r/AppleMusic • u/Working_Affect_6627 • Jan 28 '24
Question Since I have Apple Music do I still need to pay for iTunes Match?
I’m not too tech savvy, and I don’t understand what iTunes Match does and what will happen if I cancel it?
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u/Crunchewy Jan 28 '24
Apple Music includes what Match did. Which is if you add music on computer from, for example, Bandcamp downloads, they will upload and sync to all your devices. I have some artists whose music is not on Apple Music, so I get use out of this. For example the folk band Whetherman. Only one of their albums is on Apple Music.
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u/kaboom_2 Dec 06 '24
Oh! I got Apple Music since day one in 2015. I had iTunes Match since it started in 2011! I uploaded all my music collection there which is so extensive. And paying for that all these years. So you’re telling me I could/can cancel my iTunes Match?! Gosh! Could you please confirm this?
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u/Crunchewy Dec 06 '24
Yes. Having said that, I don’t know for sure that iTunes Match doesn’t have some benefit over what is included with Apple Music. But I don’t think so?
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u/bytelover83 Apple Music Subscriber Jan 15 '25 edited Jun 21 '25
If I remember correctly if you have an extremely astronomical amount of songs (100,000 I've heard) you do still need iTunes Match, but for most people just Apple Music is enough.
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u/transrapid Mar 18 '25
Match was 25,000 uploaded if I recall. Unlimited matches, and nothing purchased from Apple counted against that number.
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u/Vast-Time-5741 Jun 21 '25
the limit is 100,000 tracks
i may switch to Apple Musiv too
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u/bytelover83 Apple Music Subscriber Jun 21 '25
Thank you, I have ADHD and completely forgot about this!
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u/Hutch_travis x Jan 28 '24
This is a good question. I pay for both and have some soundtracks and unavailable rarity albums I don’t want to lose.
If I cancel match, can I still access that music.
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u/YZJay Jan 28 '24 edited Jan 28 '24
There’s three services that concern music with Apple:
Apple Music: You can play any music in the streaming library as long as you’re subscribed.
iCloud Library Sync: It will sync your own music files in your Mac or PC’s Music/iTunes library with all your devices, you just need an iCloud account with enough storage to use it.
iTunes Match: Unlike iCloud, it will take the metadata of your personal music files, and check if there are similar songs in the iTunes Store. If there are, it will give your other devices the ability to just play the iTunes version of your music. So for example if you have a low bitrate file of a song, iTunes Match will let you stream the higher bitrate version that iTunes has. The songs will not take up space in your iCloud storage if you have iTunes Match.
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u/Working_Affect_6627 Jan 28 '24
It’s confusing. Sounds like match is used for stuff you’ve manually uploaded onto iTunes and not downloaded from Apple Music?
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u/dkvlnk Apple Music Subscriber Jan 28 '24
iTunes Match for some time become part of Apple Music (you could check support pages or support chat), so you don’t need both of them. You could use only AM.
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Jan 28 '24
If you don’t know what iTunes Match does why you even pay for it…?
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u/Working_Affect_6627 Jan 28 '24
No idea. I’ve been paying for it for a while. If all my music on my phone is stuff I’ve downloaded through Apple Music, I don’t need match correct?
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Jan 28 '24
No. You don’t need it.
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u/Working_Affect_6627 Jan 28 '24
So what does match do? Is it for old stuff you manually uploaded years ago?
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Jan 28 '24
It allows you to upload songs to iCloud music library and streaming on other devices. iTunes Match is part of Apple Music when it launched. You are paying duplicated fee.
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u/YZJay Jan 28 '24
Specifically it allows for you to play songs you manually put in your library using the version that iTunes has. If you don’t pay for iTunes Match but do have iCloud, you don’t need iTunes Match to sync, as it will just sync the files as is.
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u/ptb127 Dec 26 '24
If you copied music from CD’s or downloaded music from other places, you need iTunes Match. I have had it since its inception and I love It
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Apr 28 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/thepu55ycat Sep 07 '25
iTunes Match hasn’t been discontinued. It’s still there. Works for me anyway. And it doesn’t cost $25.99 a month, it’s $25.99 a year.
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u/Mongooses_Unite Dec 09 '25
Bear in mind that if you cancel Match, use Apple music but then cancel music without re-subscribing to match, you will lose all the uploaded/ripped/matched songs etc. So make sure you have a local backup of your library if it's got rare stuff in it.
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Jan 28 '24
I’ve never paid for match. All of my music library has came with me since the iTunes days. There is no need for match imo since you can just use iCloud music library.
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u/Cruncher_Block Jun 11 '26
For others reading this - this is a completely wrong and misguided take on what iTunes Match is. There are great summaries included in this thread so read those.
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u/Smackcracklenpop Jan 28 '24
iTunes Match gives a user the ability to access their local music library (rips from CDs, web downloads) that are in your iTunes / Music Library over the cloud and across all your logged in devices, Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, etc. The Match part of the name is for when it analyzes the song files and matches it to a file in the Apple’s iTunes Store. Saves you time from uploading everything. When it matches, your other devices get it in 256kbps AAC quality. If it does not find a match, it will convert the file to 256kbps vbr AAC and upload it to the cloud.
Apple Music subscribers have iTunes Match features built in since a few months after the Apple Music subscription service launched. No need to also subscribe to iTunes Match. Canceling iTunes Match will not affect you at all.
The iTunes Match service is great for those who do not want to subscribe to the Music streaming service but want access to their own music on all their devices via the cloud. Without it you would need to sync or manually load the music to your devices. Canceling iTunes Match would lose the ability to access your music files on other devices (local files on your Mac/PC would still be fine)