Brain about to explode - iCloud Music Library and Apple Music

[jsamuels]

I must be a little slow on the uptake. After days of reading threads and frustration with destroyed music libraries, I'm still lost and wish there was a simple explanation of how this is all supposed to work.

I am a former iTunes Match subscriber. Pre Apple Music, I cancelled my Match account so I could change iTunes Stores due to moving to a different country/region. When Apple Music was launched, I signed-up for the free trial. At that point everything went South. My old Match music showed-up in AM, once-owned music was now saddled with DRM, and artwork disappeared. I experienced most of the issues others have mentioned.

I asked Apple to cancel the trial, which they did. I created a new Match account which is now updating/uploading. Having music stored in icloud works for me and makes sharing easier.

My questions is really simple: how is Apple Music and iCloud Music Library supposed to work. Not looking for detailed explanation - I assumed it would be simple. Something like, AM is a subset of the iTunes Library that is available for offline listening with DRM attached. Match music is always safe in iCloud and will never be subject to DRM, plus, you can upgrade to higher quality tracks for music you already have. Simple, right?

What am I missing?

 

[flur]

My questions is really simple: how is Apple Music and iCloud Music Library supposed to work. Not looking for detailed explanation - I assumed it would be simple. Something like, AM is a subset of the iTunes Library that is available for offline listening with DRM attached. Match music is always safe in iCloud and will never be subject to DRM, plus, you can upgrade to higher quality tracks for music you already have. Simple, right?

What am I missing?

Here's my understanding of how it *should* work:

Match gets all of your music in the cloud and lets you download DRM-free 256 AAC versions of all your files (even if the original versions are less than that or have DRM). Match is not subject to DRM.

iCloud Music Library gets all of your music into the cloud just like Match, but the files have DRM. This is a free service that is now part of iTunes and works with Apple Music, and is in many ways a part of Apple Music (though why I need to be forced to save my owned music to the cloud just to be able to fully use a streaming service is beyond me).

Apple Music is a streaming service that allows you to stream whatever you want from the catalog. It also allows you to save files offline to your iCloud Music Library (but only if you have iCML activated). Those files become part of your iCML library but not your Match library (because you don't own them) and will be removed from your devices if you stop using Apple Music.

That's how I *think* it's supposed to work, but that's not actually how it does work, due to bugs.

ETA: I would expect that Match would in many ways override iCML. For example, everything that is matched should always download to all devices as DRM-free, and only music NOT purchased but saved through AM to the iCML would download with DRM. I would also expect that iCML and AM would NEVER touch the existing files on any device/machine other than to upload them to the cloud or find a "match" in the existing database of music. But it's hard to say what Apple intended as it's all so buggy right now.