iTunes Match & SoundHound Make Beautiful Music Together

We've all seen the problems iTunes has with recognizing CD tracks that you may have turned into a special mix Audio CD you burned. If you've taken a collection of MP3s and burned them for an Audio CD, you are probably familiar with this image - Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, etc. You have no idea what those songs are - or at the very least, what the correct names are.

With an app, iTunes Match subscription, and some CDs you can change your 'unknown' collection into something useful and make them available to all of your iOS devices and Computers.

1. Launch the SoundHound app on your iOS device.

2. Insert a CD with unrecognized tracks into your Mac - you can import now if you wish as well.

3. Click Play on one of those tracks (Track 1, Track 2, etc).

4. Turn up the volume on the song, and then Click  'Tap Here' on the SoundHound app.  Within a few seconds, that song with be recognized. Incredible.

5. Now go into iTunes and CONTROL-CLICK on the track you are playing and choose 'Get Info'.  Now enter the correct data into the track. I'm not sure of how iTunes Match makes a match, but it doesn't hurt to enter the track info as precisely as you can.

6. Now iTunes Match should do it's thing and try and Match, or at least Upload to iCloud. If not, CONTROL-CLICK On it and choose 'Add to iCloud' and this should match or upload it to the iCloud service.

7. Check your other Macs or iOS devices - these newly updated songs will now be in your iCloud. If you had poor quality versions, now you can download the MATCHED songs in the higher quality 256kbps AAC format. Easily worth the $25 a year!

iTunes 10.2.1 adds iOS 4.3 Compatibility

Seems just like it was last week we updated to iTunes 10.2. Oh wait, it was....

Check Software Update on your Mac for the latest update to iTunes, preferably before you update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to iOS 4.3 so you can get maximum compatibility. 

Straight from Apple -- 

• Sync with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 4.3.

• Improved Home Sharing. Browse and play from your iTunes libraries with Home Sharing on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 4.3.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit: support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

iTunes Surprise?

Apple has made this image front and center of their website. What could it mean? The Wall Street Journal said the long awaited 'Beatles' catalog is coming. Do we really even care? If you are a Beatles fan you have already ripped the latest edition to your iPod. Why buy it on iTunes??? I'm hoping it's not the Beatles, or at least, not only about the Beatles. How about subscription iTunes? That would be nice. I'd think there would be more fanfare than just an unexpected iTunes change with a cryptic message.

Andy Ihnatko had a couple of posts today that had some pretty good speculation.

First Post  Second Post

iTunes 10 - Now Zippier with More Features

The new iTunes 10 finally went live tonight and here is what's in store:

What's new in iTunes 10

 • Introducing Ping. Use Ping to follow your favorite artists and friends or connect with the world's most passionate music fans. Discover the music everyone is talking about, listening to, and downloading.

 • Rent HD TV episodes for just 99¢ each. Watch them on your Mac or PC, on-the-go with iPhone or iPod touch, or in your living room with the all new Apple TV.

 • Play your favorites on the all new iPod touch, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, and Apple TV.

 • Play music wirelessly with AirPlay on AirPlay-enabled speakers, home theater receivers, and iPod accessories.

 • Explore many look-and-feel improvements throughout iTunes.

 • Enjoy performance improvements which make iTunes faster and more responsive.

 • Additional voice support with VoiceOver Kit for iPod.

 For information on the security content of this update, please visit: support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Nearly 400 Episodes

Since I started Mac Tips Daily! back in 2005 I've cycled through daily episodes (first year), to weekly(second year), to monthly(third year), to sometimes(this year!)...  

Now here it is almost 4 years to the month and I'm finally going to reach 400 episodes. Episode 399 just went into the feed, and #400 will come out Dec 31st. It's pretty exciting actually. I've kind of put the show on the back burner but never have forgotten the reason I started the show.

I'll write up a little more about it before the year ends, but if you have unsubscribed or iTunes unsubscribed you since there haven't been new episodes, you may want to CLICK here to resubscribe and ensure that you get our monumental episode.

It's coming... I promise.