With Plex, you should be able to download your media on your laptop via the web app or (if you are a Plex Pass subscriber) via the desktop app. I haven’t tried this, but it should work as long as you are logged into your Plex account, regardless of where you are.
Count me as another happy iTunes Match user. Works as expected, as long as every Mac or iOS device is logged in to the same Apple ID. The only glitch I’ve seen is that album artwork from the primary device (mine’s a Mac) doesn’t always carry over to the other devices.
BTW, you don’t need to subscribe to Apple Music to use iTunes Match.
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Right, I subscribe to AM so I can stream on demand, occasionally download tracks to my library. It’s possible that iTunes Match is redundant for my purposes but I keep the subscription. My library is a mix of (mostly) ripped CDs, some iTunes purchased tracks, some Amazon purchased MP3s, a few MP3s (and converted FLACs) from some concert USB sticks I’ve bought. Some songs are tracks my wife purchased that I’ve copied to my library. So far I’ve had only one iTunes Match problem, and it was a track I purchased from Apple which downloads the wrong version of one particular song (it uses a live version from a different studio album.) I’ve never let Apple know about the issue, perhaps one day I’ll get to it.
I took a different approach and it works well for us.
I tried several variants of putting the music files on a server on the LAN but gave up on it because of the headaches: delays, remote disks not mounting reliably, and more.
When iTunes became Music, Apple decided to keep meta data (including the cover image cache) deep in the file hierarchy and not in the same place as the media files. So what used to work for me, keeping all the files on a portable USB-powered drive, stopped working.
So I switched to Swinsian. It’s not quite as pretty as Music but it works and works well. And it keeps all its “stuff” together.
So I now have all the music on an external SSD (2TB and almost full) which can plug in anywhere. I can (and do) make clones of the SSD, backups in case of disk failure, but there’s no reason you couldn’t make a clone for home use, a clone to take with you, and and so on.
I’m currently using Swinsian 2.3.6, I understand there’s a version 3 in the works - I hope there will be no changes which will break my process.
Plex people…I’ve been trying Plexamp and the server, and there’s a lot to like, but there seems to be a weird bug. Whenever I’m running Plexamp, my spacebar and delete key stop working in any program. As soon as I quit PlexAmp they start working again. This happens on two different computers and keyboards, both running Big Sur. I can’t find any mention of this on line anywhere, which makes me think it’s a local problem, but I have no idea what would cause it. Obviously it’s a bit of a game killer for Plex for me.
I tried Swinsian years ago and it didn’t grab me then, but it might be worth another look, it sound like. Thanks again everyone for the on-going suggestions!
Peter
If the cover art is embedded properly in all audio files, then it should carry over to any program whether it’s iTunes, Music, or for using in a car stereo that has USB inputs. It should not matter whether the storage is internal or external. I use both types of storage with no issues.
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That sounds like the cover art is not embedded in all files similar to my previous post above.
Nope, even with all artwork embedded, Apple’s Music Library still often screws-up the artwork it shows on other devices when using iTunes Match (or AM), and without completely removing the item from your Mac’s library, re-adding, then re-matching via iTunes Match, the problem is unfixable. It’s a black box.
Hence the annoyance people have for the current state of Music app across devices. 