SilverdaleJB wrote:
TheLittles: Why should i have to pay a subscription fee to move music i own between my Mac and my iPhone? That makes no sense. The whole reason for using Apple computers and other devices used to be so that they would integrate seemlessly with each other. Now you are saying I have to pay to do that?
SilverdaleJB,
You don't have to pay a subscription fee to move your own music from your Mac to your iPhone. You can use old-style, direct computer-> iPhone synchronization (based on the original computer -> iPod model).
That involves connecting an iPhone to your computer and doing synchronization with iTunes – or the Finder. This synchronization is [mostly] one-way, from the computer to the iPhone, and you update one iPhone at a time. It is a purely local synchronization that does not involve use of Apple's server space, Apple's network connections, or files in their music library, except perhaps to check DRM authorizations (on media items that have DRM, such as TV show and movie files).
iTunes Match and the Sync feature of Apple Music do involve use of Apple's servers and network connections. They're giving you a "match" feature where Apple tries to find songs in their database that "match" yours – on the basis that their versions might have higher bit rates, or might have been encoded better, than yours. They are also making your songs available to all of your devices in a more automatic way than regular iTunes/Finder synchronization does.
Whether you want the "match" functionality, or not (I don't), that's one difference that might explain why Apple charges for it.