I subscribed to iTunes match (before Apple Music was released) so that I could listen to iTunes radio without commercials. Do I have to subscribe to Apple music to continue getting add-free radio? I don't care about unlimited skips or connecting with my artists or any of the other "extras" that come with Apple music...I just want to listen to the stations I created without all of the commercials.
I would like to know this as well. Apple Music trial is ending soon and I want to keep using just iTunes Match for my cloud syncing and radio being ad-free.
Greetings Adam,
I've been an iTunes Match user since Dec, 2011 and have yet to experience any Advertisements. It seems any users who have noticed Ads resulted from another issue they may of been having. Signing in and out of iTunes has usually fixed it. Thus, you should be able to enjoy Ad-free radio with iTunes Match. Be sure your subscription is current before opting out of the Apple Music service. This will ensure your music remains stored in iCloud to be enjoyed while strictly using iTunes Match.
Not entirely clear though. I believe iTunes Radio is now Apple Music Radio and iTunes Match customers no longer will have it ad free once the Apple Music trial runs out or we cancel. I'll know in a few days if we still get ad-free unlimited skips as iTunes Match users.
===========
iTunes Radio is ad-supported and free for everyone. iTunes Match℠ users get iTunes Radio ad-free, so instead of hearing the occasional ad on iTunes Radio, iTunes Match makes your listening completely ad-free. With iTunes Match, all your music—even songs you’ve imported from CDs—are stored in iCloud®. So iTunes Radio can use information about your entire music collection to make your stations even more personalized. iTunes Match costs $24.99 for a year.
Today, the KBase document forApple Music Radio has no reference to iTunes Match. Only this:
You don’t need an Apple Music membership to listen to Apple Music Radio. But, if you have an Apple Music membership, you can listen to on-demand music stations with no advertising on one device at a time. And you can skip as many songs as you like.
If you don’t have an Apple Music membership, you can skip up to six tracks per hour per music station. After you reach your skip limit, the Skip Forward control is dimmed for 60 minutes. When you skip a song, you can see the number of remaining skips next to the Skip Forward button.*
The KBase page for iTunes Match doesn’t mention Radio, Ads or Skipping anywhere.
On Apple’s Music page, there’s a table that compares having an Apple ID and having a full Apple Music subscription: It mentions limited skipping if you don’t have an active Apple Music account but there is no mention of Match.
We’ll see when my trial ends if I’ll lose my ability to skip radio songs. This is pretty disappointing that iTunes Match took this away without a price drop. The only function of value is the radio feature. I’m going to miss the skipping and the lack of commercials but Pandora is much cheaper than Apple Music if you just want radio even at $55 a year.
iTunes match still add-free?
