Use iCloud Music Features

Apple has two different services—iTunes Match and Apple Music—that enable you to sync music to the cloud and share it across your devices, among other capabilities.

The two services have a simple relationship: all the capabilities of iTunes Match are incorporated into Apple Music, which includes many more features. Thus, if you subscribe to Apple Music, iTunes Match becomes irrelevant to you.

In this chapter I help you understand the differences between the two services and decide whether either works for you. I also walk you through setting up and using iTunes Match—but not Apple Music, because Apple Music isn’t part of iCloud.

Note: Only iTunes Match is technically an iCloud feature, though in Mojave and earlier, and iOS 12 and earlier, Apple used the term iCloud Music Library for the cloud storage both services use. Starting in Catalina and iOS 13/iPadOS 13, Apple simply calls the storage space your library, and uses the term Sync Library for the feature used to sync that library among devices.

Understand Apple’s Music Services

iTunes Match and Apple Music are optional add-on services. With either service, you pay a fee to subscribe, and then activate the service on each of your devices. After you subscribe, there’s one additional setup step:

• On a Mac, turn on the feature (in Catalina or later, open Music, go to Music > Preferences > General and select Sync Library; in Mojave, open iTunes, go to iTunes > Preferences > General and select iCloud Music Library).

• On an iOS or iPadOS device, go to Settings > Music and turn on Sync Library.

After that, your device, the iTunes Store, and iCloud collaborate to make the following happen with both services:

• Music (or iTunes) scans the music library on your computer and compares what you have to Apple’s vast iTunes Store selection—with tens of millions of tracks. This process should take just a few minutes unless you have a huge music library.

• Whenever Music (or iTunes) finds a track in your library that wasn’t purchased from the iTunes Store but matches a track in Apple’s library, it makes Apple’s version available for download or streaming on all your devices (including your Apple TV and HomePod). The files aren’t downloaded automatically.

  The music in Apple’s library is stored as high-quality 256 Kbps AAC files. So, if the song already on your Mac was stored at a lower quality, the version now available to all your devices will be superior. Furthermore, any matched (i.e., previously owned) tracks that you download come without DRM (digital rights management), commonly known as copy protection. And you get to keep those upgraded, DRM-free tracks, even if you later cancel iTunes Match or Apple Music.

  Note: When you download a higher-quality track from Apple, it maintains your existing metadata (such as play count).

• When Music (or iTunes) encounters a track it can’t match—for example, a rare version of a song, or a track you recorded yourself, or music by an artist who’s not in the iTunes Store—it uploads that track to iCloud, after which it’s available to all your other devices for download or streaming. (This may take a while, depending on the quantity of music and the speed of your internet connection.) Unmatched tracks are uploaded at their existing quality, even if that’s less than 256 Kbps AAC.

• Tracks stored in your library (whether purchased or uploaded) don’t count against your iCloud storage quota.

Note: Apple limits you to 100,000 tracks, although tracks purchased from the iTunes Store don’t count toward this limit.

Note: Once songs are matched, you can also opt to remove local copies of any of your music to free up space. Select one or more downloaded songs, and then in Music (or iTunes), choose Song > Remove Download. Don’t choose Delete from Library or press the Delete key: that will prompt you to delete the song from your iCloud set and all your linked devices.

So far so good? OK. Now, here’s where the two services differ:

• iTunes Match: iTunes Match costs $24.99 per year and includes only the above features. iTunes Match is especially useful for those without lots of storage space on their Macs or iOS/iPadOS devices as it lets you safely delete tracks from local storage—see the note above—while remain secure in the knowledge you can stream or download them from the cloud whenever needed (as long as you keep paying that annual fee).

• Apple Music: Apple Music is more expensive, at $9.99 per month for an individual, $4.99 per month for a college student, or $14.99 per month for a family. (A family plan requires that you first sign up for iCloud Family Sharing; see Use iCloud Family Sharing). It’s also available as part of all Apple One bundles. But in addition to all the iTunes Match features, it offers unlimited streaming of any music from Apple’s vast catalog, on any of your devices—including not only an Apple TV and HomePod but also a cellular-enabled Apple Watch—and you can download any of this music for later playback when you’re offline. There’s a small catch, however: downloaded tracks that were not matched (that is, tracks you didn’t already own) are protected by DRM. This prevents you from sharing them with people who aren’t Apple Music subscribers.

If you subscribe to Apple Music, you already have all the features of iTunes Match. However, if you have no use for an on-demand streaming service, and prefer to play only the music you deliberately purchase, rip, create, or otherwise acquire—but appreciate being able to access that music on any of your devices—iTunes Match is a better fit for you.

Use iTunes Match

If you’ve decided to use iTunes Match, here’s how to set it up.

Activate iTunes Match on a Mac or PC

To subscribe to iTunes Match on your computer (or add a computer to an existing subscription), follow these steps:

1. Open Music or iTunes.

2. In Music, select iTunes Store in the sidebar; or, in iTunes, choose View > Media Kind > Music and click Store near the top of the window. Now click the iTunes Match link on the right. The main part of the window explains what you get if you subscribe. (After you subscribe to iTunes Match, the iTunes Match link disappears.)

3. Click Subscribe for $24.99 per Year.

   Note: If you’ve already subscribed on a different device (or if you signed out from iTunes Match for any reason), instead click Add This Computer and follow the prompts.

4. Enter your Apple ID and password, and click Subscribe.

   The app verifies your purchase, although you may need to confirm billing details and agree to the iTunes Match Terms and Conditions. It next gathers information about your iTunes library, and then begins matching your tracks. You can continue using Music or iTunes normally while that happens, but try not to quit the app: quitting interrupts the process until you open the app again.

5. In Catalina or later, go to Music > Preferences > General and confirm that Sync Library is selected; in Mojave, go to iTunes > Preferences > General and confirm that iCloud Music Library is selected. If not, select it.

If you have another Mac or PC, you can follow the same process, with special attention to the note after step 3. (You pay only once for up to ten devices that share an Apple ID.)

Activate iTunes Match on an iOS or iPadOS Device

To subscribe to iTunes Match on your iOS/iPadOS device (or add an iOS or iPadOS device to an existing subscription), follow these steps:

1. Tap Settings > Music.

2. If you see a Subscribe to iTunes Match link, tap it. Otherwise, turn on Sync Library.

3. You’ll see an alert that iTunes Match will replace the music on this device, but that’s misleading—any music already on the device that was previously synced to an iTunes library you’ve connected to iTunes Match stays in place. Tap Replace.

   Note: After you connect to iTunes Match from this device, the Subscribe to iTunes Match link disappears from Settings > Music.

4. If you previously subscribed to iTunes Match on a Mac or a PC, all the music from that computer should appear as available to download or stream in the Music app within a few moments.

5. If you want to ensure that iTunes Match downloads music only when your iOS or iPadOS device is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi (and not when it’s using a cellular connection), tap Settings > Music > Cellular Data and turn Cellular Data off. (If you don’t see this switch, your device doesn’t have a cellular modem.)

You can now stream or download any of your tracks on this device using the Music app or through a connected HomePod. Repeat the above steps for any other iOS or iPadOS devices you use.

Tip: You can listen to all your iTunes Match tracks on an Apple TV; see Set Up iCloud on an Apple TV.

I could go on for quite a few pages about iTunes Match, but my colleague Kirk McElhearn has already done so in his book Take Control of macOS Media Apps, which I heartily recommend.