iTunes Match

Mit 10.5.1 hat in den den neuen iCloud-Service iTunes Match gestartet, der die lokale Musikbibliothek über die Wolke allen Geräten zugänglich macht. Die lokalen Dateien selbst werden dabei nicht verändert, stattdessen wird die Bibliothek gescannt, und auf den Apple-Servern mit hochqualitativen Versionen abgeglichen.
Für 24,99 $ (ca. 18,50 €) pro Jahr werden bis zu 25.000 Songs synchronisiert und ggf. durch Dateien in besserer Qualität ersetzt.
Um den Benutzern einen guten, informierten Start zu gewähren, hat Apple die wichtigsten Informationen in den folgenden Auszügen zusammengefasst:

iTunes Match

iTunes Match

Was mit den lokalen Dateien passiert:

Nothing happens to your local music when you run match. If you have a lower quality song that was matched you can remove it from your local library and then replace it with the 256k version. What happens is you delete the song, but the entry in iTunes stays, but a little cloud now shows up in a newly added column that shows you that you have a song that is in the cloud but not in your library. You can click on the cloud and it will download it to your local library, where again it is now permanently yours at the higher bit rate.”

Zwei Videos, eines von CNET und eines von RyanKnowsTech, erklären und zeigen, wie funktioniert und bedient wird:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0UnjBrvnec

 

Nähere Infos dazu, welche Songs mit iTunes Match verwendet werden, und welche davon ausgeschlossen sind (Stichwort DRM), gibt Apple im Folgenden:

iTunes Match is currently available only in the United States. Songs purchased outside of the United States iTunes Store containing DRM will not be matched or uploaded to .
If a song contains DRM and is no longer available on the iTunes Store for purchase, the song is uploaded to iCloud and made available for download in protected DRM format. You will be required to authorize your computer or device for playback.
A song will not be uploaded to iCloud if the song contains DRM, was purchased using a different Apple ID, and could not be matched.
When you subscribe to or enable iTunes Match, your iOS device or computer will be associated to the Apple ID being used for iTunes Match.

Songs encoded as MP3 or AAC that have been matched to the iTunes Store will be made available for download as 256 kbps as AAC from iCloud.
Songs encoded as MP3 or AAC that cannot be matched to the iTunes Store will be uploaded as is. These songs will be made available for download in the same format it was uploaded in.
Songs encoded as MP3 or AAC with a bitrate of 96 kbps or less will not be matched or uploaded to iCloud.
Songs encoded as ALAC, WAV, or AIFF, will be transcoded in iTunes to 256 kbps AAC when uploaded to iCloud.
Song files over 200 MB will not be uploaded to iCloud.

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