Cloud

This chapter looks at the two major aspects of cloud-based iTunes use: the iTunes Store and iCloud Music Library. The iTunes Store keeps your purchased content in the cloud, so you can stream or re-download it at any time. iCloud Music Library is an evolution of iTunes Match, and it now works in conjunction with Apple Music to provide a cloud music library of up to 100,000 tracks that you can access from any computer running iTunes or any iOS device.

Cloud Topics

Basics

What Cloud Services Does iTunes Use?

How Can I Tell If My Media Is in the Cloud?

iTunes in the Cloud

How Do I Re-download iTunes Store Content?

How Can I Hide Content I’ve Purchased from the iTunes Store?

iCloud Music Library Basics

What Is iCloud Music Library? | What Is iTunes Match? | What Should I Know before I Turn On iCloud Music Library?

How Do I Start Using iTunes Match? | How Do I Turn On iCloud Music Library? | What Does iCloud Music Library Do with My Music Files?

How Do I Play Music in My iCloud Music Library? | How Do I Access My iCloud Music Library in iOS? | How Do I Access My iCloud Music Library on an Apple TV?

More iCloud Music Library Questions

How Does iCloud Music Library Handle Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV Files?

Can I Use iCloud Music Library to “Upgrade” My Music?

What Do the iCloud Music Library Status Labels Mean?

How Do I Manage My Music with iCloud Music Library?

What If I Turn Off iCloud Music Library?

Can More Than One Person Share an Apple Music or iTunes Match Account?

What Cloud Services Does iTunes Use?

In recent years, Apple has expanded its cloud-based media offerings. Here’s a quick look at the current options for digital media:

• Automatic downloads: This feature has been around for a few years, so even though it’s cloud-based, you may not think of it that way. It lets you download a new iTunes Store purchase to more than one computer or device automatically. See How Can iTunes Automatically Download My Purchases?.
• Re-downloads: You can re-download an app or other media from the iTunes Store (assuming it’s still available) at any time. See How Do I Re-download iTunes Store Content?.
• iCloud Music Library: Available to Apple Music and iTunes Match subscribers, iCloud Music Library commingles tracks from the following sources, making them available on all computers and mobile devices that are signed in to the same iTunes Store account:
  • Tracks in your iTunes music library that didn’t come from Apple, such as tracks from CDs you’ve ripped, that are uploaded or matched through an iTunes Match or Apple Music subscription
  • Music you’ve purchased from the iTunes Store
  • Music you’ve added from Apple Music, as long as you maintain your Apple Music subscription

  Before you start iTunes Match or turn on iCloud Music Library, read What Should I Know before I Turn On iCloud Music Library?.

• Apple Music: This is the streaming arm of Apple’s cloud music offering. Without a subscription, you can listen to Beats 1, Apple’s radio station featuring real DJs, and access some aspects of Apple’s Connect social networking service. Subscribers can listen to Apple Music Radio, get a richer set of Connect features, gain access to the 40 million tracks in the Apple Music Library, get For You recommendations, and can turn on iCloud Music Library. See What Is Apple Music? to learn how to use this service.
• iTunes Match: With iTunes Match, you use iCloud Music Library to store your music library in the cloud. The tunes that you store and access are only those from your library; you can’t access the Apple Music Library. Because iTunes Match is a subset of Apple Music, if you’ve subscribed to Apple Music, you won’t see an iTunes Match option. See What Is iTunes Match? for more.

How Can I Tell If My Media Is in the Cloud?

A cloud icon indicates that a media item is currently stored in the cloud. For example, when iCloud Music Library is active, you may see cloud icons (Figure 33). You also see these icons on media from the iTunes Store that you’ve bought but not downloaded to your computer.

You can click a cloud icon to download content, or in the case of an album thumbnail, you can expand the album—click the album thumbnail if you’re in Albums view—to download individual tracks.

In list views, you also see cloud icons, which you can click to download content.

How Do I Re-download iTunes Store Content?

You have two options. You can re-download from within your iTunes library or from the iTunes Store. Also, if you use Family Sharing, you can find other family members’ purchases in the iTunes Store.

Before you can download iTunes Store purchases, you must sign in to the appropriate iTunes Store account, so check the Account menu to see whether you are signed in. If you are, you’ll see your name and Apple ID in gray at the top of the menu. If you aren’t signed in, choose Account > Sign In. Once you are signed in, you can re-download content in several ways.

Re-downloading from iTunes

You can re-download many of your iTunes Store purchases in iTunes, including music, movies, and TV shows:

• Music: In the Media Picker, choose Music. If you’re not using iCloud Music Library, choose View > All Music. To re-download a purchased item, just click the cloud icon that appears next to it or on top of its artwork.
• Movie or TV show: In the Media Picker, choose Movies, and then choose View > All Movies. Or, choose TV Shows and then choose View > All TV Shows. Any item that isn’t downloaded appears with a cloud icon. Click the icon to download it.

The “View All” commands are available only when you’ve selected a view from the sidebar where your purchases might appear, such as Artists or Albums for music, and Movies or Genres for movies. In other views, such as a smart playlist or an Apple Music playlist, these commands disappear from the View menu.

Re-downloading from the iTunes Store

Another way to re-download iTunes Store content is to access it from within the iTunes Store:

1. Choose Account > Purchased (or Family Purchases), and then sign in if needed.
2. In the header for the Purchased list, click a button—such as Music, TV Shows, or Apps—to view the content available (Figure 34).

   

3. Search or browse for your item:
   • Search: In the Search Purchased Items field at the left, type your search term and press Return.
   • Browse: Click a button at the top center of the list. For example, if you’ve clicked the Music category button, you can view Albums or Songs. Or for TV shows, you can view Episodes or Seasons.
4. When you’ve found the item that you want to download, click its Download icon. For example, in Figure 34, above, each album has a Download icon on its corner.

When you download from the music Albums view or TV Seasons view, you get the entire album or season. To download individual songs or TV episodes, click the Songs or Episodes button to access those items individually.

If you’re viewing music or apps, you can quickly download everything that’s visible, depending on what you’ve clicked in the left-hand column, by clicking the Download All button at the bottom-right. This could be all your TV series, every movie you’ve ever bought, all your purchased music, or just music by a selected artist.

However, Apple states that “Previous purchases might be unavailable if they’ve been refunded or aren’t on the iTunes Store.” This means if you bought something, and the artist or TV studio doesn’t want to sell it any more via iTunes, you may not be able to get another copy. I found this to be the case with two “digital box sets” by Bob Dylan and U2. When the Re-download feature was added in June 2011, these items were not available. However, when iTunes Match was introduced in November 2011, they became available again. Nevertheless, several other albums that I have bought over the years remain unavailable for download.

How Can I Hide Content I’ve Purchased from the iTunes Store?

If you’re using Apple Music, you see all the music you’ve ever bought from the iTunes Store in your library. You may not want to see everything, especially if you’ve downloaded a lot of free songs.

To hide any item, choose Account > Purchased (or Family Purchases). Find the item you want to hide, hover your pointer over it, and click the x that displays at the top left corner of the item’s artwork.

If you ever want to un-hide something, choose Account > View My Account. In the iTunes in the Cloud section, to the right of Hidden Purchases, click Manage, and you can un-hide any hidden purchase.

What Is iCloud Music Library?

iCloud Music Library is Apple’s system for maintaining a music library in the cloud. If you subscribe to iTunes Match, iTunes turns on iCloud Music Library automatically for you as part of the matching process. Or, if you subscribe to Apple Music, you can optionally turn on iCloud Music Library.

In either case, here’s what you’ll find in your iCloud Music Library:

• Purchased tracks: Music that you bought from the iTunes Store.
• Matched or uploaded tracks: Music from your personal iTunes library. These may be from CDs you ripped or downloads you acquired from sources other than the iTunes Store.
• Apple Music tracks: If you’ve subscribed to Apple Music, you can add any Apple Music track to your iCloud Music Library. You can use these tracks just like music that you own, except that you’ll lose them if you cancel your Apple Music subscription.

You can play these files by album, you can shuffle them, and you can make playlists with them—and you can do all these things on a computer running iTunes or on an iOS device.

iCloud Music Library blurs the line between what’s on your device and what’s on Apple’s servers, allowing you to ignore which files are where, as long as you have an active Internet connection.

What Is iTunes Match?

The $25-per-year iTunes Match is similar to iCloud Music Library—in fact, it turns on iCloud Music Library for you as it activates—but it offers access to only two of the three types of music files that iCloud Music Library can provide:

• Purchased tracks: Music that you have bought from the iTunes Store.
• Matched or uploaded tracks: Music from your personal iTunes library. These may be from CDs you ripped, or downloads you acquired from sources other than the iTunes Store.

The $25 per year iTunes Match is more affordable than the $9.99-per-month Apple Music, but it does not give you access to additional music from the enormous Apple Music Library. What it does is provide you with access to all your music on all your devices—any computer running iTunes and any iOS device—so you can stream music or download it. As long as your devices have an affordable and speedy Internet con­nec­­tion, you don’t have to think about whether a device has enough storage space to store more music or how to copy the music to it.

What Should I Know before I Turn On iCloud Music Library?

Whether you are contemplating turning on iTunes Match or you’ve subscribed to Apple Music and are considering selecting the checkbox for iCloud Music Library, consider these warnings before you proceed:

• Tags may revert: If you’ve previously bought music from the iTunes Store and changed its tags, iTunes may revert those tags to the way they appear on the iTunes Store. You can change them back—see my article What to Do When iTunes Changes the Tags of Your Music—but it’s a headache. Many users (including me) have also run into problems with artwork and tags being changed, and with ripped albums being split into different groups of tracks.

  If you’ve put effort into organizing and tagging your library, you may not want to use iCloud Music Library.

• Bandwidth issues: When you turn on iCloud Music Library, any tracks in your iTunes Music library that don’t match a track in the Apple Music Library (or your iTunes Match library, if you already have one) will be uploaded. Make sure you won’t hit an important band­width cap before you turn on this feature. You may also wish to turn it on at a time when it’s okay if it hogs your Internet connec­tion. If you quit iTunes, it will stop uploading your tracks.
• Formats may surprise you: If you store music in formats other than AAC and MP3, read How Does iCloud Music Library Handle Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV Files? before you let iTunes start matching your music. That way, you won’t experience any surprises.
• Size: iCloud Music Library lets you match and/or upload up to 100,000 tracks, not counting tracks you’ve purchased from the iTunes Store. This will satisfy most people, but some have larger libraries. If you’re in that situation, you won’t be able to use iCloud Music Library unless you create two libraries. And the only easy way to do this is to have two different computers and two different iTunes Store accounts, so I don’t recommend it for most people.
• Matching: iCloud Music Library matches only music, not pod­casts. It won’t accept audiobooks from your Audiobooks (or Books) library, or files at bit rates of less than 96 kbps. It won’t upload files larger than 200 MB. And any Apple Lossless, WAV, or AIFF files will be uploaded as 256 kbps AAC files, if iTunes can’t match them.
• Syncing: When iCloud Music Library is active on an iOS device, that device can no longer sync music from iTunes. You have to download any music you want on that device from the cloud.
• Reliability: As with any cloud-based service, you must depend on it being accessible. From time to time, the iCloud Music Library servers stop responding for a few hours or half a day, though, at the time of this writing (early 2017), the service has been much more reliable than in the early years.
• Backups: Naturally, iCloud Music Library should not replace backups (see Back Up for more about backing up a music collection).

How Do I Start Using iTunes Match?

Click Store in the iTunes navigation bar. Under Music Quick Links in the right-hand sidebar, click iTunes Match. Click the subscribe button and follow the instructions to log in with the Apple ID that’s associated with your music purchases. After that, you see a screen like the one in Figure 35.

After an initial scan, iTunes Match populates your iCloud Music Library with any music that you’ve purchased from the iTunes Store that’s not on that computer. It then proceeds to analyze and “match” your music files, as described below, in What Does iCloud Music Library Do with My Music Files?.

How Do I Turn On iCloud Music Library?

To turn on iCloud Music Library, go to iTunes > Preferences > General, and select iCloud Music Library. You’ll need to be signed into your iTunes Store account; if you’re not, iTunes will ask you to authenticate.

If it’s the first time you’ve turned on iCloud Music Library, iTunes will take a while to scan and match or upload your tracks. If you’ve already been using iCloud Music Library on another computer or device, and are simply adding a new computer, it won’t take as long. Eventually, you’ll see all the music in your library.

The only indication that anything is happening is the small Activity button that displays at the right of the iTunes toolbar. You can click this to see your progress.

What Does iCloud Music Library Do with My Music Files?

When you activate iCloud Music Library, either by selecting its checkbox in the iTunes preferences or turning on iTunes Match, iTunes begins what can be a lengthy process of analyzing your music, looking for matches between your tracks and tracks in its online repository of music:

1. iTunes analyzes your music to determine what your library con­tains. It doesn’t look at the tags—Album, Artist, Song Name, etc.—on your music files; instead, it uses “acoustic fingerprinting” technology to determine what each track is. This ensures that even if your tags don’t match those in the iTunes Store, your music can be matched.
2. iTunes sends this data to the mothership, which slices and dices it. For each track, iTunes determines whether it can make a match and adds this information to your iCloud Music Library (see What Do the iCloud Music Library Status Labels Mean?).
3. For tracks that match, iTunes uploads artwork, if you have applied your own album art.
4. Finally, for tracks that have not matched, iTunes uploads the files. This can take a long time if you have a large library. The actual time depends on how many tracks were not matched, the size of those tracks, and how fast your Internet connection handles uploads.

When iTunes finishes, a message displays telling you how many matches it was able to make. Click Done to dismiss the message.

To add another computer, follow the same procedure. If you have two computers with different content in their iTunes libraries, iCloud Music Library will bring together all this content in your cloud library, making all the music available to both computers.

How Do I Play Music in My iCloud Music Library?

With iCloud Music Library, you play music from your computer the way you are used to. Select a song or album and click a Play button, or double-click a song to start playing. You can also play and edit playlists as you are accustomed to. You can add songs that are in your iCloud Music Library to playlists—either smart or dumb—along with songs on your computer.

If you play music that is on your computer, you won’t notice anything different. If you play music that’s in the cloud, playing a song will start streaming that song; this may take a few seconds to begin, and may or may not be practical depending on your Internet connection.

To play music that is in your iCloud Music Library, yet not stream it, you must download it: either click the Download icon next to a song, or select a group of songs, Control-click, and choose Download. How long this takes depends on your Internet connection. Once the music has downloaded, you can play it without worrying about streaming speeds.

How Do I Access My iCloud Music Library in iOS?

Apple’s music app for iOS is called Music. To access your iCloud Music Library in this app, open the Settings app, tap Music, and then turn on the iCloud Music Library switch. If your device already has music on it, the dialog offers two options: you can either Keep Music, to retain the tracks on your iOS device and have them merged into your iCloud Music Library, or Delete & Replace, to erase your local library and replace it with your iCloud Music Library.

In the Music app, you see all your music by default: music on the device, and music in the cloud. To only see music that you have downloaded to the device, tap the Library icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, and then tap Downloaded Music.

How Do I Access My iCloud Music Library on an Apple TV?

On an Apple TV (4th generation or later), open the Music app and choose Turn On iCloud Music Library. You’ll be able to access all your music that’s in the cloud.

To change which iTunes Store account is signed in to the Music app, open Settings > Accounts > iTunes & App Store and sign out. Then sign in with another account.

How Does iCloud Music Library Handle Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV Files?

If you have music files in these formats, iTunes tries to match them to 256 kbps versions. If iTunes can’t make a match, it converts the file to 256 kbps AAC and uploads the converted version, but leaves the lossless or uncompressed version in your iTunes library.

So, if you care about keeping music in lossless or uncompressed for­mats, you may want your tracks to be matched so you can listen to them on iOS devices, but don’t re-download them to your computer.

Can I Use iCloud Music Library to “Upgrade” My Music?

An aspect of iTunes Match that Apple initially touted was the capability to “upgrade” tracks that have been matched to 256 kbps AAC files, “even if your original copy was of lower quality.” This covers two types of tracks. The first are tracks purchased from the iTunes Store prior to April 2009, which had DRM and were sold at 128 kbps. The second is tracks you’ve ripped from CDs—or obtained by other means—which you can match and then re-download in upgraded versions.

This tacit upgrading still exists with iTunes Match. Not all tracks are available for upgrade; and the music must still be available for sale on the iTunes Store.

To upgrade tracks, simply match, delete, and re-download:

1. Select the tracks you want to upgrade.
2. Control-click (right-click) the selected tracks.
3. Choose Remove Download. The tracks are no longer on your computer, but they are listed in your library with the Download icon next to them.
4. Click the Download icon for a track you want to download, or select a group of tracks, Control-click them, and choose Download.

You get new files at 256 kbps, without DRM.

What Do the iCloud Music Library Status Labels Mean?

iCloud Music Library assigns a status label to each of your tracks. You can see these labels in Songs view: with Music selected in the Media Picker and Library selected on the navigation bar, click Songs in the sidebar.

Once iTunes is displaying Songs view, you may need to add the iCloud Status and iCloud Download columns: open The View Options Window (Command-J), and then in the Music section, select the checkboxes for iCloud Download and iCloud Status.

You may have to scroll to the right to view the columns in the iTunes window (Figure 36).

To understand the status of a track, you’ll need to combine the information shown in the iCloud Download and iCloud Status columns.

Interpreting the iCloud Download icons:

• No icon: The track is physically on your computer in your iTunes library.
• Downloadable : The track is available to you for streaming or downloading, but it isn’t downloaded to your iTunes library. If you see this icon next to a playlist, one or more tracks in the playlist are in your iCloud Music Library, but are not downloaded to your iTunes library.
• Ineligible : The track doesn’t meet iCloud Music Library requirements. Movies, TV shows, podcasts, iTunes U content, and audiobooks display this icon if you add them to a music playlist, because you cannot add them to iCloud Music Library. You may also see this icon next to playlists that contain ineligible items.
• Removed : The track has been removed from your iCloud Music Library on another computer or iOS device, but is still present in your iTunes library.
• Error : The file is either corrupted or could not be uploaded to iCloud Music Library. It’s not clear what causes this, as files that play correctly can show errors in some cases. You can try refreshing your iCloud Music Library by choosing File > Library > Update iCloud Music Library; this may correctly match or upload the file.
• Duplicate : The track wasn’t added to your iCloud Music Library because your iTunes library has another copy of it. The dupli­cate could be the same song on a different album, such as a greatest hits album or a compilation. Duplicates are not uploaded.
• Dotted/dimmed cloud : This icon relates to some problem with the track in the cloud, so check the iCloud Status column for information about what’s going on.

Understanding the iCloud Status labels:

• Apple Music: You added this track from Apple Music. You can stream it or download it for offline listening, but it has DRM, so if your Apple Music subscription lapses, you won’t be able to listen to it.
• Exceeded Limit: If your iTunes library contains more than 100,000 tracks (not counting purchases), iCloud Music Library will no longer accept new music and displays this status for tracks you add.
• Ineligible: For some reason, your track cannot be uploaded to your iCloud Music Library. The track might have too low a bit rate (less than 96 kbps), it might be too large (more than 200 MB), it might be too long (more than 2 hours), or it may belong to a different Apple ID and have DRM.
• Matched: The track was matched with a track in the iTunes Store or Apple Music Library, using iCloud Music Library.
• No Longer Available: The record label or artist has withdrawn permission to stream this track. It may become available to stream again in the future. Tracks that are no longer available are also dimmed.
• Not Uploaded: The track was added to your library on an iOS device, but it’s not on your computer to upload.
• Purchased: You purchased this track from the iTunes Store.
• Uploaded: iTunes doesn’t have this track in the iTunes Store or Apple Music library, or it didn’t match your track with its version, so it uploaded yours. You can stream it or download it. If you download the track, it shows up in its original format (unless the original was in Apple Lossless, AIFF, or WAV format, in which case you download a 256 kbps AAC version of the file).
• Waiting: iCloud Music Library is working its magic in the background and hasn’t yet determined the track’s final status.

How Do I Manage My Music with iCloud Music Library?

Once you’ve turned on iCloud Music Library, if you’re strapped for space—say on a laptop—you can delete some or all of the music in your iTunes library. (Select tracks, Control-click your selection, and then choose Remove Download.) The deleted tracks now display with a Download icon next to them. You can then download the tracks whenever you want.

You may want to delete some of your music in this manner. You can have, say, a 50,000 track library on your main computer, and have access to all that music on a laptop, or iOS device, without using much or any space at all, and without worrying about choosing which music each device contains. But, remember, when you want the music back, downloading it again may take a while unless you have an extremely fast Internet connection.

And also remember that iCloud Music Library is not a backup, so don’t delete the original copies of your music files.

What If I Turn Off iCloud Music Library?

After you turn off iCloud Music Library in the iTunes General preferences, your library may get a lot smaller. Any tracks that are physically on your computer remain in your library, but any music that has been matched, or uploaded and deleted, or never downloaded to that computer (assuming you set up iCloud Music Library on a different computer) is no longer visible. However, those tracks are still in the cloud, and you can turn iCloud Music Library back on to access them again.

Don’t forget that iTunes Match is an annual subscription service, and that Apple Music has a monthly fee. If you don’t renew, you will no longer have access to your music in the cloud. So when subscription renewal time rolls around, if you don’t plan to renew, make sure you download everything before it disappears—you should get a warning before the renewal.

If you decide that you don’t want to renew, you don’t have to wait for Apple to warn you about it. Instead, choose Account > View My Account to go to your iTunes Store Account Information page. In the Settings section, on the Subscriptions line, click Manage. Click Apple Music Membership or iTunes Match, then click Cancel Subscription.

Can More Than One Person Share an Apple Music or iTunes Match Account?

If your household has several computers, and you want each one to access the same music library, you can subscribe to iTunes Match or Apple Music, and sign in on each computer using the same iTunes Store account. Each computer will add its content to the joint library in the cloud. Each user will see all the music and can decide which tracks to download. During set up, only one computer can actively match songs at once. If one computer is matching songs, and another computer tries to match songs, the latter will display an alert asking if you want to continue matching and stop the other session, or cancel the session.

If you don’t set up each computer with the same iTunes Store account, each computer will have a different iTunes library. For example, Alice and Bob could each add music to their two iCloud Music libraries, and their kids, Carol and Dave, could each also have a library free of the music their parents like to listen to.

Or, as a hybrid, Apple’s Family Sharing service lets each family member maintain their own library but allows each member to download any Apple media or apps that anyone else has bought. If a family is signed up for Family Sharing, it can also sign up for a $14.99-per-month Apple Music family plan, a savings over the $9.99 monthly individual subscription. Each member gets a separate iCloud Music Library, and the one-device-at-a-time streaming limit goes away.

There is no iTunes Match family plan; each user would need to subscribe to that service individually in order to use it.