kind of issues.
anonymous 15 November, 2011 00:08
It's such a shame that we have to wait in the UK. I think it will harm our musicians most of all who would undoubtably get increased sales following the excitement and rediscovery as customers browse through their old music library.
anonymous 15 November, 2011 12:30
Can the AAC files be downloaded on to your HDD permanently to replace the existing music files, or do you HAVE to stream the content? If the latter, then it's not too good if you have a limited data allowance on your phone.
Or am I missing the point of what Match actually does?
I was thinking of backing up my mp3 files (320kbps CBR Lame) to an external HDD, then replacing the mp3 files on my mac with the AAC 256kbps files from Match.
This will ensure that any transcoded files that I have previously unknowingly obtained will be of better quality, and will also save space on my HDD without me having to be iTunes/Match subscription dependent in the future.
Will the above be possible?