iTunes Match live in New Zealand, some user issues

UPDATE Dec 16: Apple's song matching, storage and streaming service, iTunes Match, is now live in New Zealand.

Launched in November, the service was originally only available in the United States.

But the service is now live in New Zealand for $39.99, with some user issues reported.

The service appeared to have a false start, with Auckland man Paul Brislen paying for an installing the upgrade, only to have it disappear. Mr Brislen said Apple refunded his money after he placed a call to complaint.

NBR subscribed to iTunes Match this morning and found the "matching" process speedy (taking only around a second per track) but the process of uploading songs (from CDs and other sources) and album artwork was extremely slow.

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Nov 15: Apple’s song matching, storage and streaming service, iTunes Match, has gone live and the company has reportedly been overwhelmed with subscriptions.

The initial launch (originally scheduled by the end of October) is US-only. Apple has yet to release a timetable for the rest of the world.

iTunes Match is built into the iTunes app on a Mac or PC, and into the Music app on an iOS device.  The service determines which songs in a users collection are available in the iTunes store, and music with a match is added to iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage service, Apple said.

“Any music with a match is automatically added to iCloud. Since there are more than 20 million songs in the iTunes Store, most of your music is probably already in iCloud.”

Users upload any music not matched by iTunes, which Apple said is faster than starting from scratch.  Once a user’s collection is uploaded and stored in iCloud, it can be streamed and stored on any iOS device, with playback at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality, Apple said, no matter the quality of the original copy.

Users can upload up to 25,000 songs which were not iTunes purchases and the latter did not count against this limit.  iTunes Match required iOS 5.0.1 and the latest iTunes update, 10.5.1, Apple said.  Access to some service was limited to 10 devices, it said.

The service allows the storage of music collections including imported tracks from a CD or purchases from somewhere other than iTunes (remember, copyright infringement is illegal, folks).

Apple told NBR iTunes Match was available in the United States through the iTunes 10.5.1 update and that it had no further details at this time.

The service costs $US24.99 a year and Apple has been “overwhelmed” subscriptions since its launch today, ComputerWorld reported.

The service was first introduced in June and was tipped to launch in October, ComputerWorld reported.

Apple reportedly said new sign ups were not available due to “overwhelming demand” and that users should check back in an hour, according to PC Magazine