Just downloaded the iTunes update (had to do that manually from the iTunes web page; Software Update didn't see it) and it's "gathering information" about my library now -- fun to see how this all works out =)

edit:

After about 25 minutes of crunching it ended up matching a bit over half my library of 5,677 songs, having to upload 2,507 ... as I'm pretty sure my library is on the small side, I wonder if this scales reasonably to a larger, more "normal" one =)

/edit

edit 2:

Now I think about it, since it uploaded my copy of, say, William Shatner's version of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," does that mean someone having the same version in their library won't have to upload theirs? Or will there be zillions of separate versions of that seminal classic?

IOW, if song X is uploaded once, does iTunes Match use that to serve everyone else who owns it?

/edit2

I think that it uses yours to supply everyone else's

Thanks!

Interesting: I started with 5,677 songs in my library and now have 5,813 and counting up as it goes (taking a long time to upload stuff, I guess ;-) ... it appears to be adding 256 kbps versions of purchased songs to my library if the ones I had were at the old 128 kbps rate and flagging the old ones as duplicates. Since it's still grinding away, I don't know if it will eventually replace the 128 ones or just keep them flagged when all is said and done =)

iTunes uses songs that are contained in the official iTunes catalog. So if you have some song that iTunes doesn't offer, it doesn't "match" the song. So, it doesn't matter if you and I have some arbitrary bootleg song, or a song that isn't available via iTunes - we would both be uploading the song independent of each other.

Just signed up. See how this goes. I'll be replacing a lot of Amazon MP3s with AAC versions.

Tempting, but at $25 a year, I'm not sure if I want to pay that.

What happens if, after a year, you decide not to keep iTunes Match? Does it take away the stuff that you downloaded from iTunes Match? Or does it actually let you keep those files?

It does not remove those files from your system. It will remove all of your uploaded (unmatched) content from their servers and kill your ability to download future matched songs.

What I'm using it for is upgrading ~1500 songs. Moving from mp3 to AAC, and everything to 256kbps. It will also allow me to easily download songs to my work computer that I have at home and want to listen to.

I guess the one thing I like is to upgrade the ones that are lower than 256, but not sure how many I have.

Other than that, I load up my iPhone with the music I want to listen to, so I don't see any real advantage (for myself) of having the ability to download to iPad/iPhone

.
Has any of you read the point that this iTunes music matach means Apple is encouraging Piracy? I have read several articles, but it doesn't make sense to me. Not including a link here. It is easy to find reading on the subject.

It looks like each song, although having no DRM, is still associated with an AppleID and can't be played on devices that aren't authorized with that ID -- so any "piracy" cold only work with a limited number of devices ...

... at least, I *think* that's the deal ;-)

To follow-up on this, it looks like it did not automagically replace the old 128 kbps files -- it seems you have to do that manually by deleting the 128 version and downloading the 256 one ...

Although its still somewhat of a mystery why I now have more songs on my library than when I began -- I have yet to crunch through the whole thing but perhaps it duplicated some stuff for some reason ...

In other news, the iTunes Match feature on my iPhone and iPad is pretty boss -- it now lists my entire library that's now in the iCloud with a button to download if I want them on either device. Neat!

Hey, be quiet! You are NOT helping me keep from trying it out! Ha

Yeah, I read that you have to delete the older version first then download


I wonder if you can bypass the AppleID thing if you burn the music to CD then rip it again?

And, does Match use your cloud ID or your apple ID? (I know, same thing, but what I want to know is if you have multiple iCloud ID's but one master apple ID, will it work on all devices?)

Kate, read this http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=13850490&postcount=58

Couple things.

The files do not have DRM on them. They can be played anywhere that regular ripped AAC files can be played.

The only thing tied to your AppleID is the devices connected to use iTunes Match. Essentially you are just logging into your account and acknowledging that you want to have access to everything in the cloud.

What you end up creating is a "master collection" in the cloud that all of your devices can see and access music from. If you are merging several computers that each have slightly different music on them, you will see the combined list after you are done.

Seems to answer lots of questions, doesn't it.

Thank you

And here's a MacWorld article that explains even more =)

Wow! Okay, just now starting to go through and replacing all the old 128k versions with the Matched 256k ones -- if nothing else, this alone is definitely worth the $25 =D

1st attempt: iTunes spent all day "accessing iTunes Store".

And I mean ALL day. I ended up force quitting iTunes.

Finally got it, but some songs have the iCloud with an ! in it. Clicking on it gives me this:
This item was not added to iCloud because an error occurred.

and there are a LOT of mine that don't have an iCloud symbol. Not sure how to upgrade my music?

And why do I get this one?

This item is not eligible for iCloud.

http://www.macworld.com/article/163658/2011/11/itunes_match_what_you_need_to_know.html

http://www.macworld.com/article/163606/2011/11/check_your_musics_icloud_status.html

Between those two links you should find answers to your questions =)

For the ones that have errors, just try again by right-clicking and selecting "upload to iCloud" (or something like that) -- all the ones that had errors after the initial uploading worked fine on the second try for me.