iTunes Match: Anyone used it yet?
I’m really hoping this comes to Canada shortly after the official release. After using Platinum Notes it breaks my heart to realize after comparing tracks before and after analysis that after analysis they just lose their life. I’m hoping to use Match as an easy way to just re-download my tracks again.
No. I wonder if it’ll try and swap 320kbps MP3 to 256kbps AAC?
Probably won’t use it until they start doing lossless.
And of course, every track swapped will probably lose it’s Traktor cues etc.
What do you mean when you say that the tracks loose their life after analysis?
@Alex,
Platinum notes ‘normalises’ every track so they are the same volume, but you also lose any high/low points in the song
what the heck r u guys talking about??? i always use legit 320 MP3s , better then 256 AAC imo, if you spek 256s they hit above 20kz but very weakly, and loose power in the range of 10-20 doing so, instead of hitting very solidly constantly at 20kz, wich i like and prefer more, listen for yourself
Oh right, Ive never used Platunum notes, dont even know what it is! But are you sure that it compresses the dynamics when normalising? Sounds kinda weird.
Normalizing tracks doesn’t lose highs & lows. Platinum Notes compresses tracks, last time I checked. Normalising just sets the highest peak of the song at 0db, keeping the dynamics intact.
@DJ.You.S.Bee - people are always arguing about 320kbps MP3 v 256kbps AAC, which indicated to me that they are so close in sound quality that it isn’t worth arguing about
…anyway, when I digitised my CD collection 7-8 years ago I did it at 128kbps MP3, which was an error.
WHat that the hell is iTunes Match (cant be bothered Googling).
Apple look at your iTunes collection, and upgrade your old, crappy files to 256kbps AAC
I don’t think the Match service is live just yet. Soon I think but I’m pretty sure they haven’t activated it just yet. I know they activated the buttons in iOS5 yesterday but no word for the actual service just yet.
So now that it’s out, anyone taken the plunge yet?
I have. iTunes Match will only replace your original files, if you delete your original file after it has been matched and choose to download the AAC version after.
Once it matches the song you have in your iTunes library, it will show as matched, but shows that you already have the song on your local hard drive. If you delete your original file and download from iTunes Match, you will receive the 265 kbps AAC version.
Since you will be receiving a whole new file, you will lose any and all Traktor tags with it. (Just consider it a new song.)
Here is a good read on how to upgrade your lesser quality tracks, using iTunes Match and smart playlist.
Link
Im not going to use match but it seems to me that you could totally cheat the system by naming any old mp3 as a song and artist you don’t have and it will replace it with the legit one (well 256k acc file).
I don’t think it works just by file name, but I am may be wrong.
It would really surprise me if Apple only looks at the file names and match using only that criteria.
I am sure Apple has placed some type of algorithms to discern whether a track it legit, or not.
I have “upgraded” a lot of my older music that I had ripped from CD’s at 128kbps. This is of course, when I didn’t know any better. I feel like my library is breathing newer life now.
It is well worth the 25 bucks a year.
Ya, I am sure it at least uses the artist and song tag data. Song length and other stuff might come into play, who knows. It would be quite a loophole though.
Maybe you could spend 30 minutes recording the 90 second sample on iTunes and pasting it together to make a track that was identical in length to the other song to save the .99 it would cost to buy the track.
If I may say, whomever does this, must be pretty desperate. But then again, there are many desperate people out there. 
I think stupid is a more fitting word.
It was just a thought haha! I am not using match! iTunes pisses me off enough as it is with it trying to sync with my phone every time its open and reloading deleted apps and all sorts of shit. I want iTunes to simply remain a stable and reliable way to keep my music sorted for Traktor.
I could imagine ways to automate this but I guess Apple took stuff like that into consideration.
I’m also sure NI will adress any issues which could arise from the use of Match in combination with Traktor soon.