iTunes Match

[TMar]

So from the sound of this it's a service (hence the $25 a year price tag) so they will be available for download as if they where purchased for as long as you keep paying for it. Which kinda stinks being as how in the long run (depending on library size) it would be cheaper just to re-purchase everything from itunes.

While you wouldn't be able to re-download them after you stop paying for the service you could still have the download music on your computer and be able to sync to your devices. I see this being a one time service to a lot of people wanting to convert low quality rips to higher quality itunes versions.

 

[Michael CM1]

I'm confused on a bit of it myself. I have bought plenty of things via Amazon and CD that I would love to access via iCloud, but I'm not sure I want to really pay for it. The vast majority of my music is iTunes-purchased. But if a one-year subscription would let me "convert" all of those songs to as if I bought them from iTunes in the first place, hells yeah.

I bought that Lady Gaga album for $1 from Amazon as did many others. I've also bought plenty of the $5 guys. So if one year of this service will permanently mark them as iTunes-purchased, Apple has $25 from me. If I have to keep on buying it, I'll probably just keep those synced and can worry about the majority of my stuff on iCloud.

 

[TMar]

I would assume they would only be available for download for as long as you pay for the service. But there would be no way for them to take away any music you've "replaced" after that time, you just couldn't re-download it after your subscription lapses.