Deleting local files once iTunes match is complete

[aweb15]

Hello everyone! I am sure my question has been answered before, so I do apologize in advance for anyone aggravated I ask again; I just want a clear explanation to my question.

I signed up for iTunes Match over Christmas. All 5000+ songs I have in my iTunes library were successfully uploaded to iCloud and I now stream all my music to my devices. My question is: can I delete my ENTIRE iTunes library from my HDD and then re-download them all via iCloud to have the maximum quality?

I want to do this because from what I understand...all my music will be stored in the cloud and I can free up sum 40 gigabytes off my hard drive.

Thank you!

[DarrenUK]

Yes you can, that is exactly what I have done.

[aweb15]

Originally Posted by DarrenUK

Yes you can, that is exactly what I have done.

Okay! Would you suggest downloading the albums I like most since I can't listen to any of the files if I am not connected to wifi?

[DarrenUK]

Yes you can download to your device (iPad, iPhone) whatever albums/songs you want to listen to while away from wifi.

You can then later delete from device again should you choose to if you want to free up space.

[From A Buick 8]

Isn't doing something like this akin to have them on your HD and never backing them up, you run the risk of losing your music.

[Bear]

You don't want your only copy of the music to be in the cloud. What I suggest you do is verify on another device each album you want to re download for higher quality.

After you've verified it has matched okay, then delete that album on your computer and redownload it.

If you have a good backup of your system, you can of course just revert to the backed up versions.