Apple seems to be deploying iTunes Match into international music stores this evening, though there seem to be some ongoing glitches that suggests they could be an early mistake or a partial roll out.
Several readers in the UK and Australia have noticed that iTunes Match is now a sign up option in their iTunes Account information page. Apple has not yet started promoting iTunes Match in the iTunes Store, but the links to iTunes Match are live with localized pricing (see above).
In the UK, iTunes Match costs £21.99 for a year and €24.99 in other parts of Europe. Users are allowed to sign up for it and receive a confirmation email of their purchase but one Twitter report claims it "does nothing" at this stage. For Australian customers, the service is priced at A$ 34.99.
To see if it appears available in your country, log into your iTunes account on your Mac or PC and then tap on your account name to see your account information. From there, you may be able to sign up, though we'd advise some caution as it seems the service isn't fully operational at the time of this writing. Alternatively, you can also try this direct link that opens the page directly in iTunes.
iTunes Match is Apple's music service offers users the ability to match their existing iTunes library with high quality versions in Apple's iCloud. The service originally launched in the U.S. and recently expanded to Brazil.
Thanks Colin
Update: It appears the launch may have been premature. Apple is refunding early buyers and claims it is not available outside of Brazil and the U.S. at the moment.
Friday February 14, 2025 6:18 am PST by Joe Rossignol
The first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner, and the update is expected to include many new features and changes.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman expects the iOS 18.4 beta to be released by next week.
Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far.
Apple Intelligence for Siri
Siri is expected to get several enhancements powered by Apple Intelligence on iOS...
Apple is set to "significantly change" the iPhone's design language later this year, according to a Weibo leaker.
In a new post, the user known "Digital Chat Station" said that the iPhone's design is "starting to change significantly" this year. The "iPhone 17 Air" reportedly features a "horizontal, bar-shaped" design on the rear, likely referring to an elongated camera bump. On the other...
Thursday February 13, 2025 11:48 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple has yet to announce any new devices this year, but that could change starting next week.
Apple CEO Tim Cook today said to "get ready" for a "launch" on Wednesday, February 19.
"Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," said Cook, in a social media post. The post includes an #AppleLaunch hashtag, along with a short video featuring an animated Apple logo inside of a circle....
Sunday February 16, 2025 7:22 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple is "exploring" the idea of showing search ads in the Apple Maps app, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Back in 2022, Gurman said software engineering was "already underway" to display ads in the Apple Maps app, but Apple did not move forward with the idea at the time. Today, he said Apple is "giving this notion more thought" again.
This time around, he said Apple has yet to...
Apple appears to have enough upcoming product announcements to justify a full event this month, yet all signs indicate these reveals will be handled through a series of press releases instead.
There are a multitude of rumors from reliable sources about specific announcements in the coming weeks, so here's everything that Apple could have feasibly included in a hypothetical February event:
...
Thursday February 13, 2025 5:49 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro will feature three rear cameras arranged in a familiar triangular layout, but the cameras will be housed in an all-new rectangular camera bar with rounded corners, according to YouTube channel Front Page Tech.
iPhone 17 Pro camera design render created by Asher for Front Page Tech
In a video uploaded today, Front Page Tech host Jon Prosser said the camera ...
Saturday February 15, 2025 9:58 am PST by Joe Rossignol
A few days ago, we reported that Apple's refurbished Mac mini pricing had a problem, and it appears that Apple has taken note.
Apple was offering a refurbished Mac mini with the M2 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage for $559, which was $50 more than a refurbished Mac mini with the M4 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. All other key specifications were equal.
That's no longer...
Friday February 14, 2025 4:04 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple CEO Tim Cook teased an Apple announcement that's coming on Wednesday, February 19, and it's looking like that mystery announcement will be the next-generation iPhone SE.
We've been hearing about the iPhone SE 4 for quite some time now, and we essentially know everything to expect. If you want a sneak peek at what's coming, read on.
Naming
Apple first introduced the iPhone SE in...
First they release TV Shows for Canada, UK, and Australia on AppleTV then pull it without warning or explanation and now this? Somebody's really messing up or purposefully F#$king with our minds. :mad:
I went thru the matching process about a week ago. First stuff I did -
-Created a playlist of all music with a bit rate less than 256 VBR (variable bit rate)
-Updated all "songs" that were actually audiobooks to the correct media type and genre so they wouldn't all get uploaded as unmatched songs and to get below the 25,000 song limit (I had about 32,000 items when audiobook tracks were included.)
-Re-imported a few cds where I had bit rates less than 100 VBR (too low and it won't match)
-Back up the music collection
The actual scanning and matching ran very quickly, was done in about 2 hours for 9000 songs. About 3,000 were in a low quality that could be redownloaded at the higher iTunes Plus quality. I deleted the matched and upgradable songs, then used the playlist to help track progress for redownloading. I did that part over 2 days on and off when i was not doing other stuff.
I turned on iTunes match on my phone after a few days, and it warns you it will replace your music. I have a metered 3G plan, so I didn't want to stream all the time. I selected a bunch of songs to redownload via wifi, but turned off the iCloud-only music. So basically using iTunes match to upgrade all my music, and provide an off-site, always available backup of my music collection. Well worth the $25! Less to put in my regular backups, and less room to take up on my laptop if you want to delete local copies and store the upgraded music on an external harddrive. Used to be that your entire music collection had to be in the iTunes music directories, now very easy to have partials. Would have loved this a few years ago, as I had been purposely burning lower fidelity songs to save space on my laptop. Now you can listen to the hi-fidelity music all the time, with less hassle.
