I subscribed to iTunes Match when it was first released but it was only recently that I actually called on its backup functionality – and the results were a little unexpected.
As a quick summary for those unfamiliar with the service, iTunes U is Apple’s cloud music offering enabling users to have their music stored on Apple’s servers – backed up and accessible from anywhere. The main point of difference the service has with some of its competitors is that it will attempt to ‘match’ songs and just put a mark next to them song on Apple’s servers, acknowledging the user’s ownership (optimistically). This provides joint benefits for apple and the user:
- Apple, in the best case need only store a single copy of each song, rather than a duplicate for every user.
- There is essentially no upload when a song is matched, so user’s libraries can be backed up much more rapidly.
As a means of accessing songs on my iPad, the service works well. However, it was obviously no help for getting music onto my Android phone.
Recently, I wiped my computer whilst ‘upgrading’ the OS (for those contemplating the move from Windows 7 to 8, don’t!). Upon transferring music from my external hard drive back onto my laptop, I realised that I hadn’t backed up my last couple of month’s worth of new songs. No problem I thought, they’ll just download into iTunes once I’ve signed back into iTunes Match – and indeed they did.
However, they downloaded as AAC files (Apple’s proprietary music format), rather than the MP3 format of the original songs. Thinking about this, it makes sense, as the songs were ‘matched’ rather than uploaded but it is a side-affect I hadn’t considered. I had to convert all the songs back into MP3 format for compatibility with my Android phone (and consistency with the rest of my music library).
Whilst the service works as designed, and the matching performs well, the enforced ties to Apple’s devices and formats is a deal-breaker for me, and I’ve cancelled my iTunes Match subscription. Back to the manual external hard-drive backup for now!