Well, here we go again...

Apple launched iTunes match in the US yesterday, but it looks like us Canadians are (once again) out of luck thanks to our wonderful legal landscape.

A comparison between itunes pages on apple.com vs. apple.ca clearly reveals that iTunes Match is not available here. Yet, Apple clearly said iTunes Match would be available here "shortly after the service launches in the US".

I wonder if we'll ever see this service in Canada. This article doesn't sound encouraging...

http://macwest.org/tech/?p=36

Apple clearly said iTunes Match would be available here "shortly after the service launches in the US".

I wonder if we'll ever see this service in Canada. This article doesn't sound encouraging...

They have to reason to lie. They don't make money on people's raised hopes.

I think the issue is that Apple will basically 'store' any music you have, even if it was not purchased through iTunes. That seems to have some music companies upset because it, in essence, gives you a crystal clear copy of a song that you might not have obtained through a paid service.

I bet it will be a while before we see it here since the Canadian recording industry seems to take longer to agree to things.

I'm not sure that you get to keep a local copy of the "new&improved" DRM-free 256kbps song.
Here's what iTunes Match looks like:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/923775/Pics/iTunesMatch.png
Note that it says you "stores your music library in the cloud" and "plays matched song…even if original was of lower quality".

So - sounds like it'll match up what it can, and allow you to stream that top-quality sound, but it doesn't clearly state that you get to keep a local copy on each of your iDevices.

I thought that it was pretty clear that you didn't get to keep a copy, just gain access to streaming it

Has anyone signed up for this on the US iTunes store? I was thinking of doing this, but I have to replenish my iTunes account with more money first.

It's not a streaming service, from what I've read. It does actually download the file to your device. If it shows up in Canada, I will be surprised.

You need a US credit card and address, even if you are using a US iTunes account. I have a credit balance on my US account, but it won't use that.

I guess I will need to look at signing up for a US virtual Visa card. Thanks for the heads up

You need a US credit card and address, even if you are using a US iTunes account. I have a credit balance on my US account, but it won't use that.
weird, I subscribed with my US account and it used the iTunes credit I had from gift cards. It didn't charge my credit card, my credit balance went down.

Wasn't there a service called mp3.com that tried to do this a decade ago but it was shut down by "the powers that be".

Except this time Apple has negotiated an arrangement with the labels and is paying them a fee.

Subscribe for $24.99
That's a neat scam. Make people pay to play music that they already own. :confused: Is that per month or what? I wonder if it recognizes CDs and purchases from other services or is it just music purchased from iTunes?

It's per year and will recognize tracks in iTunes regardless of source. Not a scam - you're paying for cloud service and potentially an upgrade to the quality of your tracks.

If you launch iTunes and visit the Store you will notice a new addition to the Quick Links section on the right-hand side of the screen. The addition of iTunes Match. It's going to cost $27.99 per year in Canada.

Okay, I need some clarification.

From what I understand...

You pay $28 a year.
Apple scans your music collection
Then it either uploads the song (if their is no match) or duplicates it on the web.

Your songs are all safely stored on the web and available anytime and anywhere either for streaming or download.


Is that correct?

Beyond being a backup for your music collection (which is nice), I guess the benefit is you can stream stuff to your portable device when you aren't at home.

Pretty much.

Apple scans your collection to determine which tracks it already has in the iTunes Store and makes them available to you for streaming from anywhere using any of your devices that are compatible with the service. The tracks it cannot match are uploaded to their cloud servers so they can be included in the service. Also, any tracks that were not purchased from iTunes are replaced with iTunes Plus 256 kbps AAC equivalents. No matter where you got them, no questions asked. As well, as far as I know, if you are storing tracks in a lossless format they will be replaced so people should store those separately until the matching is completed.

The idea is to avoid having to upload tracks that are already available from Apple's servers and only upload what they don't have. This saves you time and bandwidth by not having you upload all of your tracks to their servers and it saves Apple space on their servers storing duplicate tracks they already have.

In addition to making all your tracks available it also preserves all the information and organization you may have in your library like playlists, play counts, star ratings, etc. This is another differentiator from the plain 'iTunes in the Cloud' service which is free but only works with purchases made from iTunes and does not stream.

Note that if you have more than 25,000 non iTunes tracks in your library it won't allow you to sign up until you set up a second library containing less than 25,000 tracks.

As well, as far as I know, if you are storing tracks in a lossless format they will be replaced so people should store those separately until the matching is completed.

So are you saying that if its on your PC in lossless format that it will be overwritten?

Since I back up daily and have off-site backups of all my media, I really don't see tremendous value for me. I also subscriber to Rdio for $10.00 a month so I really have cloud access to 10 million song right now.

(Not denigrating the iTunes Match service, just not enough value for me personally though for those that aren't vigilant in backing up, then this has extra value)

There are a few how-tos on the web on how to ensure you use iTunes Match "safely"; that is, ensuring that your tracks don't get over-written, just in case something goes haywire, or you use a lossless format or other reason.
Macworld has some good tips as well. http://www.macworld.com/article/163676/2011/11/secrets_of_itunes_match.html