How to trade-up your old, low bit-rate songs
for a set of high-quality tracks
After a long wait the iTunes Music Store
has finally reached our shores, together with iTunes Match. iTunes Match lets
you upload your music to Apple’s iCloud, so you have full access to your music
library wherever you are – as long as you have an iDevice and internet access.
iTunes Match can also upgrade your low- quality music tracks to higher-quality
256kps AAC versions from Apple. Assuming you’ve signed up for the service,
here’s how to do it.
Consolidate your Library
This step is optional; you only need to do
it if you plan to delete all your lower quality files off your hard-disk later
and let them be replaced completely with Apple’s new files. In iTunes, go to
File > Library > Organize Library. Check both ‘Consolidate file’ and
‘Reorganize files’.
Once you do this, iTunes will copy your
music tracks into its own folders; in effect you have two times the number of
music files on your hard-drive so make sure you have lots of space. At this
point, you can choose to hang on to your first copy as a back-up, or you can
delete them off your hard-drive to save space.
Consolidate
your Library
Have You Been Matched?
Before we continue, you just need to make
sure that the iTunes Match process has been completed on your library.
Basically, whether iTunes has analyzed your tracks and uploaded your library to
the cloud. To check, click on the iTunes Match icon on the left pane to see
your upload status. If you don’t see the iTunes Match icon, go to Store >
Turn on iTunes Match.
Have
You Been Matched?
Get Smart
Make a Smart Playlist be going to File >
New Smart Playlist. Use these rules:
·
Bit Rate is less than 256kbps
·
Media Kind is Music
·
Any of the following are true (to create this
rule, PC: ALT + click or Mac: OPT + click on the plus button): iCloud status is
Matched, iCloud status is Purchased.
Doing this will show the tracks in your
library which are low-quality, have be uploaded to iTunes and thus and can be
upgraded.
Delete the Old Files
Here’s where step one comes in handy. We’re
going to delete all the tracks listed in your Smart Playlist, and you can
choose either to delete them permanently or just off iTunes. Select all the
tracks in the Smart Playlist, then hit delete to get them off iTunes but keep
them on your hard-drive.
To delete them off your hard-drive, press
PC: Shift + Delete, Mac: OPT + Delete. When iTunes asks, choose not to delete
them from iCloud, but move them to trash. If you didn’t do step one, the option
to move them to trash will not show.
Bring Them Back Better
After you’ve deleted the old tracks from
iTunes, you can select all off them again, then right-click on the selection
and choose Download. This will download new, higher quality versions of your
old songs from iTunes Match. If you have a lot of songs, you can do steps four
and five in batches.
If the music tracks disappear from the
Smart Playlist after step four, you can create a second Smart Playlist to show
them again. Use these rules for the second list:
·
Location is iCloud
·
Location is not On This Computer
·
Media Kind is Music
You can then right-click on the files shown
to download them.
iTunes Match Icons Explained
When you turn on iTunes Match, you’ll see s
whole bunch of new cloud icons appear next to your music. Here’s what they
mean.
Description:
Inaligible
Meaning:
This song is ineligible for upload
Description:
Removed
Meaning:
This song has been removed from iCloud
Description:
Error
Meaning:
This song might be corrupt or there was an uploading error
Description:
Duplicate
Meaning:
a duplicate of this song exists in your iTunes library
Description:
Waiting
Meaning:
This song is waiting to be matched
Why can’t my song be upgraded?
What if you have lower quality tracks which
just don’t match? There are a few reasons why this could happen. The first is
that your song isn’t simply in your country’s iTunes Music Store. Not all
countries get the same store, and some have larger libraries than others.
Japanese artists, for example, aren’t in the Singapore music store at the
moment. Another reason is that the song might simply be too low or even to
high-quality; songs encoded at 96kbps and less or songs larger than 200MB
aren’t eligible for upload. A song will also not be uploaded if it contains DRM
(Digital Rights Management).
