iTunes Match

Apple starts rolling out iTunes Match with audio fingerprinting to Apple Music subscribers

When it debuted more than a year ago, Apple Music originally lacked support for iTunes Match, instead relying on a less accurate metadata matching system. That feature, however, has been inconveniencing many Apple Music subscribers who couldn't properly match songs they already had in their iTunes libraries.

As first reported by The Loop, iTunes Match with audio fingerprinting is now being rolled out to all Apple Music subscribers and it works like a charm.

Multiple iCloud services experiencing downtime, App Store/iTunes purchases affected

Apple on Thursday morning reported a number of issues with various iCloud services. According to the iCloud Status webpage, these problems are preventing many users around the world from making purchases in Apple's app and content stores.

In addition, “new and recently changed content may not have updated across devices for iCloud Drive, Backup, iCloud Notes, iWork for iCloud and Photos,” reads a notice on the webpage.

UPDATE: As of 9:10am PT, all of the affected iCloud services had been restored.

Apple appears to have upped the iTunes Match track limit

According to a report by blogger Kirk McElhearn, Apple has increased iTunes Match and iCloud Music Library track limits above the original 25,000 track threshold. This increase, while yet to be officially acknowledged by Apple, has been in the cards since at least summer.

Although Eddy Cue, who serves as Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, said that the limit would rise to 100,000 around the iOS 9 release, the increase hit an apparent delay, and has just now begun to roll out to users.

Apple Music and iTunes Match scan-and-match quadrupling to 100,000 songs by year end

Following last month's iOS 9 release, Apple's failed to raise the song-matching limit to 100,000 tracks.

Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, said back in the summer that Apple was “working to” quadruple the scan-and-match song limit by iOS 9's release.

In an effort to clarify the situation, MacRumors reached out to Cue and got the definitive confirmation that the limit for matched Apple Music and iTunes Match libraries will raise from the current 25,000 tracks to 100,000 songs “before the end of the year.”

Apple pushes iTunes 12.2.1 update fixing iTunes Match and Beats 1 issues

Apple on Monday issued a bug-fix update to iTunes for Mac and Windows. iTunes 12.2.1, available through the Software Update mechanism or standalone via iTunes.com/download, fixes a pair of issues with iTunes Match, Apple's $25 per year song identification service. In addition, it contains minor bug fixes and improvements for Beats 1, Apple's free of charge 24/7 global Internet radio broadcasting in more than a hundred countries.

Find out if Apple Music, Apple Music Radio, Beats 1 and iTunes Match are available in your country

Apple's new music package, available across 115 countries around the world, packs in Apple Music Radio, Beats 1 Radio, iTunes Match and Apple Music on-demand streaming. But not all of these services are available in each and every country.

For example, people in Romania can only enjoy iTunes Match. Beats 1 Radio is currently off-limits in nearly two dozen countries. In addition, eight countries currently lack access to Apple Music, Apple Music Radio and Beats 1 Radio.

This article helps you find out in which countries you can join Apple Music, listen to Apple Music Radio (formerly iTunes Radio) and Beats 1 Radio or subscribe to iTunes Match.

iOS 8.4 launching at 8am Tuesday, iTunes Match song limit increasing to 100,000 with iOS 9

Former Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers wrote in a blog post yesterday that iOS 8.4 with Apple Music will release for public consumption on Tuesday, June 30, at 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern. A few hours later, however, Rogers has updated his post removing mention of the specific timing.

“Tuesday morning we’ll be unveiling the next chapter,” reads the post. “Please make a note to upgrade to iOS 8.4 Tuesday, June 30 and listen to our first day of broadcasting.”

Rogers is now a Senior Director of Apple Music.

How to transfer your music to a new computer using iTunes Match

iTunes Match is a paid service from Apple that allows you to store all your music in iCloud, regardless of where it originated from. For example, it could be music imported from CDs, downloaded from online music stores, or even music that was downloaded in ways that go against copyright laws. In short, iTunes Match matches or uploads all your music to iCloud so you can stream or download it from any of your Apple devices, including Mac, iPhone, and Apple TV.

With that said, iTunes Match offers an easy way to move your iTunes library to a new computer without having to deal with transferring files from one hard drive to the other. In this post, I will show you how to transfer your iTunes library to a new computer using iTunes Match.

iTunes Match now available in Japan

Apple continues its international expansion of iTunes services this afternoon, with the launch of iTunes Match in Japan. iOS users in the country can now access the service, which first launched in the United States back in 2011.

For those unfamiliar with the service, iTunes Match allows users to 'mirror' their music libraries to the cloud. This enables them to access their songs from any compatible device, without having to spend hours uploading them...

Apple expands iTunes Match to Finland, Norway and other countries

Apple has expanded its iTunes Match service to several new European countries this week. Users in Finland, Denmark, Sweden and other areas are reporting that they have been granted access to the music-mirroring service.

First introduced in late 2011, iTunes Match allows users to match songs from their iTunes libraries to tracks in Apple's cloud. This way they can access their music from any device, without having to spend hours uploading it...

It seems iTunes Match subscribers will get unlimited iTunes Radio skipping

The song-skipping feature that long stalled Apple's iTunes Radio talks with record labels could get a boost when iTunes Radio, which was announced at June's WWDC, launches this Fall as part of the iOS 7 refresh and iPhone 5S/5C launch.

Apple on its part hasn't definitely confirmed whether the free ad-driven service will in fact impose a ceiling on the number of song skips akin to Pandora and other digital radio services.

For what it's worth, iOS 7 Beta users currently can't bypass the song-skipping limit. In my testing, for example, iTunes Radio wouldn't allow me to skip more than six songs each hour per a specific station. But according to a new report, things could change come this Fall as Apple could enable unlimited song skipping for iTunes Match subscribers...

Strategy Analytics: iCloud and iTunes Match are top cloud media services in US

This is kind of interesting. According to a new report from market research firm Strategy Analytics, Apple's iCloud and iTunes Match are the top cloud media services in the United States.

The firm asked 2,300 Americans which online digital locker storage services they used to store music, video or games online. And believe it or not, iCloud/iTunes Match took the field...