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Comment by radiosnob | Hacker News Reader

When this is available in Germany (or basically outside the US), they got me. This is how to make things easy.

iTunes Match [0] does the same thing and is already available in dozens of countries, including Germany [1].

It works for all kinds of music, not just tracks you bought from Apple. Ripped CDs, Amazon MP3s, other sources -- and if the quality of your tracks is less than a 256Kbps AAC file, the service downloads better versions from iTunes.

[0] http://www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-match/

[1] http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5085

No, it does not do the same thing, Apple doesn't sell CDs.

It doesn't need to. iTunes Match doesn't care about where you purchased your CDs. If you want to continue buying CDs at Amazon, that's fine. Rip them in iTunes, and iTunes Match will keep them in the cloud.

It is fair to point out that with iTunes match you will not have the pressed CD shipped to you. In addition to the hassle of burning your own, burned CD's can degrade over time. The nice thing about both services is that you can always burn another!

If iTunes Match requires ripping, and this just uses purchase history, it's pretty fundamentally different.

I recommend you read the post I responded to. For someone who bought CDs in Germany through Amazon, their new service is of no help. However, if you bought music at Amazon's site in Germany, iTunes Match will serve you as well as Amazon's site does in the US.

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