[Spooky23]

The magic was that you had to have iTunes Match or manually sync. Years later, few people remember or are still shaking their fist and babbling over U2.

Apple didn’t communicate that well and many folks lost stuff, particularly if they are picky about recordings.

All of the CD collection stuff has degraded everywhere as the databases of tracks have been passed around to various overlords.

[foobarchu]

As someone who didn't have an iPhone during that switch (haven't since 2014), what happened to music that isn't in Apple Music? Streaming services are famously incomplete databases.

[Spooky23]

If you have iTunes Match, it syncs to the cloud for $25/year. (https://support.apple.com/en-us/108935)

Otherwise, you sync with iTunes/Music.app or manage outside of Apple like we did from 2000 till whenever match came out.

My wife had an extensive collection of recordings that aren’t available on Apple Music and never will be, and they’ve flawlessly synced since Match came out like 20 years ago.

I think the complaints about album are 100% legit. But a lot of the lost data/miscategorized albums are likely more related to old farts like me forgetting that many of my “CD rips” may have fallen off the Napster truck 30 years ago.

Apple when it comes to purchased music has been pretty awesome to its customers. (Apple Music… meh) Buying songs has been a sideshow for what… a decade? Unlike many providers, it’s all still there humming away. Every person involved is long retired, it’s still alive.