Apple just sent out an email to developers signifying thatiTunes Matchis now available to developers.
As you know, iTunes Match is the matching service that allows you to stream the tunes that you already own without uploadingallof your music. The service works by “matching” the music contained on your local computer with what’s already available in the Cloud viaiTunes.
For those more obscure songs that iTunes doesn’t already have, you’re able to still upload your music for streaming. As usual, we have a video of iTunes Match in action, so be sure to check inside to see how it works!
Keep in mind that this is beta software, so obviously some things are bound to change and bugs will have to be worked out before the final release hits the public. I think it’s a good indication of what we can expect come launch day, though.
Overall, I was fairly impressed with what I saw. It’s a painless process that works pretty much as advertised.
I think that if Apple can educate customers properly, loads of people wouldn’t think twice at shelling out $24.99 for a year’s worth of matching service; it’s going to be a very convenient thing to have.
The whole point of iTunes Match is to make it so you can access your music from anywhere, without the lengthy upload process required by competing services like Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player.
Here is the verbiage from the email that Apple just sent out to developers:
Please note that you must maintain a local backup of your iTunes library as well as any music you add to iCloud. Apple will periodically reset your iCloud library during the beta and it is critical that you backup your music regularly. Some features and optimizations of iTunes Match will not be available during the beta.
Again, iTunes Match is only available for developers thus far. Personally, this is one of my most anticipatediOS 5features, what about you?
