iTunesMatch, the cloud storage service that Apple offers for music It has now largely passed its first year, and it is not a bad time to make a small global assessment of the service. I have been registered with it since its launch, and when I had to renew the subscription, the truth is that I did not hesitate for a moment, for me it is a service that makes managing my music much easier and that allows me to enjoy it wherever I want and from any device. What does the service offer me to renew it after a year with it?
Basically, I have all my music on any of my devices with my Apple account. I do not have music purchased in iTunes and yet as soon as I configure iTunes with my account there I have all my albums, perfectly labeled, and in excellent quality (AAC 256Kbps). Music is not really in the cloud, but iTunes finds the matches of your library with its store (with more than 26 million songs) and associates them. If I didn't find a song, then I would upload it to the cloud and keep the original format, but at least in my case it hasn't happened to any of my songs. Yes indeed, it is important that you have your music well labeled so that iTunes can find the matches. Forget about backing up your music library. If you format your computer, or buy a new one, you just have to run iTunes, enter your account and there you have all your music.
Almost as important as the previous point is being able to have your music on your devices without the need to sync with iTunes. Add an album to iTunes, wait for iTunes Match to find the matches, and it will be on your iPhone and iPad to listen to. And with iOS 6 it is not necessary to download the music to your device to listen to it, you can do it through streaming. Although if you want to download it, you can do it by complete albums or song by song, all from your device.
Up to 10 devices can be used with iTunes Match, and not only will your albums be synced, but also the playlists you have created. You can even listen to your music on the Apple TV without having iTunes running on your Mac. You can store up to 25.000 songs, something that can be a problem for those with huge music libraries, but I think that for most users it will be enough . All this for 24,99 euros per year, and if at any time you decide to unsubscribe from the service, you download your music before doing so, and you will not have lost anything.
Do you use iTunes Match or some other similar service like Spotify or The Hype Machine? What made you decide on that service?
More information - Hypegram: listen to all the music from The Hype Machine on your Mac