Apple Music Anybody else been paying for iTunes Match unnecessarily for years?

[msephton]

Years before Apple Music was even a thing I signed up for iTunes Match as a way to make my legacy ripped CDs accessible across all of my Apple devices.

Today, 6 years late, I learned that Apple Music includes the benefits of iTunes Match!

According to Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204146

If you have an Apple Music membership, you get all of the benefits of iTunes Match, plus access to the entire Apple Music catalogue.

The interesting thing is Apple will happily take your money for both, even though iTunes Match is redundant if you have Apple Music.

Compare this to taking out an Apple One sub, any previous subs you have that are superceded (TV+, Apple Music) are automatically cancelled.

But iTunes Match is not cancelled when you take out an Apple Music subscription.

So since taking out an Apple Music sub when it launched I've been paying $25/£22 a year for the last 6 years for an iTunes Match subscription that I didn't need.

Anybody else?

 

[drcharlie]

Yikes! That really stinks. For anyone else subscribing to Apple Music and iTunes Match, I hope they see this thread and cancel the redundant iTunes Match. As for myself, I have been doing iTunes Match for many years but not Apple Music. I have a lot of songs carefully curated and I'm afraid Apple Music will mess up all of my hard work--especially if I ever wanted to get out of Apple Music later. Anyhow, I'm glad you figured this out and can cancel the iTunes Match.

 

[msephton]

Apple Music did mess up cover art and some playlists all those years ago. I just had to live with it.

Apparently it is better now, though obviously too late for me.

Apple won't refund the iTunes Match as it was billed more than 60 days ago. And that's just the most recent year, never mind the previous years!

 

[tkermit]

Years before Apple Music was even a thing I signed up for iTunes Match as a way to make my legacy ripped CDs accessible across all of my Apple devices.

Today, 6 years late, I learned that Apple Music includes the benefits of iTunes Match!

According to Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204146



The interesting thing is Apple will happily take your money for both, even though iTunes Match is redundant if you have Apple Music.

Compare this to taking out an Apple One sub, any previous subs you have that are superceded (TV+, Apple Music) are automatically cancelled.

But iTunes Match is not cancelled when you take out an Apple Music subscription.

So since taking out an Apple Music sub when it launched I've been paying $25/£22 a year for the last 6 years for an iTunes Match subscription that I didn't need.

Anybody else?

Cancelled my iTunes Match subscription 5 years ago when I realized Apple Music included all of its benefits. 😛 I wouldn't feel too bad about it, though, since there were lots of issues which resulted in the status of many of my songs changing from "Matched" to "Apple Music". Had to spend way too much of my time fixing that. It's probably a smoother affair these days.

 

[MattG]

I didn't know this. Coincidentally I just cancelled both (Music and Match) this morning.

 

[msephton]

I wrote a blog post about this quoting references.

The catch with iTunes Match and Apple Music ⌘I Get Info

Last week I briefly entertained buying a MiniDisc bookshelf system, before I came to my senses. These days all my music playback happens digitally so, as muc...

blog.gingerbeardman.com

Apple say:

If you have an Apple Music membership, you get all of the benefits of iTunes Match, plus access to the entire Apple Music catalog.

And

If you subscribe to Apple Music, you don’t need to subscribe to iTunes Match unless you still need to access your music on Apple TV (2nd or 3rd generation).

But they don't prevent you subscribing to both. Compare this to Apple One where they automatically cancel your Music/TV+/News subs.

It's a mystery.

 

[Eric Idle]

I subscribed to iTunes Match long before Apple Music showed up. I never canceled that service and Apple stopped charging me once I subscribed to Apple Music.

Is iTunes Match still something you can buy today?

 

[Ethosik]

Yes I caught it about a year ago or so and canceled my iTunes Match subscription.

 

[msephton]

I subscribed to iTunes Match long before Apple Music showed up. I never canceled that service and Apple stopped charging me once I subscribed to Apple Music.

Is iTunes Match still something you can buy today?

It is something you can buy today.

Interesting that you say Apple stopped charging you when you subscribed to Apple Music. When was that?

You're the only person so far where that has happened, I'm keen to know more details.

 

[topbin]

Eeesh, I didn't realise this! I've been double paying from whenever Apple Music started. I assumed I'd lose some of my old albums which aren't on Apple Music if I stopped the Match.

Pretty sh!tty from apple, this one.

 

[smirking]

Apple won't refund the iTunes Match as it was billed more than 60 days ago. And that's just the most recent year, never mind the previous years!

I don't believe they'd have refunded it regardless of how soon you contacted them. I tried to get a refund just a few days after it renewed, but they refused and instead credited me with 5 song credits in the iTunes store.

 

[msephton]

I don't believe they'd have refunded it regardless of how soon you contacted them. I tried to get a refund just a few days after it renewed, but they refused and instead credited me with 5 song credits in the iTunes store.

I've not had a refund, but a friend has had a pro-rata/partial refund. See here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1416802253416108043

I guess it depends which support staff you get and how persuasive you are.

 

[big samm]

Same situation. I had itunes match for years and never cancelled it until this month of july... Got email from apl,e saying i needed to renew it,with a quick Google search I've learned that i didn't need to keep paying for itunes match if i had Apple music. I just gotga make sure i re subscribe if i cancel Apple music. But toanswe your question yes ive been paying for nothing for years now lol

 

[msephton]

There are so many of us.

 

[Expos of 1969]

I can see the average user out there not having a clue or not thinking about doing a little research, but anybody with an account here with hundreds or more posts who didn't bother to ever investigate whether they still needed iTunes Match got what they deserved. Of course Apple would never make it openly clear to you individually that you were paying for a product you no longer required because they are dishonest, non transparent and love your money. But the lack of due diligence falls on you.

 

[msephton]

Excuse me, there's no need to be so rude. Why resort to a personal attack? Really not a good way to contribute to the conversation.

The point is not that Apple should have made it clear (they seem to have done so already), but rather why they did not cancel iTunes Match subs automatically when taking out Apple Music - in the same way they cancel subs when you take out Apple One.

 

[Expos of 1969]

Excuse me, there's no need to be so damned rude. Why resort to a personal attack? Really not a good way to contribute to the conversation.

The point is not that Apple should have made it clear (they seem to have done so already), but rather why they did not cancel iTunes Math into Apple Music automatically like they do with subs when you take out Apple One.

I am not being rude. I am stating a fact. The onus was on you but you feel that Apple wronged you. Take it up with them and all the best.

 

[msephton]

It definitely was a personal attack and uncalled for.

You're stating your opinion, as you're entitled to do so. You're not stating fact because none of us know the facts of this matter.

Get off your soapbox.

 

[tkermit]

For what it’s worth, Apple Music did not include all of the functionality of iTunes Match at launch. In the very early days of AM, you still needed iTM to get non-DRM’d matched songs. Not sure when exactly that was also rolled out to all AM subscribers.

=> https://www.imore.com/apple-rolling-out-improved-itunes-match-apple-music-subscribers

 

[smirking]

I can see the average user out there not having a clue or not thinking about doing a little research... But the lack of due diligence falls on you.

When I signed up for Apple Music, it was rather abundantly clear that I'd get iTunes Match along with it. The reason why I didn't know was because my iTunes Match renewed a few days before my Apple Music trial ran out. When that trial expired, I decided I wanted to get a subscription to Apple Music and only then saw iTunes Match as a side benefit.

Quite frankly I had gotten my money returned a number of times from Apple in the past. That's why I even bothered trying to get a refund.

 

[msephton]

When I signed up for Apple Music

When was that? would be good to try and pin down a timeline for any changes.

 

[smirking]

When was that? would be good to try and pin down a timeline for any changes.

It was last winter around November or December. When I was signing up, I got a screen that showed the list of benefits of being a subscriber and one of them was iTunes Match. That's when I was like, "Ugh. I just paid for that!"

 

[Eric Idle]

It is something you can buy today.

Interesting that you say Apple stopped charging you when you subscribed to Apple Music. When was that?

You're the only person so far where that has happened, I'm keen to know more details.

I bought Apple Music right at launch. Day 1.

 

[jprmercado]

Meeee!! 🙋🏻‍♂️ Actually, I'm still paying for both Apple Music and iTunes Match. 🥴

I got iTunes Match when Apple Music was already around. I don't believe Apple Music already incorporated iTunes Match at the time. And then I decided to subscribe to Apple Music while keeping my iTunes Match sub.

Also, I'll be honest… as dumb as it is, I'm still going to keep paying for iTunes Match. I remember there being an issue before about matched tracks when subscribing to Apple Music alone. And while that issue may have been resolved, I like to keep things as they are without "breaking them" and to have the security of knowing that my tracks will still be in the cloud even if I unsubscribe from Apple Music.

 

[Mattyman]

I cancelled match, but no partial subscription. What I do find annoying is that yiu Actually can’t terminate the subscription early, only the renewal. its screwed a lot of my music up, and i would like my iOS devices to behave as if i didn’t have match but there is no way to do this. Apple has confirmed this. If I have sync enabled it shows all the mess that match has made, but if I unsync, my library is empty and does not even show my iTunes purchases. Total mess. If anyone is in the same boat, please let me know.