Use iCloud Music Library
Apple has two different services—iTunes Match and Apple Music—that enable you to sync music to the cloud and share it across your devices (among other capabilities). Both of them use online storage that Apple refers to as iCloud Music Library, although Apple describes only one of the services as an iCloud feature—and an optional one, at that.
The two services have some stark differences, but all the capabilities of iTunes Match are incorporated into Apple Music. So if you subscribe to Apple Music, there’s no reason to use iTunes Match too. In this chapter I help you understand what the two services do and decide whether you should use either. I also walk you through setting up and using iTunes Match—but not Apple Music, because Apple Music isn’t part of iCloud (and is large enough and complex enough to warrant its own book).
Understand Apple’s Music Services
Let me begin by listing what iTunes Match and Apple Music have in common. With either service, both of which are optional, you pay a fee to subscribe, and then activate the service on each of your devices. On a Mac, you must also select iCloud Music Library in iTunes > Preferences > General. After that, two things happen:
iTunes scans the music library on your Mac or PC and compares what you have to Apple’s vast iTunes Store selection—more than 30 million tracks. This process should take just a few minutes (though it can take longer if you have a huge music library).
Whenever iTunes finds a track in your library that wasn’t purchased from the iTunes Store but matches a track in Apple’s library, it makes Apple’s version available for download or streaming on all your devices (including your Apple TV and HomePod). The music in Apple’s library is stored as high-quality 256 Kbps AAC files. So, if the song already on your Mac was stored at a lower quality, the version now available to all your devices will be superior. Furthermore, any matched (i.e., previously owned) tracks that you download come without DRM (digital rights management), commonly known as copy protection. And you get to keep those upgraded, DRM-free tracks, even if you later cancel iTunes Match or Apple Music.
When iTunes encounters a track it can’t match—for example, a rare version of a song, or a track you recorded yourself, or music by an artist who’s not in the iTunes Store—it uploads that track to iCloud, after which it’s available to all your other devices for download or streaming. (This may take a while, depending on the quantity of music and the speed of your internet connection.) Unmatched tracks are uploaded at their existing quality, even if that’s less than 256 Kbps AAC.
Tracks stored in iCloud Music Library (whether purchased or uploaded) don’t count against your iCloud storage quota.
So far so good? OK. Now, here’s where the two services differ:
iTunes Match: iTunes Match costs $24.99 per year and does only the things described above. iTunes Match is especially useful for those without lots of storage space on their Macs and iOS devices—it lets you safely delete tracks from local storage, knowing that you can stream or download them from the cloud whenever needed (as long as you keep paying that annual fee).
Apple Music: Apple Music is more expensive, at $9.99 per month for an individual, $4.99 per month for a college student, or $14.99 per month for a family (which requires that you first sign up for iCloud Family Sharing—see Use iCloud Family Sharing). But in addition to storing all your music online, it offers unlimited streaming of any music from Apple’s vast catalog, on any of your devices—including not only an Apple TV and HomePod but also a cellular-enabled Apple Watch—and you can download any of this music for later playback when you’re offline. But there’s a small catch: downloaded tracks that were not matched (that is, tracks you didn’t already own) are protected by DRM. This prevents you from sharing them with people who aren’t Apple Music subscribers.
If you subscribe to Apple Music, you already have all the features of iTunes Match. However, if you prefer to play only the music you deliberately purchase, rip, create, or otherwise acquire—you have no use for an on-demand streaming service—but appreciate being able to access it on any of your devices, iTunes Match is a better fit for you. (I fall into this category—I’m not the sort of person who has music playing most of the time and I’m picky about what I listen to, so I would never get my money’s worth from Apple Music but find iTunes Match a great value.)
To summarize: When you subscribe to either iTunes Match or Apple Music and enable iCloud Music Library, Apple stores on its servers a copy of all the music from your iTunes library, and you can then access your music from other devices (but you can’t stream iTunes Match content on a cellular-enabled Apple Watch). Apple Music delivers far more music, but at a higher price and with DRM for tracks that you didn’t already own. But either way, you’ll have a copy of your music in the cloud.
Use iTunes Match
Because Apple Music isn’t part of iCloud and doesn’t require an iCloud account (even though it uses something called iCloud Music Library), I don’t cover it here. iTunes Match, on the other hand, is explicitly an iCloud feature. If you’ve decided it’s for you, here’s how to set it up.
Activate iTunes Match on a Mac or PC
To subscribe to iTunes Match on your computer (or add a computer to an existing subscription), follow these steps:
Open iTunes.
Choose View > Media Kind > Music, click Store near the top of the window, and then click the iTunes Match link on the right. The main part of the iTunes window explains what you get if you subscribe. (After you subscribe to iTunes Match, the iTunes Match link disappears.)
Click Subscribe for $24.99 per Year.
Enter your Apple ID and password, and click Subscribe.
iTunes verifies your purchase (you may need to confirm billing details and agree to the iTunes Match Terms and Conditions), gathers information about your iTunes library, and then begins matching your tracks. You can continue using iTunes normally while that happens—but if you quit iTunes, it will interrupt the process until you open it again.
Go to iTunes > Preferences > General and confirm that iCloud Music Library is selected. If not, select it.
If you have another Mac or PC, you can follow the same process, with special attention to the note after step 3. (You pay only once for up to ten devices that share an Apple ID.)
Activate iTunes Match on an iOS Device
To subscribe to iTunes Match on your iOS device (or add an iOS device to an existing subscription), follow these steps:
Tap Settings > Music.
If you see a Subscribe to iTunes Match link, tap it. Otherwise, turn iCloud Music Library on.
You’ll see an alert that iTunes Match will replace the music on this device, but that’s misleading—any music already on the device that was previously synced to an iTunes library you’ve connected to iTunes Match stays in place. Tap Replace.
If you previously subscribed to iTunes Match on a Mac or a PC, all the music from that computer should appear in the Music app within a few moments.
If you want to ensure that iTunes Match downloads music only when your iOS device is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi (and not when it’s using a cellular connection), tap Settings > Music > Cellular Data and turn Cellular Data off. (If you don’t see this switch, your device doesn’t have a cellular modem.)
You can now stream or download any of your tracks on this device using the Music app or through a connected HomePod. Repeat the above steps for any other iOS devices you use.
I could go on for quite a few pages about iTunes Match, but my colleague Kirk McElhearn has already done so in his book Take Control of iTunes 12: The FAQ, which I heartily recommend.