#imatch

I don’t think I’m an old-fart luddite tech-no-hoper. I’ve had some minor technological achievements in my lifetime: I changed a hot shoe on a Canon 5D once, I wrote a massive spreadsheet that automatically calculated prices with discounts and everything, I built a bed. So I don’t feel I’m going to make a total arse of myself by putting down in words how techno-confused I feel about iTunes.

In a fit of eco-middle-class do-gooding, I gave away two-thirds of my CD collection to charity because of my faith in iTunes’ cloud service, iMatch. Once your CDs are ripped (there you are, I know the jargon) into the cloud, you pay an annual subscription for them to stay there and be accessed from wherever you are via whatever device. No need for them to sit in a cabinet taking up valuable wall space when you could have a nice picture of Bo Ningen there instead. That was six months ago. I got some lovely thank-yous from the ladies at the Cancer Research shop and I felt smugly good about myself. Until I noticed that my iTunes library on my laptop looked a bit thin. I have all six of Laura Marling’s albums but only her most recent was appearing. Worse, the button for iMatch had disappeared - I keep my software updated, you see. I googled the problem a bit but to no avail so I availed myself of Apple’s call back service. “Think you are entitled to a fee exception?” You bet! I paid for a service and it’s disappeared. Bang on time, Pete calls me from Apple. He comments on my Count Arthur Strong collection as we go through the iTunes (you get real people with Apple), trying to find out what’s wrong. After an hour or so, he has to have a break, but says he’ll call me back. While he’s recovering, I google: “What happened to iMatch?” and I find a forum where someone explains that if you delve deep into the iTunes menu you will find a check box called “iTunes Music Library”.There is no longer any mention of iMatch. Check this box and you get all your library back from the cloud, just like you used to with iMatch. When Pete calls me back, he sounds slightly disappointed. He doesn’t seem to have been told about this in his recent training session. I tell him it’s sorted on my laptop but that the library is still not showing on my iPhone. We try all the settings, but it doesn’t work. This morning I wake up and it’s all there.

With too much time on my hands, I’m still fiddling with iTunes. For some time now, I’ve noticed I have duplicates of a lot of songs. I google the problem and find Chuck in his bedroom with a youtube fix. It looks quite straightforward but I don’t fully understand the logic behind it. Why in date order? And I’m worried about deleting songs, but I go ahead anyway. I delete half of one of my favourite Laura Marling album’s irrevocably. But it’s OK because that was not in the two-thirds of my CD collection that I gave to charity.

In all this, I feel it’s not only me that doesn’t understand what’s going on. Pete certainly doesn’t, nor does Chuck and nor, I suspect, does Apple really. I also guess that Apple is somehow pulling a fast one on me (the disappearance of iMatch came at just the time iMusic came in). I think I’ll put that Bo Ningen picture on the wall.