Apple unveils iTunes Match for $25 per year

As I was typing my previous comment, the "Music" panel in iTunes changed to say the device has access to iCloud, and songs can be downloaded and played via network. All other checkboxes are gone except for "Sync voice memos". Question answered. But the devices are still filling up with music in the bar graph. Way more than before iTunes Match was enabled.

I have iTunes Match enabled on my MBP where my collection lives, and enabled on my iPad and iPhone. When I activated it on the mobile devices, I got a warning saying that the music libraries on those devoices would be replaced. I said OK. Do I now need to keep "Sync Music" enabled in iTunes for these devices? I am asking because the space occupied by music has tripled according to the bar graph in iTunes, and both devices now have no free space available.

I like to collect music. I don't really listen to much of it. It's more for parties so others can play what they like. I have more songs than I want to talk about online. I still use the 160 gig iPod classic, something I expect will never support the cloud anyway. So it's not that big of a deal. But 25k isn't enough for me.

I have music that has been ripped from my CD's or downloaded from other legitimate sources. If I pay the $24.99 a year for iTunes match, according to apple, of my non-iTunes purchased music I will have the "same benefits as music purchased from iTunes". So does this mean it converts it to an iTunes purchase for me to download on any of my IOS devices, Mac, or PC going forward as long as I continue to pay the annual $24.99?

Or if I use iTunes match for one year then stop paying the annual fee will all of my non-uploaded "iTunes matched music" be unavailable. Basically, is the only way to continue to have access to the matched songs if i continue to pay the 24.99 a year? If I stop paying after a year what do I lose?

It's a rare occurrence when I need info on all things apple, but when I do, your my go to guy. Why has no one mentioned rhapsody's offering in the weeks leading up to this whole iCloud thing.  You pay $12 a month and get unlimited music both streamed and local on 3 mobile devices and a few computers.  Here apple is making you buy the music and them spend more time and money to get it on other devices.  Finally with apple's solution, you are still taking up space on your device.

25,000 uploads... only one thousandth of a cent per song to legitimatize any sketchy songs you might have.

I have 30GBs of music, but my iPhone is only 16GBs.Obviously I can't sync all of my music onto my iPhone. Will this new feature allow me to access all of my music on my iPhone through AT&T's 3G network?

Bummer about the 25,000 song limit. I have more than 45,000 songs; 99.9999% of them ripped from CDs I own.

Another question is how it deals with the 25,000 song limit. For people over that limit, does it go through alphabetically? Will I not get to match up any U2? Or, since I have a lot of indie tracks, am I just going to be able to match up my mainstream stuff, and rare tracks, defunct labels, and old 45s will all just be on their own, unmatched?

I also want to hear if they're paying the major four labels for this at all, and if so, how my tracks that aren't in the major four are getting paid.

I think im missing the point of the cloud when it comes to music? I currently (as everyone else does) just sync music onto my phone then go about my day. The cloud allows you to "download" any songs that you don't have on a device? (for example a song on my computer but not on my phone) The cloud simply allows you to download the song to the phone, not stream correct? If thats the case its really not any different than having your computer near you and simply plugging it in correct? Obviously its more beneficial for people with multiple devices but not myself just having an iphone and a PC.