Just purchased an album from using the Apple Music App (Seems to be the only way to get stuff from Apple now). It was an album which I couldn’t seem to find anywhere else other than an expensive CD, so I was prepared to accept the lossy format, as there are some songs on the album I really like. I could have got an MP3 version from Amazon, but in my experience the Apple downloads are usually of higher quality.
Now I find that I can’t do what I used to do with iTunes : i.e. copy the files from the music folder to my NAS. Seems like the only way I can do it is do download it to my phone or ipad, play it into my NDS via USB, make a copy onto my Korg MR2, then edit it in Audacity before putting it on my NAS. (Just as I do with LP purchases as ‘safety backups’)
Wonder if I can get a refund as ‘unfit for purpose’?
Just found a way to work around it. I created a playlist in the Apple Music App, imported the DRM protected apple music files into it, then burnt the playlist to CD. Just ripping it in dBpoweramp at the moment.
It’s a PITA. Before the Catalina upgrade, all I had to was load itunes, go to iTunes store, pay and download whatever music I wanted, then open Filer>Music>iTunes to find the downloaded music, and then copy that to my NAS.
In future, I don’t think I’m going to buy anything from Apple Music unless I have no choice.
Thanks for your suggested solution, Peppo, but I want ALL my music in the same library. (except the c. 1500 LPs which I still have, of course!). Also, the only files which the Apple music generated on my Mac were some sort of text file. Presumably the music is DRM protected or some such thing.
Perhaps I’m mistaken. All I know is that it did not appear in the Music Folder as the usual apple music files, but only as a text file. Never had that problem with the old iTunes method.
To make me even more annoyed, after sorting out this album, I proceed to tip a recently acquired double CD of Bach Lute works, and had to change the dBpoweramp settings to non-standard CDs. The album, was recorded in 1999, and is a Sony product.
I’ve not upgraded to Catalina as yet - I may set up an installation on an external SSD to dabble - the dissolution of iTunes is one reason I’ve not done so.
From some brief searches it seems Apple tries to be pushing everything to exist in the cloud , even your own CD rips/imported purchases from elsewhere may get matched and stored in the cloud.
They’ve confused the hell out of me in recent years - iTunes Match was a reasonable service to be able to upload matched music from your library for use on other devices on the go but never worked that well in practice for me, plus for any CD rips I’d want on another Mac I would not have wanted the matched lossy AAC version.
Then they introduced iCloud Music Library without subscription which duplicated things and confused them further.
I’m wondering if what you have in you library is the matched cloud file or a link to it rather than an actual purchase - what does Get Info tell you about a track?
In Preferences, is there an option of Account>Purchases to let you see and download the music files which might do the trick if you have a cloud copy/link in the library not an actual file.
I have an Apple Music subscription which I hate but family members use it. A new thing seems to be library syncing - something again I don’t want - in the past if I wanted to download a protected Apple Music album I could do so easily, now it insists I enable library syncing for offline playback which I don’t want to until I understand the ramifications - if you don’t enable it’s streaming only for an album/track.
Apple do some things really well, others they bugger up completely for no real reason.
Agreed. I’m very much in the “I’d rather not stream audio” group. I feel much more secure with a my NAS copies (preferably lossless). After all, if Apple, Spotify etc decide to remove something from their catalogues or delete an item from their cloud, then AFAICS you will lose access to some of your purchased music. I’d much rather have my own (multiple) copies.
I find the Apple Music App very unfriendly. However, I have just been into the Music Preferences (don’t know why I didn’t think of that!), and ticked the option to automatically download purchased music. Won’t know if that solves the problem until I decide to buy something else (could be months!)
I only purchase lossy files if I can’t get the lossless version at all, or it’s only available at an exorbitant price.
You should be able to just select download on the album in your library. There is no problem copying the files.
I have always run without auto-download and did a clean install of the latest OS so I dont know why/if your current local lib was cleared. I know Apple published a webpage on the changes.
It’s perhaps worth mentioning that it’s entirely unnecessary to run a UPnP server on the same hardware as a music library. They have always been designed to scan all of your network for music stores, which they merge into a single seamless library. Last time I checked, iTunes could do this too, as can Roon, Audirvana, etc. So other than for backup purposes, I don’t think you need to be moving your music files around just to put them in a single physical location.
I believe you, but this is the way I’ve always done things. Perhaps I’m just getting too old for all these changes. I’ve solved my problem, albeit in a roundabout way, but thank you to everybody.
in a networked library. I simply created a new Music library on a Synology NAS and called it Music Home. If you go to Music/preferences/ you will see the position of the library
Just remembered the reason why I really like them all in the same place. It’s because it makes it so much less time-consuming to keep backups. I use Chronosync for that, BTW and keep 2 external hard drive backups (one at my younger daughter’s house).
