Help with Apple Music...

[brandonflan]

I am still an iPhone rookie. I've had my 6+ (128gb) for about 2 months now. Apple Music is intriguing, and I want to know what's the best (AND MOST SIMPLE) way to get all the tracks I have on my computer (~7500 songs) AND take advantage of the extensive Apple Music library?

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have enabled iCloud Music Library and I'm subscribing under FamilyShare. I'm considering using iTunes Match as well, since I can't locally sync anymore but would I need two libraries? One for my match, and one for Apple Music?

I need advice. This is getting a bit complex for me.

 

[Tartarus]

No, iTunes Match and iCloud Music Library are coexisting in the same environment.

iCloud Music Library is the same as iTunes Match, with added benefits, like adding music to your library right from Apple Music. It's available for listening till you decide to end your subscription to Apple Music.

iCloud Music Library has the same engine as iTunes Match, for when it comes to matching your library, the only difference is, iCloud Music Library puts DRM to matched songs ****. iTunes Match has no DRM.


**** disclaimer: DRM is only put to songs if you decide to delete those songs from your iTunes and to download them back from Apple servers, or if you have more computers, if you download those songs to other computers.

So if you keep your own music backed up and don't delete them from your iTunes, there will in no any case put any DRM to it.

I hope this was helpful. Feel free to ask additional information.

To be able to have all your ~7500 songs on your phone, just add them on your desktop to iTunes and they will either be uploaded to or matched with iCloud Music Library. But be aware that in order to match songs with iCloud Music Library/iTunes Match, the title artist tags of those songs have to be the same as on Apple Music.

 

[Just_Me_D]

I would start by reading the iMore Blog information found via the following link.

http://www.imore.com/apple-music-faq

 

[brandonflan]

I'm sure my tag info for my local music files aren't always the same as Apple. So maybe the likelihood that my music correctly matches what's on Apple's server is low.

But I have iTunes OCD. I have spent countless hours manually entering songwriter info and adding album art to all my songs. I'm just afraid that all of that will get messed up. If I upload a song and it gets messed up, is there a way I can fix it myself? And if I'm understanding you correctly, I don't need an iTunes Match subscription?

 

[Tartarus]

Your tags and album art won't get messed up unless you delete songs and redownload them from Apple Music.

iTunes Match is especially handy if you have a lot of music with low bitrate and you wish to replace them with high bitrate ones.

If you plan to keep your own songs, than you don't need iTunes Match.

Always be sure to backup your songs before experimenting with anything.. Make sure that backup is safe and sound. I, myself have 3 backups of my complete library, 12k songs in total.

 

[crankerchick]

There is a chance your tags would get messed up. It's not supposed to work that way but lots of stuff that isn't supposed to happen has been happening. In theory, your meticulous work should just possibly result in an incorrect match and your song would be uploaded and count against your 20,000 song limit as opposed to getting matched. That said, iCloud Library also shouldn't wipe out people's library, except sometimes it does.

Please make a backup of your iTunes library file before enabling iCloud Music a library in iTunes. That will allow you to keep your play counts and last played in tact if you decide later to abort using iCloud music library. Make a backup of your music files also. That will ensure your tags that are stored to the actual song file are preserved. If you don't care about play count and play history, you can skip the library file backup.


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