Q: Do I need to subscribe to both Apple Music and iTunes Match
I am confused: Do I need to continue my iTunes Match subscription now that I have an Apple Music Family account?
iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.4.1
Posted on Aug 14, 2015 2:08 PM
iTunes Match will take the songs you have purchased (anywhere other than the itunes store) or have 'ripped' from your CD's and either
(a) match them to songs on the iTunes Store and put a link/copy in your personal iCloud and make them available to all your 'linked' devices
(b) upload the song to your personal iCloud (if it fails to find a match) and make them available to all your 'linked' devices
There is a 25000 song limit and the service costs $24.99 (approx) per year, payable via annual subscription only. the song limit does not include any songs purchased from apple iTunes. You can burn your music to cd and listen to them on any device. If you cancel your iTunes Match subscription the music you have, is yours to keep.
Apple Music is a monthly subscription ($9.99 per month) and gives access to 'apple music' store which is a subset of the iTunes music store and holds slightly less songs because some artists have not agreed to allow their music to be streamed (example is the Beatles) .. But most people think of iTunes Store and the Apple Music store as being the same thing.
You don't own any of the tracks on Apple Music... in many respects you are paying to access/use/rent them. you can either stream them, or download them to a device to listen to them ... You can't burn the tracks to cd, or listen to them on any other device.
If you cancel your Apple Music subscription you can't play the music, not even the stuff you have downloaded to your device.
So basically iTunes Match and Apple Music are two completely different 'animals' and the decision to keep either subscription service is upto you.
Posted on Aug 14, 2015 2:52 PM