Apple iTunes Match - Anyone Use?

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HeXen

HeXen

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2009
7,837
38
91
I just copy the music on my backup drive to my USB and stick it in my car. Its the only device i listen to music through.
 
lxskllr

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,000
10,485
126
tynopik said:
I thought arguing about codecs went out of style once storage/bandwidth made using lossless formats like flac reasonable
Click to expand...

I have over 15,000 digital tracks, and still have plenty of CDs and vinyl I could rip. As cheap as storage is, it would still be a significant cost to have them all in flac.

Every time I rip a damn disc, I get paralyzed by choice. mp3 is ubiquitous, but non-free. The patent expires in 2 years, but it really isn't that great anyway. So, maybe ogg? that's libre, but device support isn't as wide. It sounds a bit better, but... Maybe flac? Great sound, but huge size, and still the device support. I usually go with 256kbps vbr mp3, but I'm not completely happy with that.
 
HeXen

HeXen

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2009
7,837
38
91
tynopik said:
I thought arguing about codecs went out of style once storage/bandwidth made using lossless formats like flac reasonable
Click to expand...

Its still a relevant issue for many. On your desktop or lappy then sure, one could use lossless assuming they don't have many 15 gig video games and too many BR pr0n movies and you got the bandwidth to stream it to your devices. I have 36 lossless songs in 1 folder and it is 1.25 gigs. Just not doable for many like me.

Personally i go with 320kb AAC. i can't tell the difference between that and Flac. it's still a bit large, but its useable in my car and to me that matters most...Actually my car's system USB won't play Lossless, there are many like that. Some models do but you have to hunt and hope it has all the other features you want too. Quite a few Alpines, Sony's..etc car recievers wont play lossless on usb.
 
T

tynopik

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2004
5,245
500
126
DarkVision said:
Personally i go with 320kb AAC. i can't tell the difference between that and Flac. it's still a bit large, but its useable in my car and to me that matters most...Actually my car's system USB won't play Lossless, there are many like that.
Click to expand...

If you need lossy for some reason (mobile, streaming, whatever), I would still recommend ripping to lossless if possible then you can transcode to the lossy flavor of the week without too much heartache or extra work
 
Ichinisan

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
Been considering iTunes match for a while. I just searched the iTunes store for a CD that I own (Napoleon Dynamite Soundtrack). The first sample I listened to (Forever Young) is a completely different version than the one I have on my disc.

Also, my disc has 42 tracks and the iTunes Store version has 50 tracks.

This is going to be a strange experiment...

[edit]
Some of the tracks in iTunes Store are listed twice and have the same version. I think I'm reading this wrong.

[edit2]
OK, so I had to click the tiny album art in the iTunes store to see the actual tracks for the album. I don't know why those other songs were all listed with numbers. iTunes Store could be designed a bit better. We'll see if the iTunes overhaul in October helps with this.

I've never used iTunes for media, but I'm about to give it a shot.
 
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Fingolfin269

Fingolfin269

Lifer
Feb 28, 2003
17,948
34
91
Does this only sync to iDevices? I have an iPhone and a MBP just wondering if I'd be able to pull it to my Windows desktop as well.
 
Ichinisan

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
Horrible experience with iTunes so far. I haven't even gotten to the iCloud part. I'm just trying to rip a handful of soundtrack CDs. I know that some of them will be a challenge for matching, but I haven't even started on those.

It blazed through ripping the first few discs (with problems) and then slowed from ~30x speed to 1x-2.5x speed. Seems to max-out at 2.5x, like some kind of riplock limitation for audio CDs. Feels even slower than that. The album that slowed down has already taken almost an hour and it still has multiple tracks left to be ripped.

Here's the log I'm keeping:

Code: 
iTunes can't rip 2 CDs at once :(

Fantasia 2000
	Gracenote prompt appeared, asked me to pick one of the Fantasia 2000 selections.
	No way to compare differences.
	After selecting, no way to get it to ask again.
	Tracks are not grouped-together as a single album.
	Deleted and attempted to re-rip.
	Gracenote did not prompt so I could not choose the other selection.
	
Gladiator: Music From The Motion Picture
	Tracks are not grouped-together as a single album.
	
Gladiator: More Music From The Motion Picture
	Seems fine.
	
Down From The Mountain
	Ripping incredibly slow.
	1x-2.5x speed.
 
Last edited:
gorcorps

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,741
456
126
tynopik said:
If you need lossy for some reason (mobile, streaming, whatever), I would still recommend ripping to lossless if possible then you can transcode to the lossy flavor of the week without too much heartache or extra work
Click to expand...

Lossy flavor of the week? mp3 has been the standard for as long as digital music was popular
 
Brainonska511

Brainonska511

Lifer
Dec 10, 2005
28,661
13,793
136
lxskllr said:
I have over 15,000 digital tracks, and still have plenty of CDs and vinyl I could rip. As cheap as storage is, it would still be a significant cost to have them all in flac.

Every time I rip a damn disc, I get paralyzed by choice. mp3 is ubiquitous, but non-free. The patent expires in 2 years, but it really isn't that great anyway. So, maybe ogg? that's libre, but device support isn't as wide. It sounds a bit better, but... Maybe flac? Great sound, but huge size, and still the device support. I usually go with 256kbps vbr mp3, but I'm not completely happy with that.
Click to expand...

I rip to flac and use Winamp to convert to a smaller-media-player compatible format for music on the go.
 
Raduque

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
13,140
138
106
I think I'd rather use Amazon MP3's importing and matching service. $25/yr gets you a 250,000 song limit.
 
T

tynopik

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2004
5,245
500
126
gorcorps said:
Lossy flavor of the week? mp3 has been the standard for as long as digital music was popular
Click to expand...

Someone earlier was talking about using Opus

Then there's Ogg Vorbis

And even within MP3 there's different encoding profiles . . .
 
dave_the_nerd

dave_the_nerd

Lifer
Feb 25, 2011
16,992
1,621
126
Ichinisan said:
It blazed through ripping the first few discs (with problems) and then slowed from ~30x speed to 1x-2.5x speed. Seems to max-out at 2.5x, like some kind of riplock limitation for audio CDs. Feels even slower than that.
Click to expand...

I think you have a bad optical drive, honestly.

20-30x is typical for me, getting faster towards the end of the disc, and I've ripped hundreds of discs with iTunes.

No CD database is really great. Gracenote is run, iirc, by Sony, and they're better then most. But I'm pretty sure they have a noncompete clause in their licensing agreement, which is why iTunes doesn't work with other services.

If you actually have a crapload of CDs, you should probably look into something like Batch Ripper.

I've probably ripped ~1000 CDs with Batch Ripper. It's a great program. But the 400 included AMG lookups run out and freedb is missing a lot of things Gracenote has.
 
Last edited:
S

soulcougher73

Lifer
Nov 29, 2006
15,882
4,435
136
i did it just to get my original mp3 collection of likr 300 CD i no longer own to 256kbp. Worth the $25 for that alone for me.
 
S

soulcougher73

Lifer
Nov 29, 2006
15,882
4,435
136
ViviTheMage said:
so if you sync everything, and then cancel, can you still keep local copies of what you sync'd?
Click to expand...

Yeah you dont lose your original files on your computer. Basically if you have an mp3 that iTunes has it just adds that song to the cloud. But if you have a mp3 that iTunes does not have it will upload that song to your cloud at whatever bitrate it is.

Now the songs that you have that iTunes also has can be downloaded from the cloud back to your computer at 256kpbs. You have to delete those songs from your iTunes library though and then tell it to download those songs from the cloud back to your computer. (this is what i did since my old rips were 128kpbs)
 
ViviTheMage

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
soulcougher73 said:
Yeah you dont lose your original files on your computer. Basically if you have an mp3 that iTunes has it just adds that song to the cloud. But if you have a mp3 that iTunes does not have it will upload that song to your cloud at whatever bitrate it is.

Now the songs that you have that iTunes also has can be downloaded from the cloud back to your computer at 256kpbs. You have to delete those songs from your iTunes library though and then tell it to download those songs from the cloud back to your computer. (this is what i did since my old rips were 128kpbs)
Click to expand...
So it sounds like I could download and replace that original copy (like you 128k), cancel, and keep itunes new copy?
 
AMDZen

AMDZen

Lifer
Apr 15, 2004
12,589
0
76
Raduque said:
I think I'd rather use Amazon MP3's importing and matching service. $25/yr gets you a 250,000 song limit.
Click to expand...

First off, Amazon would be fine if you have Android but I don't think iPhone supports it. Also, they don't support 250,000 songs, they support 50 GB's of music.

I just reduced my collection (just whats shown in iTunes) to 22,512 songs which is 144.11 GB's of music.

They are estimating that 50 GB's would be 250,000 songs which is complete bullshit IMO.

Maybe its viable for some people though.

iTunes is better for me because the limit is on tracks at 25,000 and not GB's
 
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