iTunes Match: Details, Facts and FAQs
Since SongGenie and CoverScout work so closely with iTunes, we’ve been closely investigating iTunes Match and how it works and have found some interesting details that we wanted to share. At lot of us here at equinux enjoy using iTunes Match, here’s what we’ve found out:
What is iTunes Match?
iTunes Match is a service from Apple, that simply allows you to download any song you have on your computer onto your iPhone, iPad or another Mac. Your songs are “matched” to songs sold through the iTunes Store and Apple allows you to download those directly from the cloud.
How iTunes matches your songs
Matching is done with some form of acoustic fingerprinting – just like SongGenie uses. And like SongGenie’s acoustic matching, iTunes Match doesn’t always get it 100% right – every now and then you’ll see that it uploads a song available on the iTunes store instead of “matching” it.
Does iTunes replace SongGenie?
No. Even though iTunes can recognize and match songs, even if they have missing or incorrect song information, iTunes will never “fix” that information for you. Even if you delete and re-download a song via iTunes Match, your songs will still be missing information or have incorrect metadata.
Fix song information everywhere.
If you use SongGenie to update and fix your song information, that information will automatically show up on your iPhone or iPad running iTunes Match. So if you change “Track 1” to “Help!” with SongGenie, it will update that song on your iPhone and iPad automatically, thanks to iTunes Match.
iTunes Match and lyrics
In our tests, all song information was sent to your iTunes Match library in the cloud just fine, however lyrics occasionally seemed to get lost on the way. This seems to be a bug and we expect Apple will fix it in the future. So if you notice that some of your lyrics aren’t immediately available on all of your devices, it’s probably this glitch.
Does iTunes Match replace CoverScout?
No. If a song is available on the iTunes store, it will get a cover via iTunes, just like you have been able to get covers in the past. But all those albums and songs for which iTunes doesn’t have covers will still need artwork from CoverScout.
Covers everywhere – thanks iTunes Match!
In fact, thanks to iTunes Match, covers that you add with CoverScout are then automatically added to your iPhone or iPad with iTunes Match. So add a cover on your Mac and boom – it shows up on your iPhone.
Hopefully that explains how SongGenie & CoverScout can both be used to get your collection looking spectacular on all your devices – with iTunes Match. If you have any questions, be sure to let us know!
Ready to Roar: Update Day for Music Lovers
Already using Lion? Our friendly couple – SongGenie & CoverScout – won’t just perfect your music library, it is now 100% ready to roar! We’ve just finished polishing and perfecting the look and feel of each to take advantage of OS X 10.7.
On previous OS X versions, we used our own set of scrollers to make each more aesthetic. Now with Lion this is not necessary anymore. But this is just one of many other smaller things we’ve improved. If you already use CoverScout 3 and SongGenie 2, this is a free update. Ah, and btw we’ve also submitted both versions to the Mac App Store – sorry guys, you have to wait just a little bit longer but we’re sure you’ll get your update within the next few days.
Rock or Pop with iTunes 10 and CoverScout
A few weeks ago we posted a blog entry on SongGenie and the latest changes in iTunes 9.2.1. Some of you reported that your genres were showing up as numbers rather than real names, a known problem at that time.
iTunes 10 is out with lots of cool new features that really make your cover art and song information stand out. We are happy to report that the latest versions of SongGenie 2 and CoverScout 3 are fully compatible with iTunes 10 and you can once again tag your music with confidence.
If you have songs with the incorrect genre still showing, they can be quickly fixed using iTunes:
- Select some tracks with the same genre
- Choose File > Get Info
- Retype the genre
- Click OK
We’ve tested and included a few tweaks in the latest CoverScout and SongGenie. Get them from our website now.
iTunes 10 Tip: Artwork with Music Controls
iTunes 10 introduced a useful, slightly hidden new way to control your music that we think you might enjoy…
Start playing a song and make sure the cover artwork view is open in the lower left corner of the iTunes window.
Now click the cover artwork to open a larger artwork window:
If you move your mouse over the artwork window, iTunes 10 will give you full music controls:
Now you can enjoy your cover artwork and control music playback right from your desktop!
P.S. If you happen to be missing any album covers, we’ve got another tip you might enjoy…
equinux Tips: Albums with incomplete Artwork
A number of you guys have asked us this, so we thought we’d share this CoverScout 3 tip with everyone:
How can you easily fix an album with “incomplete artwork”?
Say you have an album with 12 songs, but only one of those songs has artwork. CoverScout allows you to filter for those albums, so you can apply that one cover you already have to all your other songs in that album.
Just switch to track view and drag the artwork from one song to the album thumbnail to apply that cover to all the other songs:
This shortcut should make it easy to sort out your albums with incomplete artwork. If you have any questions, just get in touch!
- Your equinux Support Team
P.S. If you’re looking for alternative rock from Scotland (isn’t everyone?), definitely check out Idlewild – we’ve been listening to their fantastic album “Warnings/Promises” all week.
Just because we’re cyber nice …
You’re in luck – our Black Friday offers have been extended for 1 more day for Cyber Monday!
So you have 23 hours more to buy an extra Christmas present for a family member, a friend, or even for yourself. Get an early jump on holiday gift buying to start the Christmas rush with a little less stress.
Plan ahead and save, but only if you buy today – It’s definitely your best and last chance for such bargain bundles!
