Opinions - Apple launches were about defending its position in mobile

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Yesterday’s launches didn’t amaze, but they did significantly bolster Apple’s position.

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Not quite sure I get this music match thing:

Let's say I've got all of my CDs which I ripped to MP3s a few years ago. I'm happy with them. However, Apple will "allow" me to match my MP3s, for which I own the CDs, up against their database and I can buy AAC versions?

Can I keep the AAC versions? Can I download them, or just stream them? As they're DRM free, from what I read, then what's the difference between having them and the MP3s I made myself, other than a) sharing the MP3s over iCloud would take up some of my alloted space (whereas "purchased" or "matched" tracks do not count towards that 5gb) and b) bitrate, etc?

Not saying it's a BAD thing: just don't get it.

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Originally Posted by Shooty*

what's the difference between having them and the MP3s I made myself

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iCloud will automatically save all your purchased music for you. If you ever get a new device or want to download that specific song, you can.

What iTunes match does is match your entire library and gives it iCloud access. This means you have access to your entire matched library where ever you are. If you get a new device you wouldn't need iTunes to transfer everything over. The perk of match is that you don't need to upload all of your songs as it matches the ones you have with the iTunes database. While not being as good as uploading everything (a lot of us will have songs that iTunes does not) i think it's priced accordingly.

The one query i have is, piracy. If you have said track which you downloaded from where ever if you buy iTunes match do you suddenly get a free legit version? That makes no sense to me.

Thanks for that, very helpful.

re: Piracy: I have to say, I think it makes perfect sense.

You can't beat piracy. You just can't. So what we have here is an attempt to lure pirates back into the fold or, at the least, a middle ground which is "OK, you might have pirated our tracks, but here's a fairly cheap service where you'll get them better quality, on all of your devices. Deal?"

It's clawing back money which they would otherwise probably never have got. And I think it's clever.

A bit like Steam, as I see it. Steam persuaded many people (myself included) to stop playing pirated games.

so the difference between that and say a spotify premium or zune pass is?

I quite like having things like music seperate from things that are important and possibly confidential.

I agree that it's definitely been about defending their position as leaders in the smartphone marketplace - and from what I have seen so far, it's a success..for the iPhone at least.

I installed iOS5 this morning, and it's definitely a very good evolution of the OS. The Notification center feels and acts exactly like an improved version of the HTC Sense notification manager that appeared way before android became popular, and it works really really well. Ties in perfectly with the new lockscreen which answers many of the critiscims of iOS when it has been compared to android devices.

Not so convinced on the iCloud aspects as yet; so far i've got it setup to sync my phone content, and tested doing a wipe of my data and then resetting it from iCloud..all worked very well, just like the MyPhone service offered by Microsoft for windows mobile a few years ago.

Background OTA sync is something new to the iPhone also which make a huge difference - I was able to use my phone and set it up whilst it did it's initial sync, after installing iOS5..I had gotten used to the whole "lock your phone whilst it's syncing' thing so this is a nice change. No idea personally if that feature is offered with Android.

Got to have a play with my apps next to see if they are affected by this, but we'll see. Personally I am not a fan of these new "non interrupting" notifications - if you have your phone on silent they are too subtle for my liking, I liked them being "in my face" as it were..but no biggie, and it is pretty slick if a little too subtle.

I get the feeling that this whole year is about Apple consolidating/refining their position in the marketplace, before another slew of pretty large updates towards the end of 2012. It's a good strategy, if a tad risky due to people's expectations of big new product launches every year!

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

so the difference between that and say a spotify premium or zune pass is?

I quite like having things like music seperate from things that are important and possibly confidential.

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The difference is that you get to keep the .m4a file as it gets downloaded to your computers/iDevices with only a watermark to keep you from passing it on. iCloud appears to be a storage repository that pushes files onto your devices as opposed to a central iTunes database from which you can stream. You still need storage space on your devices to hold the files.

IIRR Spotify premium and Zune allow you to stream only, although you can also buy tracks from Spotify, dunno about Zune.

Music match looks like an mp3 laundering service, but who knows what happens with the data harvested against your Apple ID (and credit card in most cases) and your music database.

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Originally Posted by spraint

The difference is that you get to keep the .m4a file as it gets downloaded to your computers/iDevices with only a watermark to keep you from passing it on. iCloud appears to be a storage repository that pushes files onto your devices as opposed to a central iTunes database from which you can stream. You still need storage space on your devices to hold the files.

IIRR Spotify premium and Zune allow you to stream only, although you can also buy tracks from Spotify, dunno about Zune.

Music match looks like an mp3 laundering service, but who knows what happens with the data harvested against your Apple ID (and credit card in most cases) and your music database.

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No, you get that with zune pass too, and spotify premium, hence why I mentioned them.

I bet you the only way they've been able to get the labels on board is to pay them per track.

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

No, you get that with zune pass too, and spotify premium, hence why I mentioned them.

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That's not strictly true though is it, at least for Spotify premium - as soon as you stop giving them money you loose all access to tracks. I would have thought that as iTunes are DRM free, if you stop using the cloud service, you still keep the music. No idea about Zune as I've never used it.

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Originally Posted by b0redom

I would have thought that as iTunes are DRM free, if you stop using the cloud service, you still keep the music.

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Yeah, that was my take on it as well. Then, presumably, if you were to stop your cloud subscription, then restart it at a later date with the same user name, they'd have kept a record of your purchases, and it's still all be hunky dory with the m4a's that you DL'd.

yes and no. The zune ones are WMA and will merrily play on anything that supports that format, but they will expire without an going subscription, kinda, you also get 15 free each month or something, and as it costs less than 15 tracks each month, its just a no brainer. You can burn them to CD etc so they are not a restrictive DRM, but some would expire, depends on the label and other such confusion.

Now as the iTunes store still isn't 100% DRM free, I wouldn't trust for a second that you could use the iCloud to launder your music collection.... It really as such strikes me as a restrictive way of synchronising devices, you can't actually get the full library functionalities which Spotify and Zune subscribers enjoy.

I'll also add that whilst many people get upset with the spotify/zune service, no one knows of any better ones yet, so once again I'm disapointed with a shiny but useless apple announcement.

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

Now as the iTunes store still isn't 100% DRM free, I wouldn't trust for a second that you could use the iCloud to launder your music collection.... It really as such strikes me as a restrictive way of synchronising devices, you can't actually get the full library functionalities which Spotify and Zune subscribers enjoy.

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It's not the same as Zune or Spotify though, I could setup iCloud to sync my current iTunes purchased music to all my Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iMac, stream through my tv via AppleTV etc) for no charge.

If I want to get access to my MP3 collection that i've ripped from CDs over the years too I can sign up for Match at $25/year and immediately after signing up it can scan my MP3s and make all the matching tunes that are available in iTunes available in my iCloud and begin them syncing to all my devices. I only have to upload any tunes that are not available in iTunes. So 5,000 of my tunes that were previously only on my hard drive available on the iCloud in minutes. Now sure I can't burn them to CD, but I don't need to they're already on all my devices, my laptop, my desktop, my phone.

*all listed as a theoretical Apple devotee who has all the Apple devices, I do know some, but i'm not one.

So in essence it's free, but you can subscribe to have your personal back catalog available, but even then it's only $25/year - Spotify Premium is £120/year - don't know about Zune it won't tell me unless I create an account - but they give a different service anyway.

In the end it will work, why ? because Apple said it will and will hype the poo out of it ? if that's they way you want to see it, that's cool, but I see it more in the same way as most Apple products - because my mum could work it without any significant assistance.
:)

So... can they extend the Music Match service to pron?