iTunes Match icon striped out "accessing itunes match" never connects

I'm having a problem accessing itunes match. I hope someone can help.

In iTunes, all the music that isn't downloaded on the computer is grayed out. When I hover over the cloud icon (which has grey stripes indicating it's not connected to itunes match) a text box pops up "accessing itunes match"

The only thing that fixes this is a restart. Sometimes just restarting itunes works. Is this a glitch in the itunes software or can I change something to prevent this from happening about 5 times a day?