Do I need iTunes if I have Apple Music

If you want to free up local storage you can select tracks in your iTunes library, right-click, and click Remove Download. This deletes the local file, but leaves the entry in your iCloud Music Library available to your other devices, and ready to stream to the computer if you want to play it there. If you disable iCloud Music Library in iTunes you won't be able to use that library to upload new content that you own and have from other sources, e.g. CD rips or downloads from other online stores.

Assuming that you had some personal content before you subscribed to Apple Music you should make sure that you have backups of your original media just in case you later find that a matched version in Apple Music isn't quite what you expect. You also need to consider what happens when you decide to terminate your subscription as you then lose access to everything stored in the cloud along with anything that was part of the Apple Music service apart from your purchase history.

tt2

srmsrm wrote:

TT2

Thank you for the information. It was very useful.

I'm OK with local storage. I was just seeing if I needed to use both tools.

I understand that if I disable iCloud Music Library in iTunes, I will not be able to use iTunes to upload new content to Apple Music. At this time, we have already uploaded all of our CD's.

Correct.

I'm assuming any CD's I had already uploaded to iTunes currently appear in Apple Music. If I disable iCloud Music Library in iTunes, the CD data will still be in Apple Music. Correct?

Yes.

It sounds like I can disable iCloud Music Library in iTunes and it will not affect what I have in Apple Music. I could then delete all music from iTunes and it will still not affect Apple Music. Is that correct?

Yes. Although when you delete purchases you will be asked if you want to hide them from the store. Hiding them might affect your iCloud Music Library as it includes your unhidden purchases. I would probably still recommend you leave iTunes Music Library connected and remove downloads. Frees up space, but gives you access to the content in the cloud if you run iTunes. Empty library vs. everything in the cloud makes no difference if you don't run iTunes. Either way I would encourage you to backup your library to an external drive first.

I understand if we then cancel Apple Music, then we will lose access to all data including CD data in Apple Music since I would not have access to Apple Music? Purchased items I would still have access to. Am I correct?

Yes.

tt2