Apple Music Playlists Playing Incorrect Versions of Songs from My Library

[ecc1977]

Across my devices, on Apple Music playlists featuring Nine Inch Nails or other artists I have live recordings of, the live recording is almost always played in place of the studio version that the Apple Music Editors intended to be heard.

For instance, in the playlist Nine Inch Nails: Deep Cuts, instead of the studio version of "Sanctified" from Pretty Hate Machine, I get "Sanctified" from the live bootleg Children of the Night.

Same thing happens with multiple artists on the playlist Strolling Through the Graveyard, where The Cure's "Pictures of You" is replaced by a live version, Nirvana's "Something in the Way" becomes "Something in the Way / [Hidden Track]" from my rip of the album, etc.

The only solution I've found is to remove the alternate versions from my library. Once I removed the live Cure, the appropriate version showed up in the playlist. Of course, I'm much more of a NIN fan, and I don't want to lose all of the live shows I've collected over the years.

Anyone else run into this and have a different solution?

 

[Just_Me_D]

No, not yet.

 

[Tartarus]

I would rename those special songs drastically different then the studio version. After doing so, remove it from your iCloud Music Library but make sure you don't delete the actual file from your computer. Re-add the renamed song and you'll see it's not matched but uploaded to iCloud Music Library.
This is the only solution I can think of.

 

[iRube]

Nearly all of my live album's songs played as the studio versions of said songs. I just deleted my local songs and replaced them with Apple Music's songs. But I also use a second iTunes library in which I don't care what happens to my files. I've also found that deleting songs, but keeping them in my library, then re-adding them and using the same song titles that the iTunes Store does (eg. "Statesboro Blues" (Live at the Fillmore East, 1971) and updating iCloud Music Library often fixes things.

 

[Hawk999]

Another way of preventing 'matching' is name the artist and the album some made up name.

Like:

Artist: mfjekefheyfgy

Album title:

mfjekefheyfgy I
mfjekefheyfgy II
mfjekefheyfgy III
mfjekefheyfgy IV


This will prevent Apple Music from 'matching' your album. The album will be uploaded 'as is' including the album art. When the album is uploaded you can change back the 'Artist' and 'Album title' to its original in iTunes.

Its a lot of work. And I know it's not perfect.
But as far as I know this is the only way to prevent Apple Music from messing with your music.

I'd wish they would always upload 'as is'. I mean, Google Music does it. Why can't Apple?
Are they really such cheap bastards?

 

[ecc1977]

Thanks, everyone. For now, I'm just removing the live albums from my library, as even changing the song titles drastically doesn't make a difference; a song with (LIVE - BLAH, BLAH, BLAH) in the title or something similar will still sometimes show up when a studio version should. Very strange. Product is trying to be too smart and is looking stupid in the process.

 

[Tartarus]

Did you rename the song, delete it from iCloud Music Library and re-add it as I said? That way it gets uploaded instead of getting matched.

 

[swandy]

Have the same issue. Set up iCloud Music Library from my wife's iMac (library was only a portion of my full library which is too large until they increase the limit in the fall) and have seen the same mis-matching issues also. Funny thing is that Apple Music has all the albums in its inventory that have mis-matched songs and I can play them properly from there - but not as part of my own library that was matched/uploaded.

 

[Tartarus]

It's all about id3 tagging. If they don't match, Music won't match

 

[Steve Penny]

I have the opposite problem. The majority of my live and remix tracks have been replaced with the album versions - even when the titles and album names differ completely from the original album version. All tracks play as they should when I use iTunes on my Mac (where the songs in question are stored locally), but when I go to my iPad or iPhone, the wrong songs play.

I've also sent a number of logs off to Apple (during beta testing), to which I always got the reply that they couldn't see an issue. Infuriating.

 

[swandy]

I have the opposite problem. The majority of my live and remix tracks have been replaced with the album versions - even when the titles and album names differ completely from the original album version. All tracks play as they should when I use iTunes on my Mac (where the songs in question are stored locally), but when I go to my iPad or iPhone, the wrong songs play.

I've also sent a number of logs off to Apple (during beta testing), to which I always got the reply that they couldn't see an issue. Infuriating.

I have been dealing with a Senior tech guy and the "issue" seems to be that Apple logarithm for matching is based upon Artist Name and Track Title. If you slightly change the artist's name (Bruce SpringsteenN) then Apple Music won't be able to match it to their catalog and it will be forced to upload the version on your computer. (Yes a royal PIA but it works. Tried it on several albums by The WhoO and it worked.)