Add Apple Music to iTunes Match

[starkmj]

Question:

I've had iTunes Match for years, and i have a big library of music from CD's i've burned, and tracks I've bought from iTunes.

All my kids love iTunes Match, as we can all share my entire library at any time on everyone's iPhones.

They just use my iTunes account to stream it. As long as their phones are one of the 10 devices that iTunes allowed, it's not a problem.

However, I'm thinking of joining Apple Music.

I've heard my kids will no longer be able to share, or at least only one person will be able to stream at a time unless I get the family plan.

I guess my question is, if i keep iTunes match (which I know is a bit redundant), will my kids still be able to stream songs I already owned at the same time as each other?

Or will all songs (Even ones i already owned) be part of Apple Music, and only 1 stream will be allowed at a time?

Thanks for any and all help.

 

[Brookzy]

Good question.

If you stick to sharing one Apple ID with your kids, only one Apple Music stream will be allowed at a time (though there are mixed reports to how well this is enforced: in my case, it's impossible to play two devices simultaneously but other people claim to have no such limit).

Your owned/matched songs, however, should have no such restriction.

The Apple-recommended setup here would be to use Family Sharing with a family Apple Music subscription, however this wouldn't be ideal for you because you can't share matched songs between family members.

So feel free to sign up to Apple Music and keep everything else unchanged and there should be no difference to your owned/matched content.

Plus, once you have signed up to Apple Music, you can cancel iTunes Match* because the same features are included as part of Apple Music now.

*Unless you have a 2nd or 3rd generation Apple TV which you need to listen to music on.

 

[karnsculpture]

Don’t do it! I switched from Match to Apple Music and it messed with everything! As soon as my subscription was up I went back to iTunes Match which works perfectly for me. If you like to have a carefully curated library Match is the way to go. Apple Music gave me so much trouble I’d rather pay full price for albums than use that service.