Q: Keeping local copies while using iTunes Match

If the playlist is a "dumb" playlist, the answer is yes.  If it is a "smart" playlist, it will not work correctly on your iPhone via iTunes Match, though there is a work-around.

With any functioning playlist, if you scroll to the bottom of the playlist on your iPhone, there is a download button.  You can use that to download all of the music.  This is what I do at the start of my day.

If you have a smart playlist that will not function on your iPhone, such as one that is intended to show  you only music you have added to your iTunes library in the last few days, the work-around is to create a similiarly named playlist on your computer, then go to the smart playlist, select all the tracks, and drag them to the dumb playlist.  This playlist will display properly on your Iphone, so you can download all the tracks.

I should have added that any music you have already played on your iPhone with iTunes Match turned on was either already on the phone or has noiw been downloaded to it.  iTunes Match is not a streaming service.  Every time you play a song, it's downloaded in the background.

Message was edited by: JiminMissouri

Yes, it's easy to miss.  Glad to be able to help.  If you have it on WIFI and have a good broadband connection, you'll be surprised how quickly each track gets downloaded.

You will find the same "download all" at the bottom of each album track list.  One thing I've taken to doing when downloading an entire album is to wait until I see download circles for every track before I navigate to another album.  I can't confirm that iTunes Match doesn't cache the download all request, but before I started giving it a moment to process, I did find some albums where not everything downloaded.

Another helpful travel tip.  Once you've got the iPhone loaded up, turn off Match and toggle the setting in your music app that by default shows you what is in the cloud as well as what is on the phone.  Things are a lot easier when all you see is what you actually have at your disposal.