what happens to my music when i stop paying for iTunes match?

[zhenya]

haha yes, exactly what I'm asking. Hard question to get people to understand!!

It seems to me that your question is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what Match is. You are paying your yearly fee to have synchronized access to your iTunes library across all devices. THAT is what the fee is for. If you don't buy the subscription, you don't get access to ANY of your music through the cloud.

Sure, you can go to the store and re-download your purchased music, but that is hardly the same as having your entire library listed on all devices. The Purchased/Matched/Uploaded variable doesn't have anything to do with how you are billed for your subscription. It just lets you see where that music came from.

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

It seems to me that your question is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what Match is. You are paying your yearly fee to have synchronized access to your iTunes library across all devices. THAT is what the fee is for. If you don't buy the subscription, you don't get access to ANY of your music through the cloud.

Sure, you can go to the store and re-download your purchased music, but that is hardly the same as having your entire library listed on all devices. The Purchased/Matched/Uploaded variable doesn't have anything to do with how you are billed for your subscription. It just lets you see where that music came from.

seems that you actually have the fundamental misunderstanding of what Match is. Contrary to your beliefs, if I never even sign up for the service I can still access any music purchased through iTunes from the cloud, and once the subscription is up, all iTunes purchased content is still available in the cloud.

The subscription fee lets me "match" my music from other sources to the cloud. What I, and many others are wondering, is if any music "matched" will forever be available in the cloud for that $25 fee or if the subscription will need to be maintained in order to continue to have access to your "matched" songs in the cloud.

 

[netnothing]

seems that you actually have the fundamental misunderstanding of what Match is. Contrary to your beliefs, if I never even sign up for the service I can still access any music purchased through iTunes from the cloud, and once the subscription is up, all iTunes purchased content is still available in the cloud.

The subscription fee lets me "match" my music from other sources to the cloud. What I, and many others are wondering, is if any music "matched" will forever be available in the cloud for that $25 fee or if the subscription will need to be maintained in order to continue to have access to your "matched" songs in the cloud.

The "Purchased" music has nothing to do with files on your system or devices. Purchased music is tied directly to your Apple ID from your purchase history.

Purchased does not equal Matched.

You can wipe every device and machine you own of all Music. Unsubscribe from iTunes Match....and you will ALWAYS be able to get your Purchased music.

-Kevin

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

I didn't say purchased music equals matched music.

You have always been able to re-download purchased music from iTunes, this is not what I'm referring to.

Now, any music that was previously purchased from iTunes, and any music purchased from iTunes in the future goes to iCloud for re-downloading. I don't have to go through iTunes to download that music, it's available from my iCloud account. Paying $25 lets you get content purchased from other sources in the same place.

Really the question is if I only want to upload the albums I have now to the cloud can I pay for Match once and always have that content there, or do I have to maintain my subscription even if I have no plans to match more content.

 

[zhenya]

seems that you actually have the fundamental misunderstanding of what Match is. Contrary to your beliefs, if I never even sign up for the service I can still access any music purchased through iTunes from the cloud, and once the subscription is up, all iTunes purchased content is still available in the cloud.

The subscription fee lets me "match" my music from other sources to the cloud. What I, and many others are wondering, is if any music "matched" will forever be available in the cloud for that $25 fee or if the subscription will need to be maintained in order to continue to have access to your "matched" songs in the cloud.

If you end your subscription to Match, you are telling me that all of your purchased iTunes music will show up on your iOS devices, or on your other computers running iTunes, without you having to manually download it? (In other words, listed in your library and immediately accessible from the cloud at any time?) I don't think so, but I guess I could be wrong...

For some time now there has been the option to automatically sync all NEW purchased music across devices sharing the same account. ie. if you buy an album on your iPod Touch, it will show up on your iPad as well if enabled. However old music purchases will NOT be listed, and will have to be sync'ed manually. And if you restore your device, you'll have to sync those purchases, even the ones that showed up automatically the first time.

 

[netnothing]

Really the question is if I only want to upload the albums I have now to the cloud can I pay for Match once and always have that content there, or do I have to maintain my subscription even if I have no plans to match more content.

From my understanding.....if you stop paying for Match....you lose cloud access to all music except iTunes purchased music.

From this article:
http://www.macworld.com/article/163..._what_you_need_to_know.html#lsrc.twt_macworld

What happens if I don’t re-subscribe after the first year? Will I lose any upgraded songs?

Nope. Any songs you’ve upgraded or downloaded again are completely safe. The only thing you lose is the central storage—iCloud will no longer let you stream or download matched or uploaded songs to your various devices.

-Kevin

 

[gentlefury]

I didn't say purchased music equals matched music.

You have always been able to re-download purchased music from iTunes, this is not what I'm referring to.

Now, any music that was previously purchased from iTunes, and any music purchased from iTunes in the future goes to iCloud for re-downloading. I don't have to go through iTunes to download that music, it's available from my iCloud account. Paying $25 lets you get content purchased from other sources in the same place.

Really the question is if I only want to upload the albums I have now to the cloud can I pay for Match once and always have that content there, or do I have to maintain my subscription even if I have no plans to match more content.

Actually, the ability to redownload at will is fairly new. Since iOS5 came out. You used to have to contact Apple to enable re-downloads.

 

[outie2k]

I didn't say purchased music equals matched music.

You have always been able to re-download purchased music from iTunes, this is not what I'm referring to.

Now, any music that was previously purchased from iTunes, and any music purchased from iTunes in the future goes to iCloud for re-downloading. I don't have to go through iTunes to download that music, it's available from my iCloud account. Paying $25 lets you get content purchased from other sources in the same place.

Really the question is if I only want to upload the albums I have now to the cloud can I pay for Match once and always have that content there, or do I have to maintain my subscription even if I have no plans to match more content.

kbmb is correct. When you stop paying for Match you will not be able to access those any more from the cloud. Sure they were matched and in the cloud at some point but if you go to iTunes->Purchased->Download Previous Purchases->Music tab you won't see your matched songs there at all, only the ones you actually paid for/bought from iTunes. Those are the ones you can re-download. I hope this makes sense.

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

From my understanding.....if you stop paying for Match....you lose cloud access to all music except iTunes purchased music.

From this article:
http://www.macworld.com/article/163..._what_you_need_to_know.html#lsrc.twt_macworld



-Kevin

Thanks, that's what I was looking for!

If you end your subscription to Match, you are telling me that all of your purchased iTunes music will show up on your iOS devices, or on your other computers running iTunes, without you having to manually download it? (In other words, listed in your library and immediately accessible from the cloud at any time?) I don't think so, but I guess I could be wrong...

It will show up with the cloud next to it so that you can click to redownload the track, or if you are on a computer, you can stream the music. It's not just automatically there, but any music purchased from iTunes is available in iCloud to be downloaded/"streamed" on your devices.

 

[zhenya]

From my understanding.....if you stop paying for Match....you lose cloud access to all music except iTunes purchased music.

From this article:
http://www.macworld.com/article/163..._what_you_need_to_know.html#lsrc.twt_macworld



-Kevin

I think I can see where some of the confusion is. Yes, any purchased music can be re-downloaded to any device at any time. In some sense, this is a cloud music service, however, I prefer to think of this as a cloud backup service, since, except in the case of NEW purchases, you have to chase down these songs yourself.

Match, on the other hand, gives full access to your entire library from any device, all through the native music player interface. It is this seamless integration that separates Match from the mere ability to re-download purchased music through the iTunes store, and really what I'm paying for. Go ahead and try it. Turn off Match on a device. What music do you have left? The music that has been physically installed on the device. You don't have the music that is physically there PLUS all your purchased music ready for instant download. In order to get that, you have to go to the iTunes store interface and manually download what you want to listen to. That's a huge difference. For example, you would not be able to have a playlist that draws from both the locally available content AND the cloud content. With Match, you can.

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

^^ i think you are mixing up the services. What you describe as "match" ability to have full access to your entire library from any device, all through the native music player interface, is actually a feature of iCloud, it's not a "match" feature.

Match just allows content not purchased from iTunes to join your purchased music in the cloud.

 

[zhenya]

^^ i think you are mixing up the services. What you describe as "match" ability to have full access to your entire library from any device, all through the native music player interface, is actually a feature of iCloud, it's not a "match" feature.

Match just allows content not purchased from iTunes to join your purchased music in the cloud.

But if I don't pay the $25/year, I don't get my purchased music listed in my Album lists and accessible at any moment via streaming/download. Yes, I can go to the iTunes Store, click on Purchases, search for the song I want, and download it, and then play it.

It's the convenience of always having everything available from the main interface, to be browsed and and added to playlists and played immediately from one single interface that people want.

Matching is only necessary because how many people have libraries of 100% iTunes purchased music? What people want is the simplicity of being able to choose from ALL of their music from any device at any time. The Match subscription is the only way to get that.

Again, go back to my previous statement. Without the Match subscription, what you effectively have is a music backup in the cloud. You can restore those purchases at any time, but you cannot just play them from your iPod interface the way you can with a Match subscription.

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

I get what you are saying. Now forgive me if I'm wrong, because I don't subscribe to match.

They advertise that iCloud is what keeps your music in the cloud... they don't say that you need a match subscription to take advantage of getting your music in the cloud, Match is a service to get non iTunes content to the same place!

Ok, I just did a bit more searching on apples site. It looks like if you want the music to appear in your library rather than just in the store, you do have to pay for match, so i guess match does add more features than just the ability to get non iTunes to the cloud.

 

[OneMike]

You would lose access to re-downloading the matched content. Otherwise think about it, why would anyone pay for the second year?

In that scenario would make more sense to just pay for a year and then purchase all future music from iTunes.

 

[zhenya]

I get what you are saying. Now forgive me if I'm wrong, because I don't subscribe to match.

They advertise that iCloud is what keeps your music in the cloud... they don't say that you need a match subscription to take advantage of getting your music in the cloud, Match is a service to get non iTunes content to the same place!

Ok, I just did a bit more searching on apples site. It looks like if you want the music to appear in your library rather than just in the store, you do have to pay for match, so i guess match does add more features than just the ability to get non iTunes to the cloud.

Let me illustrate it for you with an example. Let's suppose that I was that 1 person in 100 million who actually has a very large library of music, every last song purchased at the iTunes store. My library is 25 gigabytes in size, yet I only have a 16GB iPhone. Normally I'd have to choose some subset of music to keep on my phone using the limited room I have. Yes, at any time, I can go and re-download that song I'd like to hear but don't have by going to the Store and browsing for it, and waiting for it to download. However, now if I subscribe to Match, no, I don't have any songs that technically need to be matched, but now I can wipe my phone clear of all the music I normally had to sync to it, yet my Music app still shows me my entire library. I can play any song I want in an instant. I can make a playlist, I can shuffle the entire thing - even though I don't have any songs physically on my device. Nor do I have to wait for it to download before hearing it. Better yet, at work, I can turn on Match on iTunes on that computer, and I get my entire library there for streaming - with all of my metadata in sync!

This is where the confusion is. They call it Match - but it's really their streaming music/keep everything in sync service. Match is just there to make it all work.

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

^^^ Thanks, I think I understand how it all works a lot better now. Kind of ironic how NOT simple it is for an apple product haha

 

[zhenya]

^^^ Thanks, I think I understand how it all works a lot better now. Kind of ironic how NOT simple it is for an apple product haha

No problem. The entire iCloud service is NOT simple. I spent the better part of a week unraveling it all both for my own use and because I know I'll have to explain it to all the other iPhone users at my workplace.

 

[JRoDDz]

I paid for a tank full of gas in my car. What happens to my car when the tank gets empty?

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

well figured why not, just paid for match. Haha out of a small 1600 songs, it only managed to match 100 of them.... all of my albums are studio releases, i don't have any weird live editions, or stuff like that.

Have to say, thuroughly UNIMPRESSED

 

[netnothing]

I paid for a tank full of gas in my car. What happens to my car when the tank gets empty?

It depends. If you purchased the gas from the Apple iGas store, then you can just fill up again assuming you are still paying your iGas Match fee.

If you purchased the gas from Amazon Gas Store or Google Gas.....you're out of luck

-Kevin

 

[ntrigue]

When you decline to pay $25 the following occurs:

1) Music UPLOADED and MATCHED is unaccessible until you pay $25 again.
2) Any songs PURCHASED are available for download from the iCloud.
3) Apple does not PURGE the UPLOADED and MATCHED for 90 days; allowing you to pay the fee to access your iTunes in the cloud.
4) You cannot access UPLOADED and MATCHED songs on an iOS device.
5) Any songs stored locally that were UPLOADED, MATCHED, PURCHASED will be forever accessible without paying a fee.

 

[Lioiniesta]

That's not what we are asking.

Will the tracks still be available in the CLOUD if you stop paying?

The tracks will not be in the cloud or in other words you won't be to access them. That is the reason why you need to pay $25 a year, it's for that service. My question is, will the songs u retain be 256 Kbps quality?

 

[fuxl]

Well, it's been over a year now.
Do we know the answer to this question?

 

[KurianOfBorg]

After your subscription expires, you can no longer re-download anything from your iTunes Match cloud storage. You can only re-download regular purchased content from the iTunes Store.

Any files you've previously download from iTunes Match are DRM free and will remain on your PC similar to external files that you've manually added to your library.

 

[5xkmw]

The 256 bit quality is the reason I signed up. The way I did it was "match" all songs up to the cloud. Verify that they are all on the cloud on another device if you would like. Now, deleteall songs on your computer. You will now download everything from the cloud at the 256 quality(choose that setting in iTunes). This will take a little time. This essentially "washes" all your ripped/burnt from cd songs and brings them up to the higher bit rate. Profit…..