After a false start, iTunes Match became available in the UK, sooner than I expected. Judging by the image above, it could be a while before my collection is all sorted. I’m just glad I don’t have my singles collection in there yet.

One more thing…

I’d just like to see one teeny, tiny little addition to the service in future, which would really help my “ripping workflow”. Currently when I buy a CD (yes, I still buy them) I take it out of the box, and stick it straight into the Mac to get ripped. I then tag the MP3s, back them up etc. It would be really nice if I could just stick in the CD and have iTunes detect it, Match the tracks, and let me download the tracks without ripping.

I suspect some would say that this would be open to abuse - a user could borrow a stack of CDs from their friend, and stick them in one by one to build up their own “legitimate” collection. In the end though, it only saves the time-consuming rip. Those people will probably just grab the audio files from their friend anyway.

So, come on Apple: just one more step to make life a little bit simpler.