Apple finally launches iTunes Match two weeks after the “late October” date as mentioned in the “Let’s talk iPhone” event. iTunes Match costs $24.99 annually in the US.
How does iTunes Match work?
Well, iTunes scans the music in your iTunes library and matches them to the ones available in the iTunes Store. iTunes also uploads “unmatched” audio tracks (not just songs, but any audio tracks) from your iTunes Library into your iCloud account.
What you need to know about iTunes Match:
- iTunes Match is limited to 25,000 songs.
- iTunes Store purchases made with the same Apple ID being used for iTunes Match do not count towards the 25,000 song limit.
- Songs containing DRM (Digital Rights Management) will not be matched or uploaded to iCloud unless your computer is authorized for playback of that content
You can find a lot of articles about iTunes Match including the one from Apple Support. Some of you want to know the answer to the $24.99 question. Is iTunes Match worth it?
First, it costs $24.99 for one year. That’s pretty cheap.
Second, once I had iTunes Match I found it to be really convenient. I can easily access my song library on my computers, iPhone and iPad. Well, my HP TouchPad, Android phone and tablet have to take a backseat since they are not supported.
Third, I still purchased CD. Over the years, I ripped the CD’s into AAC and MP3 in various quality. Once I had them matched, I get a music library with consistent encoding quality. That is great considering I had a lot of 128kbps MP3 tracks.
The answer is simple, if you can spare $24.99 a year then you should have no problem trying out iTunes Match.
Remember that iTunes doesn’t have those obscured live bootleg tracks you love so much. iTunes will upload them and it might take some times depending on your internet upload speed.
