Q: FYI: APPLE MUSIC, iTUNES MATCH AND THE iTUNES STORE

THE iTUNES STORE

This long-standing online purchase facility now has a library of 45 million items. Originally songs you purchased were subject to DRM (copy protection) but this is no longer the case. One bought, songs can be burned to CD or transferred to an iPod.

iTUNES IN THE CLOUD

This facility, added more recently, provides that once you have purchased a song you can re-download it to that or any other authorised device at any time in the future.

iTUNES MATCH

This makes all items in your iTunes collection available online for access to your other devices. Songs you have purchased will be available, as with 'Tunes in the Cloud'; songs you have for example ripped from CDs you have bought will be matched by the version in the Store if this is available; if it isn't available your copy will be uploaded for access by other devices. There is a limit of 25,000 songs - this applies only to items not available in the Store (as purchased items are already available online). There is a charge of $24.99/£21.99 per year. The storage for these items does not count towards your iCloud storage space (indeed, though marketed as being part of iCloud it's actually nothing to do with it).

APPLE MUSIC

Recently added, this facility provides streaming (online playing) of over 30 million items from the iTunes Store catalogue. Some artists, including the Beatles, have not given permission for their songs to be streamed.

It's possible to save a song for listening online, but only on that device. You cannot transfer it to another device or burn it to a CD, because you have rented it, not bought it. If you cease to pay the subscription any items you have saved in this way will become inaccessible.

As with iTunes Match, all items either previously purchased from the Store, or items which are in the Store but you have ripped from CDs, will be available as part of this; however items you have ripped from CDs or obtained otherwise which are not in the Store's library will not be included.

A Warning. Any items you have already purchased, which consequently appear as part of Apple Music, can be downloaded in the same way for offline listening but are subject to DRM and continuance of the subscription. This means that if you delete or lose the originals, any copies accessed in this way will cease to be available if you stop the subscription.

Ths subscription is $9.99/£9.99 single, or $14.99/£14.99 family (six persons).

Included in this is Apple Radio. 'Beats 1' radio is freely available, but the page for this in iTunes includes other stations and a facility to choose categories of music - without making it clear that that is dependent on the Apple Music subscription and without it the links simply do nothing.