Daniel Eran Dilger
Devices running iOS 5 originally lacked any mention of iTunes Match under Settings/Music, but a toggle switch is now live, and does not require a software update.
After turning on iTunes Match, the user is prompted to enter the Apple ID associated with his or her iTunes Match subscription, although subscriptions have not yet been made available to the public. Developers have been able to sign up for accounts to test the new service for the past few weeks.
Once turned on, a second control appears that configures whether the device should show all music in the user's cloud based library, or only music that has been downloaded to the device.
iTunes Match will cost $24.99 per year, and provides a 256 Kbps AAC digital download from the cloud for each song appearing in a user's iTunes library, regardless of its original source, and in general, without having to actually upload gigabytes of music to the cloud (a process Apple says could otherwise take "weeks").
This allows legitimate owners of CDs who have ripped their collections the option of having all their music available from any iTunes PC or iOS mobile device associated with their iTunes Match account, but also allows file traders who have obtained music from less legitimate sources to similarly take their music to the cloud by paying a "no questions asked" fee that is shared with music owners.
Apple's official promotional materials say, "if you want all the benefits of iTunes in the Cloud for music you haven’t purchased from iTunes, iTunes Match is the perfect solution. It lets you store your entire collection, including music you’ve ripped from CDs or purchased somewhere other than iTunes, for just $24.99 a year."
As Apple explains, "here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to your iCloud library for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 18 million songs in the iTunes Store, most of your music is probably already in iCloud.
"All you have to upload is what iTunes can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. And all the music iTunes matches plays back at 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality."
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39 Comments
So what happens when you stop paying the yearly fee? Does all your music revert back to its original low fidelity form?
In other words, can you download the up-converted copies to your hard drive, or are they only available by streaming?
I am supposing that because it is not appearing for me, that it is a US only option at this point.
I can't see it either.
How does a toggle switch just appear without a software update? Was there an internal OS timer for the switch to appear today?
So what happens when you stop paying the yearly fee? Does all your music revert back to its original low fidelity form?
In other words, can you download the up-converted copies to your hard drive, or are they only available by streaming?
Once you purchase iTunes Match and match up everything, you have the option to go ahead and download all of the higher quality songs to your hard drive, iDevice, whatever.Those files are yours to keep, no matter if you cancel the service or not. But remember, if you do cancel your service, and happen to lose your files, you cannot go and re-download them like you can with purchased content.