Can anyone explain me what's iTunes Match & Apple Music

[TheTom9]

Hi everyone!



So i've been avoiding all the topic about music app, iTunes or iTunes Match in the past since i was using Spotify over apple apps for music but now since the Music is coming out i started wondering about how both services will work.

So first
all i know about iTunes Match is that it lets you store some of your music in the cloud (for some payment?). I just don't know why since you are going to be able to stream music and supposedly download offline playlist on the new Music app.
Can anyone please explain the purpose?

Now second
Would Apple Music be a new version of iTunes that's redesigned for streaming?
Will you be able to use Genius? and since i haven't used the music app for years I'm not sure if this feature is still available.
Will you be able to add friends and see what they've been listening to just like on Spotify?

So yea, I'm sorry if my questions seem a bit silly, it's really just because i haven't been following up on music and iTunes in past couple of years/months.

Thank you!

 

[OS X Dude]

iTunes Match lets you store your iTunes library in the cloud. It only physically uploads the tracks you have that aren't in iTunes, the rest it just marks in iTunes that you have in your library. It's for people who want to own their music but also want it to be accessible anywhere and without it taking up device storage (unless you download them for offline playback).

Apple Music will let you stream most of the iTunes catalogue (licenses dependent) and ALSO give you the benefits of iTunes Match.

Apple Music will make recommendations based on what you listen to, so like Genius and basically every other streaing service.

Unsure if you can add friends. I know you can follow artists on it in a feature called 'Connect', but they certainly haven't revived Ping.