If you're considering getting into streaming music, want to listen to your Mac's music collection on all your devices, or you're simply wondering what that giant 'Three months free!' banner is atop the Music app, here's everything you need to know about Apple's two subscription services and what each can offer you.
For $9.99/month (or $14.99/month for a family plan), Apple Music gives you access to its full music streaming catalog on all of your devices. Subscribers can play any song in the Apple Music catalog, whether they own it or not. They also get two customized playlists delivered each week, a New Music Mix, Favorites Mix, Friends Mix, and Chill Mix based on user taste and past-played songs, along with a variety of daily playlist suggestions put together by Apple's music curators. In addition, users can listen to Beats 1, Apple's 24/7 internet radio station, and play back-catalog episodes of Beats 1's various programmed shows.
My current iTunes library contains over a 130 gigabytes of music and media files. It would probably be twice that much if I were still purchasing music from the iTunes Music Store. With Rdio.com and other streaming music sites, the music you listen to is stored on a server beyond your computer. Without iTunes and its years of baggage, the Mac world is a better place. Folks who have spent years meticulously organizing and labeling their iTunes library might be frustrated to see. Jul 21, 2019 The death of iTunes should leave your library intact, but it's a better time than ever for a backup. Here's how to do it. The death of iTunes should leave your library intact, but it's a better time than ever for a backup. If you back up your entire Mac via the Time Machine feature, this will include your iTunes library (at least the. That means that rather than renting movies and TV shows through iTunes on your Mac, you'll watch everything through the Apple TV app. Apple said that more than 100,000 iTunes shows and movies will.
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Apple Music is Apple's massive music service, comprising a subscription music catalog, iCloud Music Library syncing across your devices, Beats 1 live and algorithmic radio, customized playlists, and more artist exclusives than you can shake a stick at.
Outside of the subscription service, Apple Music lets its users match up to 100,000 songs from their iTunes library (or libraries) to the DRM-free iTunes Store catalog; these tracks can then be streamed or downloaded to up to 10 of your other devices. (If Apple Music can't match a track to a song in the iTunes catalog, it'll manually upload it, instead.) Purchased iTunes content doesn't count toward that 100,000 song limit.
Note: Your iCloud Music Library doesn't count toward your iCloud storage, as your Photo Library does; it's only based on the number of songs, rather than gigabytes.
Here's a quick explanation between the different kinds of content stored in iCloud Music Library:
Matched, uploaded, and purchased tracks reside in iCloud Music Library, Apple's cloud-based music locker. Users can stream or download these tracks from iCloud Music Library as long as their Apple Music subscription remains active; downloaded tracks will either show up as a 256kbps matched DRM-free AAC file or an AAC-converted file of tracks you uploaded.
If you cancel Apple Music, any matched, uploaded, and purchased tracks you've downloaded will remain on their various devices and fully playable, but you'll lose your ability to stream any non-downloaded matched or uploaded tracks and access iCloud Music Library. (You'll still be able to stream your purchased content from up to 10 devices.)
Any songs you choose from Apple Music's subscription catalog also get saved to iCloud Music Library, where you can stream and download them, as well as add them to playlists. When downloaded, Apple Music files show up as DRM-encrusted AAC files; if you cancel Apple Music, that DRM will render those downloads unplayable, and you'll no longer be able to stream the subscription tracks.
If you want access to Apple's gigantic subscription streaming library and your music library available across all your devices, subscribe to Apple Music.
Unlike Apple Music, iTunes Match has no music subscription aspect — the $24.99 a year cost is solely for activating and maintaining your iCloud Music Library.
iTunes Match lets its users match up to 100,000 songs from their iTunes library (or libraries) to the DRM-free iTunes Store catalog; these tracks can then be streamed or downloaded to up to 10 of your other devices. (If iTunes Match can't match a track to a song in the iTunes catalog, it'll manually upload it, instead.) Purchased iTunes content doesn't count toward that 100,000 song limit, nor do they need to be uploaded because Apple has the track on its servers already.
Note: Your iCloud Music Library doesn't count toward your iCloud storage, as your Photo Library does; it's only based on the number of songs, rather than gigabytes.
Here's a quick explanation between the different kinds of content stored in iCloud Music Library:
Matched, uploaded, and purchased tracks reside in iCloud Music Library, Apple's cloud-based music locker. Users can stream or download these tracks from iCloud Music Library to any of their 10 devices as long as their iTunes Match subscription remains active; downloaded tracks will either show up as a 256kbps matched DRM-free AAC file or an AAC-converted file of tracks you uploaded on devices other than the Mac or PC from which tracks were uploaded. If you uploaded music in WAV, ALAC, or AIFF formats, then they will remain in those formats on the Mac or PC from which they were uploaded.
If canceled, any tracks you've downloaded will remain on their various devices and fully playable, but you'll lose your ability to stream any non-downloaded tracks or access other iCloud Music Library songs.
If you use another subscription service (like Spotify) and only need your music library available across all your devices, subscribe to iTunes Match.
Nope: Apple Music essentially includes the iTunes Match service inside its subscription fee.
Some users aren't interested in adding the cost of a music subscription service to their monthly bills, or they already use a subscription service like Spotify or Google Play Music. For those users, Match makes much more financial sense: iTunes Match is just $24.99/year, while an Apple Music subscription runs you $119.88/year. If streaming services don't appeal to you, but having on-the-go access to your local music library does, iTunes Match appears to be a good alternative option.
Any other questions about iTunes Match vs Apple Music? Sound off in the comments.
Updated August 2019: Additional context provided to how content is stored and distributed in iTunes Match.
Serenity Caldwell contributed to a previous version of this article.
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