Itunes MATCH launches tomorrow - Page 2

The service is really aimed at convenience and the average listener. Not those sticklers like myself who want ALAC ( or any loss less codec for that matter ) or nothing. $30/yr. doesn't sound all that bad, IMO. 

From what I've read on the Apple website, even if they don't carry a given artist's album, it still can be uploaded to their servers, and you ( and probably only you, for copyright issues ) can listen/stream it to any of your iDivices. 

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Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to your iCloud library for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 19 million songs in the iTunes Store, chances are, your music is already in iCloud. And for the few songs that aren’t, iTunes has to upload only what it can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream and store it to any of your devices. Even better, all the music iTunes matches plays back from iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality.

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Although I'd prefer 320, 256 seems like a decent balance between audio quality and an iDevices's storage limitations.

I don't have any plans on using it, but I'd sure rather have all my music at 256kbps instead of none of my music, in the event of a catastrophic failure at home. I also think the bitrate is a nice trade off, helps to keep storage needs in check and as a result, costs of the service too.

When I enjoy music enough to buy it I purchase it on both CD and Vinyl, That IS my compromise, a side from seeing a group live, which I don't get to do that often, It is the next best thing, and anything less is disappointing.  I really don't understand the resistance to distributing lossless music legally.  As a side note, big thanks to Tegan and Sara for releasing 320Kbps mp3's with the newest release, It's time to make that a standard.

I wont use it even though it sounds good. For the fact I have downloaded a few :) tracks illegally.

I imagine quite a few people are in the same boat and this will then give someone proof of what you`ve been upto?

The "cloud" bulloney is killing me. And they want you to pay for it? Believe me when I say there are pretty sinister things planned for the clouds. It is just like On-Star. On star has cameras on you 24/7 and sell the info to your insurance companies so they won't cover you since you went 5mph over the speed limit one day. Same thing with clouds. I refuse to use them. I won't trust the system with MY DATA. And iTunes! Wow. I really hate iTunes. What a disaster. And they make you pay for it! Not for me.

This is a different topic, but call me old fasioned, but I won't even trust banks with my money. Thats why my retirement is not in a 401k, but in gold and silver coins. I will never loose money when the system crashes again and again, just like all the suckers every 15 years or so. My money actually keeps its value, just like I'll keep my own bits to myself.

I call for a boycott on all Clouds! 

I already pretty much have the same thing, except the cloud is my server at my parents house.  2 local copies plus one remote, and I don't think I have anything to worry about.

And about songs downloaded illegally, I don't think there will be an issue just because Apple can't tell if you ripped it yourself or downloaded it off the internet.