Phronk

roundaboutnow said:

Phronk said:

"iTunes Match is included with Apple Music "

This isn't true. Unless something's changed recently, they've always been separate services. Apple Music has some features similar to iTunes Match, but lacks others, such as DRM-free download of the music you match. I subscribe to both, because I'm dumb and use Match as a backup for all my music, so I can delete it from my local hard drive, but could always, in theory, download it from the cloud at some point in the future.

This was discussed here about a month ago. I looked into it at that time and found that about a year ago, things did in fact change.

According to Apple and the very helpful iMore article, Apple Music includes "all the benefits of iTunes Match" (and it seems without attaching DRM, like it used to):

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204146 

https://www.imore.com/do-i-still-need-itunes-match-if-i-have-apple-music 

Thanks for clarifying! I didn't realize it had changed not-so-recently.

I currently have an offline backup, but deleted all the actual files from my main computer. I thought only Match could realize that I did, at some point in the distant past, have an MP3 of the file, so I can download it DRM-free at any point. I guess Apple Music does the same now.

I guess the only advantage of keeping Match is that I could easily cancel Apple Music and not worry about losing access to my matched or cloud uploaded music on all my devices, including HomePod (though apparently signing up again would regain access). Not sure that hypothetical is worth the yearly fee though.