iTunes Match and iCloud Storage Limits

[netdog]

Okay, I am finding conflicting answers to this everywhere, including at Apple's discussion boards.

I have a fair number of legal Grateful Dead bootlegs (soundboards and matrix recordings of live shows), all stored in iTunes in Apple Lossless. Obviously these recordings will have to be uploaded as they do not appear in Apple's catalog (in fact, to sell them would violate the band's licensing agreement with its fans).

So is this going to blow my 5GB limit? Or since I have paid over £21 for the service, will they store this music for me at not extra charge so long as I renew my Match subscription every year?

 

[bucksaddle]

2 things:
1. Uploaded music doesn't count towards your iCloud storage limit, only the 25,000 song limit. As long as you renew each year you'll have access your uploaded music
2. Apple lossless files will get converted to 256 kbps on the way up.

Edit: should clarify point 2. A separate 256 Kbps file will be created in the match process which will then be uploaded. The original lossless file remains untouched.

 

[netdog]

Fantastic. I only have about 18,000 songs, but something like about 500 GB of music. Sounds like a great deal for me. Most of my commercial recordings are also my CDs ripped to Apple Lossless so this sounds like a pretty good deal to me, though given the upstream conversion, I'll obviously want to continue backing up my collection locally as well.