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Tech: "Apple Stole My Music. No, Seriously," blogger claims.
Member Since: 2/28/2012
Posts: 11,072
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"Apple Stole My Music. No, Seriously," blogger claims.
Quote:
“The software is functioning as intended,” said Amber.
“Wait,” I asked, “so it’s supposed to delete my personal files from my internal hard drive without asking my permission?”
“Yes,” she replied.
I had just explained to Amber that 122 GB of music files were missing from my laptop. I’d already visited the online forum, I said, and they were no help. Although several people had described problems similar to mine, they were all dismissed by condescending “gurus” who simply said that we had mislocated our files (I had the free drive space to prove that wasn’t the case) or that we must have accidentally deleted the files ourselves (we hadn’t). Amber explained that I should blow off these dismissive “solutions” offered online because Apple employees don’t officially use the forums—evidently, that honor is reserved for lost, frustrated people like me, and (at least in this case) know-it-alls who would rather believe we were incompetent, or lying, than face the ugly truth that Apple has vastly overstepped its boundaries.
What Amber explained was exactly what I’d feared: through the Apple Music subscription, which I had, Apple now deletes files from its users’ computers. When I signed up for Apple Music, iTunes evaluated my massive collection of Mp3s and WAV files, scanned Apple’s database for what it considered matches, then removed the original files from my internal hard drive. REMOVED them. Deleted. If Apple Music saw a file it didn’t recognize—which came up often, since I’m a freelance composer and have many music files that I created myself—it would then download it to Apple’s database, delete it from my hard drive, and serve it back to me when I wanted to listen, just like it would with my other music files it had deleted.
This led to four immediate problems:
- If Apple serves me my music, that means that when I don’t have wifi access, I can’t listen to it. [...]
- What Apple considers a “match” often isn’t. [...] What this means, then, is that Apple is engineering a future in which rare, or varying, mixes and versions of songs won’t exist unless Apple decides they do. Said alternate versions will be replaced by the most mainstream version, despite their original, at-one-time correct, titles, labels, and file contents.
- Although I could click the little cloud icon next to each song title and “get it back” from Apple, their servers aren’t fast enough to make it an easy task. It would take around thirty hours to get my music back. And even then…
- Should I choose to reclaim my songs via download, the files I would get back would not necessarily be the same as my original files. [...]
[...]
I recovered my original music files only by using a backup I made weeks earlier. Many people don’t back up as often as they should, though, so this isn’t always an option. Amber relayed to me that she’s had to suffer through many calls from people who cancelled their Apple Music subscription after the free, three-month trial, only to discover that all of their own music files had been deleted and there was no way to get them back.
So my files were temporarily restored; but the only way to prevent this from happening over and over, according to Amber, was to cancel my subscription to Apple Music (which she herself doesn’t use due to the above-listed reasons) and to make sure my iCloud settings did not include storing any music backups.
[...]
When giving the above warning, however, even in my most Orwellian paranoia I never could have dreamed that the content holders, like Apple, would also reach into your computer and take away what you already owned. If Taxi Driver is on Netflix, Netflix doesn’t come to your house and steal your Taxi Driver DVD. But that’s where we’re headed. When it comes to music, Apple is already there.
Audacious. Egregious. Crazy. These are just some of the adjectives I used in my conversation with Amber. She actually asked me how I wanted to move forward, putting the onus of a solution back on me. I understand why, too: she’s just as powerless as I am. I would love for Apple to face public backlash and financial ramifications for having taken advantage of its customers in such a brazen and unethical way, but Apple seems beyond reproach at this point. It took three representatives before I could even speak to someone who comprehended what I was saying, and even when she admitted to Apple’s shady practice, she was able to offer no solution besides “don’t use the product.” When our data is finally a full-blown utility, however, “just don’t use the product” will cease to be an option. Apple will be in control, bringing their 1984 commercial full circle into a tragic, oppressive irony.
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https://blog.vellumatlanta.com/2016/...-no-seriously/
tragic.
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Member Since: 3/31/2012
Posts: 43,847
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 8/1/2012
Posts: 27,547
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Quote:
I recovered my original music files only by using a backup I made weeks earlier
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Well there we go.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 10,242
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Member Since: 1/12/2012
Posts: 18,340
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TIDAL would never, although I'd approve if they invade your computer to upgrade all of your zippyshare mp3s to the far more superior FLAC.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 37,384
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Is this true? I just got Apple Music but I haven't opened iTunes on my computer since
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Member Since: 8/18/2013
Posts: 40,566
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Love Apple Music but this is really bad
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Member Since: 4/4/2014
Posts: 32,654
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Uh no it doesn't.
I've had Apple Music for months and this never happened.
And I have plenty of music that isn't in the AM database and it was all fine.
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Member Since: 9/3/2011
Posts: 22,014
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I didn't have this problem when I used Apple Music. I don't think their intentions are bad but there are clearly issues with that iCloud library thing they do. Hopefully the update will fix them.
But how could a professional artist not make constant backups? He makes it sound like he just got lucky. And he probably did something else he's not saying because this clearly doesn't happen to everyone.
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Member Since: 5/3/2012
Posts: 42,099
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I've never had it delete music, but it does match the wrong songs (it match Ciara's Goodies featuring Petey Pablo to the Goodies Remix featuring T.I.) and it does change the album artwork of songs for no reason (like, I had several tracks on Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded - The Re-Up change to the single covers, when the entire album is on my phone). That's why I canceled mine and it ends today.
It's only usable with iCloud Music Library turned off, so it won't affect your device's library, but then that defeats the purpose of Apple Music since you can only stream and not add music to your library with iCloud Music Library turned off.
I'll wait until WWDC this summer to see what Apple is gonna do with it, because it's terrible right now, as it is.
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Member Since: 6/19/2012
Posts: 29,579
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Quote:
Originally posted by liberalmusiclover
I've never had it delete music, but it does match the wrong songs (it match Ciara's Goodies featuring Petey Pablo to the Goodies Remix featuring T.I.) and it does change the album artwork of songs for no reason (like, I had several tracks on Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded - The Re-Up change to the single covers, when the entire album is on my phone). That's why I canceled mine and it ends today.
It's only usable with iCloud Music Library turned off, so it won't affect your device's library, but then that defeats the purpose of Apple Music since you can only stream and not add music to your library with iCloud Music Library turned off.
I'll wait until WWDC this summer to see what Apple is gonna do with it, because it's terrible right now, as it is.
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right, it's just an ugly, dysfunctional mess.
I'm staying with spotify until they fix it.
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Member Since: 1/13/2012
Posts: 13,577
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I've never had any of the problems listed in this thread except they matched my original Teardrops On My Guitar (2006 version) with the ugly radio edit. Other than that, it's been fine.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 37,384
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Is there a way to turn off the match thing? I have a huge music library and I don't want to lose it Can't I just keep what I have and stream what I don't have?
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Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 1,037
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The only thing that's happened to me was all my music was hijacked, the cover arts were changed, and some titles and things changed. It messed up with my library and I loved the cover arts I choose for my albums so I didn't want for Apple Music to not let me pick what cover art I wanted so I ended my trial the moment I got it. It was a mess. They really need to do something about Apple Match.
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Member Since: 2/18/2012
Posts: 25,853
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I have tons of music that they can't match to iCloud Music Library that hasn't been deleted off my hard-drive, this simply isn't true.
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