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I think the general rule of thumb is: Apple doesn't want to make it convenient for users to access content they already own (or "acquired") and instead puts greater focus on their own content subscription services. Although iTunes Match is technically a subscription, it's fairly cheap and falls more-so under that former category.
Apple Music isn’t much, if any, better. I copied a playlist to a new playlist so I could pare it down to fit on my watch and many of the songs on the copied playlist are completely different — live instead of studio, or vice versa; acoustic versions; etc. — from the copied version. The play count is still the same even though I’d literally never even heard, let alone played, some of these versions.
 
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> iTunes Match is officially part of an Apple Music subscription

This is not correct. The matching that you get with Apple Music is different, it applies DRM to the unmatched files when it uploads them. iTunes Match will just upload your original files.

I know this because I was relying on Apple Music to sync my tracks that it couldn't match. It worked fine for a while then suddenly stopped working for all my uploaded music. After talking to various folks at Apple it was decided that the DRM must have gone wrong somehow and the only resolution was to delete and re-match all my music again.

I haven't got around to that yet and have been considering moving to iTunes Match to avoid the application of the DRM to my uploaded music.

This is what I came here to say. iTunes Match and Apple Music library both can upload songs from your own personal library. The difference is that iTunes Match will keep the original file intact (manually edited, live concert version, etc). Apple Music will upload yours as well, but they will be slapped with some DRM.
You still have your files on your hard drive, but listening to them through Apple Music they’ll have DRM in them (for use with third party programs that sometimes causes issues).
This is not true. They stopped doing that in 2016. DRM-free songs uploaded with Apple Music do NOT get DRM added to them anymore. I'm a DJ and add tracks to my library from DJ pools all the time and they're DRM-free across all devices. If they weren't, I wouldn't be able to use them in DJ software across multiple devices.
 
This is not true. They stopped doing that in 2016. DRM-free songs uploaded with Apple Music do NOT get DRM added to them anymore. I'm a DJ and add tracks to my library from DJ pools all the time and they're DRM-free across all devices. If they weren't, I wouldn't be able to use them in DJ software across multiple devices.
Great to know! Thank you! So then what is the big pull for iTunes Match then? Is it something like 10,000 songs uploaded vs 100,000 with iTunes Match?
 
> iTunes Match is officially part of an Apple Music subscription

This is not correct. The matching that you get with Apple Music is different, it applies DRM to the unmatched files when it uploads them. iTunes Match will just upload your original files.

I know this because I was relying on Apple Music to sync my tracks that it couldn't match. It worked fine for a while then suddenly stopped working for all my uploaded music. After talking to various folks at Apple it was decided that the DRM must have gone wrong somehow and the only resolution was to delete and re-match all my music again.

I haven't got around to that yet and have been considering moving to iTunes Match to avoid the application of the DRM to my uploaded music.
doesn't seem right

i have Apple Music, uploaded some recordings, downloaded them on my PC, and was able to import into Ableton Live.
 
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iTunes Match has been a massive disappointment from day one. I’ve tried several times over the years and every time it messes up my library. Apple Music is the same as well. I cannot stand all the missing album tracks.. I’m gonna stick to managing my own iTunes library
 
I bought into the whole iTunes Match = Apple Music nonsense, after having paid for Match for years. I am now a subscriber to Apple One so thought, why not cut costs and stop paying for Match? It was the wrong decision, as many here with personal experience with both will testify!

As silly as it sounds, the Apple Music library is not the same as the Match library and is much smaller. On just Apple Music, some of my songs kept getting duplicated, some had DRM and some just had weird sync issues (just showed as blank on the iCloud status). I later realised this is because the AM library just doesn't have these songs.

Once I resubscribed to Match, all of my issues and problems magically fixed themselves. I haven't uploaded any new music to it in a while so can't comment on these new issues, but I hope Apple does manage to fix them as I really don't want to have to look to switch.
 
Can vouch for this. Has been happening for over a week now, albums won't update, and I've been using iTunes Match for years. Beyond frustrating
I use iCloud Drive and coincidentally, have been noticing gremlin synching icons the last few weeks > dotted or solid cloud outline (indicating synching) for the folder but no files get the icon. It's been great for 2 years but now triggering my OCD seeing these random folders in my documents with a synching cloud icon but no files in progress.
 
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Over the past few WEEKS users are frustrated?!?

Back when Match launched, I uploaded my massive, meticulously curated library, with months of live recordings and Match completely hosed my Library. Still hosed today - however many years later (when did Match launch?).

Ex: I’ve recorded a lot of live performances over the years from taper-friendly bands like Phish. With Match, 60% of a show plays the files I recorded. The other 40%, Match decided to replace the live recorded file with a studio version of the same song without any kind of notice or apparent way to fix. Makes for an awful listening experience. Has been the biggest nightmare of my near 30-year Apple journey. Just, forever broken. Been a while since I thought about it. Grrr.


Edit: holy smokes! iTunes Match launched in 2003?!? I'm old.
Edit #2: I didn't even know Match was still a thing.
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I too have to maintain separate Apple Music and iTunes Match subscriptions. Of course my Apple Music is provided to me via Verizon, and I pay for iTunes Match. When I let my iTunes Match subscription lapse (thinking Apple Music included it), I lost access to much of my library on iPhone and iPad. Perhaps Apple Music (can) provide(s) similar features to iTunes Match, but they don't seem interchangeable :-(.

Rich S.
 
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Anyone know of any good alternatives to iTunes Match?

I'm using Youtube Music (formerly Google Play Music) to upload my music collection to the cloud and access them from various devices. The main problem is that there is no way to curate/upload your own playlists easily - you have to manually create and add music to your playlists one-by-one using the Youtube Music app. This is not ideal if you're wanting to bulk add hundreds of tracks to a playlist. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
 
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That‘s not true. If you match a file with Apple Music, no DRM is added This was just the case in the very beginning.

This is not true. They stopped doing that in 2016. DRM-free songs uploaded with Apple Music do NOT get DRM added to them anymore. I'm a DJ and add tracks to my library from DJ pools all the time and they're DRM-free across all devices. If they weren't, I wouldn't be able to use them in DJ software across multiple devices.

doesn't seem right

i have Apple Music, uploaded some recordings, downloaded them on my PC, and was able to import into Ableton Live.
Thank you all, you are correct, the DRM is no longer applied! I hadn't realised they'd changed this. This is great news, I can now re-upload my collection and hopefully it'll actually work properly now.
 
I now use a 3rd party CD Ripper and convert the CD to a FLAC format. If I want ITunes to also use it I import the FLAC CD. Frequently I have to find and manually move the album cover to the albums iTunes folder.

I buy the album, but I have had songs or entire albums just disappear off of iTunes. I also pay for Match but I am moving my songs to a NAS server and planning to use Plex to play music.
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I’ve bought around 500 CDs since September last year because I was hating songs disappearing from streaming due to licensing issues and wanted backups and then got hooked on collecting because it’s enjoyable.

Anyway I’ve ripped all that music in ALAC and matched/uploaded with an Apple Music subscription. I haven’t had any issues even recently so I wonder is this limited to iTunes Match and not Apple Music.

My only issue is songs that won’t match even though they’re on Apple Music. There’s no reason for this and it bothers me because when they match they play in lossless on my iPhone/iPad/Apple TV so I want as much music to match as possible.

I also wish they’d let uploaded songs be lossless but that’s not a bug.
 
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