Apple releases iTunes Match beta to developers
Apple has sent out an email to developers advising them that Apple's music locker service, iTunes Match, is now in beta.
iTunes Match stores your complete music library in iCloud, allowing you to enjoy your collection anywhere, anytime, on any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or computer. iTunes Match beta is currently available to developers in the United States. Beta subscribers will receive iTunes Match service during the beta period plus an additional 3 months for free with their 12 month paid subscription.
To get started with iTunes Match, download the current version of iOS 5 beta and iTunes 10.5 beta 6.1 with iTunes Match. Once installed, choose Turn On iTunes Match from the Store menu, and click "Subscribe for $24.99."
Please note that you must maintain a local backup of your iTunes library as well as any music you add to iCloud. Apple will periodically reset your iCloud library during the beta and it is critical that you backup your music regularly. Some features and optimizations of iTunes Match will not be available during the beta.
If anyone tries it out, let us know what you think of it, especially how it compares to competing services like Amazon Cloud Locker and Google Music Beta.
UPDATE 1: Yes, US only. Requires a US credit card on file with a US iTunes account.
UPDATE 2: Streaming and re-downloading both seem to be supported in the beta. Let's hope those make it to release.
UPDATE 3: Our official iCloud Forum thread for iTunes Match
[Thanks W!]
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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I didn't even think about, apple is like my pimp.
You Ho!
I know right.
Mine is stuck in the sync
Its not stuck. It goes from step 1 to step 2 back to step 1. Basically its waiting for apple's servers to do the matching. Depending on the number of songs and traffic it could take some time. I have 1100+ songs and it took about an hour to go from step 1 to step 2 to step 1 to step 2......
Will this sync up songs that I have on my iPod classic that I dont have stored locally on my computer?
To anyone wondering, there's a note: "iTunes Match beta is currently available to developers in the United States."
stuck in sync mode.....eventually times out.
I matched about 30 percent of my songs. The rest is being uploaded.
Wow, if that's gonna be the average recognition rate then this service is not gonna be very useful for many people, with only 5GB (or even a few additional paid GBs) for uploaded songs. Or did you just have an especially high amount of niche music? Well, it'll probably never be released in my country anyway.
BULL! GO AWAY SCHEMER!
Sure, store all your music on the cloud. Pandora sucks down over 100mb an hour on my phone. And I have an AT&T cell tower on my roof at work. This is going to kill people that don't have unlimited data. Glad I'm grandfathered.
I hate that gift cards do not work! That's so stupid!!!!!!! I wanna use my gift cards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!