What is iTunes Match?

Agreed, it is absolutely not advertised as a cloud backup solution. I'm merely telling you what the support rep told me on the phone minutes before I made this new post. That iTunes Match gives you "separate cloud storage" for your music library. This is what was said to me so if it's wrong, it should be taken up with Apple's support staff management. *shrug*

I can only repeat what I was explicitly told, which was that iTunes Match provides "Separate cloud storage", our conversation never had anything whatsoever to do with iCloud Drive or any other iCloud offering.

OK that's fine, but I'm just pointing out that this is what I was specifically told, after more than half an hour of discussion and her speaking with multiple different people at Apple including their engineering people. Take whatever you want from that.

I'm exactly the same. I'm paying for iTunes Match even though I've moved everything into Music. Do we still need iTunes Match? Seems a simple question but like you I've yet to get a definitive answer.

For whatever it's worth, I elected to take the phone rep's word for what iTunes Match actually offers, and cancel my iTunes Match sub. I accept that if I ever cancel Apple Music I'll lose access to all the music I have uploaded, because I will maintain a local backup of whatever of it is totally irreplaceable (primarily my own original compositions... everything else is commercial music which can be obtained again if need be)

Sorry for being dumb Jim but I'm still confused. If all my music is now on "Music" then as long as I have "Music" am I right that I don't need iTunes Match as everything is kept within "Music". The only benefit of iTunes Match is if I discontinue "Music" then I lose everything and this would not happen f I had kept iTunes Match?

Hi,

There should be no confusion as both iTunes app and music app can use iTunes Match. I think the confusion arises when one talks about the music app and Apple Music subscription- they are not the same thing. The music app replaced iTunes and Apple continues to offer iTunes Match as well as Apple Music subscription. Both have different functionality but the iTunes Match feature works with Apple Music. You don’t need a separate iTunes Match subscription.

In both you will loses the sync facility offerred by the iCloud music library if you cancel your subscription. You should keep a separate backup in the event you decide to cancel your subscription.

Jim

It literally never even crossed my mind that the name iTunes Match had anything whatsoever to do with the old iTunes application.

And again, I was explicitly told that if you have iTunes Match but cancel Apple Music, then you do NOT lose access to any music that has been uploaded via iTunes Match. You lose access to anything you streamed/downloaded from the Apple Music library. But this is just what Apple support told me so, take it for whatever you think it's worth. Or not.

Many thanks everyone. I think I've got it now.

As I have everything in "Music" and I use both Time Machine and a backup to an external hard drive, it seems that I no longer need to continue with my iTunes Match subscription.

Just one thing to clarify - when my subscription expires will I still be able to sync my iMac to my iPhone and also sync my iPhone to my car?

For a year now, I’ve been trying to cancel iTunes Match. Under my account I could never find the **** thing. Two days ago. I got a notice that unless I update my payment card, I will lose iTunes match, which is exactly what I wanna do anyway. It tells me to sign into my iTunes account and then cancel it. I can’t find iTunes Match under my account. in fact, for many years, I never even knew I was part of iTunes match until I get notices. Thank you for any help.

Which also begs the question, what about all the songs I have paid for to play on my iPad/iPhone. Will canceling “match” take those away? I love my music I don’t wanna lose it. Anyway, the question is how do I find iTunes Match in my account?

Cissy B

I found it via my phone, that was the easiest way. I believe it was in the Apple ID settings area, it showed me every service I'm subscribed to and allowed me to edit/change/remove the subscriptions.

Those are the exact steps I’ve been taking for a long time now trying to find that I belong to iTunes match. It is never listed as things that I am subscribed to. Now when I got this email stating that they cannot renew my iTunes match until I update my payment method, I decided I’d had enough.

I do not upload to my phone or iPad. I go to the iTunes Store and find music that I like and simply purchase it. Why would I need Match in the first place? The email tells me to sign into my iTunes and go to my account and take care of it. It’s nowhere to be found in my iTunes account I think I’m just gonna, of course let it expire but I hope I don’t lose the music that I have purchased! Thanks guys. It seems like I’m not the only one that is confused about iTunes match. Maybe it’s because I am old. Lol I really am.

Cissy B

Hmm... maybe call Apple Support and see if they can help you find it in your account. It was not at all easy for me to find when I went looking either, took quite a bit of Googling around to find where it was located, and originally I was trying to find it on my Mac and not my phone. Apple phone support was surprisingly helpful actually so... worth a shot!

I want to cancel my Apple Music sub but Im scared of loosing my CD downloads that Ive put into a playlist? Over 1000 songs. If I subscribe to iTunes Match prior to cancelling do you know if that will work and I won't lose my playlist?

This is deja vu all over again. Decades ago I transcribed all my music cassette tapes to Apple iPhone, iTunes, etc. Then I threw out the tapes and playback machine. These songs were my music, not derived from Apple. I'd tried to tack them up. Somehow in the iTunes/CD era Apple lost all the music on 100s of cassettes. Now I transferred my CD music to Apple iPhone and Mac. I'm worried that Apple may have replaced my music with pointers to their library via iMatch, and erased my uploads. If I cancel iMatch will I lose all my music, AGAIN?